Now
there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish
ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform
the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus
replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they
are born again.[a]”
4 “How
can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot
enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus
answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless
they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to
flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You
should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The
wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where
it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How
can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You
are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very
truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have
seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I
have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you
believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone
into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e]14 Just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f]15 that everyone who
believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did
not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but
whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not
believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the
verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of
light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil
hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds
will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into
the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been
done in the sight of God.
18 Rehoboam
married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail,
the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. 19 She bore him sons: Jeush,
Shemariah and Zaham. 20 Then he married Maakah daughter of
Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. 21 Rehoboam
loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and
concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight
sons and sixty daughters.
22 Rehoboam
appointed Abijah son of Maakah as crown prince among his brothers, in order to
make him king. 23 He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons
throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified
cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them.