Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for in this manner they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape the condemnation of Gehenna?

in order that on you may come all the righteous blood poured out upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

For so it was, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)

Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Jehovah, how I hid one hundred men of the prophets of Jehovah, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water?

And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

And he said, I have been very zealous for Jehovah the God of Hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek my soul, to take it away.

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way did the spirit from Jehovah go from me to speak to you?

Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison house, for he was enraged at him for this; and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of Jehovah.

Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son; and as he died, he said, May Jehovah take notice, and require it!

And Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by the hand of His messengers, rising early to send them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.

But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, to make the wrath of Jehovah swell up against His people, till there was no healing.

Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your Law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to Yourself; and they worked great blasphemies.

In vain I have chastened your children; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, which is the twenty-third year, the Word of Jehovah has come unto me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking; but you have not listened.

They said, Turn back now, each one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah has given to you and to your fathers forever and ever.

Yet you have not listened to Me, says Jehovah, so that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.

And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the rulers, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled and went into Egypt.

And they brought Urijah out of Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword and threw his dead body into the graves of the common people.

Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be allowed to happen for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they, who received the Law by the command of angels and did not keep it, killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One,

who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have driven us out; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,

forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the end.

Still others had trial of mockings and floggings, yes, and of bonds and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tried, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, oppressed;

And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they held.