I made you plentiful like sprouts in a field; you grew tall and came of age so that you could wear jewelry. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and bare.

Say to them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: ¹  “‘A great eagle ²  with broad wings, long feathers, ³  with full plumage which was multi-hued, ⁴  came to Lebanon ⁵  and took the top of the cedar.

In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, ¹  some of the elders ²  of Israel came to seek ³  the Lord, and they sat down in front of me.

On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, ¹  a refugee came to me from Jerusalem ²  saying, “The city has been defeated!” ³ 

The king issued an order ¹  to summon the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and wise men ²  in order to explain his dreams to him. ³  So they came and awaited the king’s instructions. ⁴ 

While these words were still on the king’s lips, ¹  a voice came down from heaven: “It is hereby announced to you, ²  King Nebuchadnezzar, that your kingdom has been removed from you!

Then those men came by collusion to the king and ¹  said to him, ²  “Recall, ³  O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or decree that the king issues can be changed.”

until the Ancient of Days arrived and judgment was rendered ¹  in favor of the holy ones of the Most High. Then the time came for the holy ones to take possession of the kingdom.

So he approached the place where I was standing. As he came, I felt terrified and fell flat on the ground. ¹  Then he said to me, “Understand, son of man, ²  that the vision pertains to the time of the end.”

However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia was opposing me for twenty-one days. But ¹  Michael, one of the leading princes, came to help me, because I was left there ²  with the kings of Persia.

Those who live by the sea, the people who came from Crete, ¹  are as good as dead. ²  The Lord has decreed your downfall, ³  Canaan, land of the Philistines: “I will destroy everyone who lives there!” ⁴ 

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in Darius’ second year, ¹  the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:

“‘It then came about that just as I ¹  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

Before that time there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody – each one – against everyone else.

Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, and to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹ 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

As they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother, they bowed down ¹  and worshiped him. They opened their treasure boxes and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, ²  and myrrh. ³ 

When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, ¹  two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.

And he said, ¹  “Go!” So ²  they came out and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and drowned in the water.