So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?"

All those who work for me know that I have always welcomed strangers.

"You relied on the LORD," they say. "Why doesn't he save you? If the LORD likes you, why doesn't he help you?"

It was you who brought me safely through birth, and when I was a baby, you kept me safe.

Israel's holy God and savior says to the one who is deeply despised, who is hated by the nations and is the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you released and will rise to show their respect; princes also will see it, and they will bow low to honor you." This will happen because the LORD has chosen his servant; the holy God of Israel keeps his promises.

It was the will of the LORD that his servant grow like a plant taking root in dry ground. He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him.

We despised him and rejected him; he endured suffering and pain. No one would even look at him--- we ignored him as if he were nothing.

I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month.

The chief priests and the whole Council tried to find some evidence against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they could not find any.

Pilate spoke again to the crowd, "What, then, do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?"

"But what crime has he committed?" Pilate asked. They shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"

Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, so he appealed to the crowd again.

Pilate said to them the third time, "But what crime has he committed? I cannot find anything he has done to deserve death! I will have him whipped and set him free."

So Pilate passed the sentence on Jesus that they were asking for.

It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, "Here is your king!"

They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "The only king we have is the Emperor!"

All of you, my fellow Israelites, are to know for sure that it is through Jesus that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you; you are to know that everyone who believes in him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.