eunuchs

¹²For there are chaste persons who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are chaste persons who have been made so by men, and there are chaste persons who have made themselves chaste for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever is able to grasp this, let him grasp it.”

³And let not the son of the new arrival, who adheres to the Lord, speak, saying, “The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.” And let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” ⁴For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: They will keep my Sabbaths, and they will choose the things that I will, and they will hold to my covenant. ⁵I will give them a place in my house, within my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, which will never perish.

²⁶Now an Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Rise up and go toward the south, to the way which descends from Jerusalem into Gaza, where there is a desert.” ²⁷And rising up, he went. And behold, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, powerful under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasures, had arrived in Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸And while returning, he was sitting upon his chariot and reading from the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Draw near and join yourself to this chariot.” ³⁰And Philip, hurrying, heard him reading from the prophet Isaiah, and he said, “Do you think that you understand what you are reading?” ³¹And he said, “But how can I, unless someone will have revealed it to me?” And he asked Philip to climb up and sit with him.

¹Thus says the Lord: Preserve judgment, and accomplish justice. For my salvation is close to its arrival, and my justice is close to being revealed. ²Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds to this, keeping the Sabbath and not profaning it, guarding his hands and not doing any evil. ³And let not the son of the new arrival, who adheres to the Lord, speak, saying, “The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.” And let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” ⁴For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: They will keep my Sabbaths, and they will choose the things that I will, and they will hold to my covenant. ⁵I will give them a place in my house, within my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, which will never perish. ⁶And the sons of the new arrival, who adhere to the Lord so as to worship him and to love his name, shall be his servants: all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold to my covenant.

¹“A eunuch, one whose testicles have been debilitated or cut off, or whose penis has been cut off, shall not enter into the church of the Lord.

⁹And I say to you, that whoever will have separated from his wife, except because of fornication, and who will have married another, commits adultery, and whoever will have married her who has been separated, commits adultery.” ¹⁰His disciples said to him, “If such is the case for a man with a wife, then it is not expedient to marry.” ¹¹And he said to them: “Not everyone is able to grasp this word, but only those to whom it has been given. ¹²For there are chaste persons who were born so from their mother’s womb, and there are chaste persons who have been made so by men, and there are chaste persons who have made themselves chaste for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever is able to grasp this, let him grasp it.”

¹In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ²And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim the king of Judah and a portion of the vessels of the house of God. And he carried them away into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure chamber of his god. ³And the king told Ashpenaz, the chief of the eunuchs, that he should bring in some of the sons of Israel, and some of the offspring of the king and of the sovereigns: ⁴young men, in whom there was no blemish, noble in appearance, and accomplished in all wisdom, cautious in knowledge, and well-educated, and who could stand in the palace of the king, so that he might teach them the letters and the language of the Chaldeans. ⁵And the king appointed for them provisions for each day, from his own food and from the wine which he himself drank, so that, after being nourished for three years, they would stand in the sight of the king. ⁶Now, among those of the sons of Judah, there were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

²⁶Now an Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Rise up and go toward the south, to the way which descends from Jerusalem into Gaza, where there is a desert.” ²⁷And rising up, he went. And behold, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, powerful under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasures, had arrived in Jerusalem to worship. ²⁸And while returning, he was sitting upon his chariot and reading from the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Draw near and join yourself to this chariot.”

⁷Now Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had sent Jeremiah into the pit, and also that the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin. ⁸And so Ebedmelech departed from the king’s house, and he spoke to the king, saying: ⁹“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have perpetrated against Jeremiah the prophet, casting him into the pit so that he would die there from famine. For there is no more bread in the city.” ¹⁰And so the king instructed Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, saying: “Take with you thirty men from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet from the pit, before he dies.”

⁷And your children, who will issue from you, whom you will produce, they will be taken away. And they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”