The Proclamation of Cyrus

1 ^aIn the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^bthat the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so ^cthat he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^dhe has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—^ehe is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

Report from Jerusalem

1 The words of ^aNehemiah the son of Hacaliah.

Now it happened in the month of ^bChislev, ^cin the twentieth year, as I was in ^dSusa the citadel, 2 that ^eHanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and ^fshame. ^gThe wall of Jerusalem is broken down, ^hand its gates are destroyed by fire.”

Nehemiah’s Prayer

4 As soon as I heard these words I ⁱsat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the ^jGod of heaven.

Flee Sexual Immorality

12 ^c“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 ^d“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one ^eand the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but ^ffor the Lord, and ^gthe Lord for the body. 14 And ^hGod raised the Lord and ⁱwill also raise us up ^jby his power. 15 Do you not know that ^kyour bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined¹ to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ^l“The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord ^mbecomes one spirit with him. 18 ⁿFlee from sexual immorality. Every other sin² a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person ^osins against his own body. 19 Or ^pdo you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? ^qYou are not your own, 20 ^rfor you were bought with a price. ^sSo glorify God in your body.