Matthew 12:38-44

³⁸Then some of the Pharisees and men who taught the Jewish laws responded to what Jesus was teaching by saying to him, “Teacher, we want to see you perform a miracle that would prove to us that God sent you.”

³⁹Then Jesus said to them, “ You people have already seen me perform miracles, but you are evil, and you do not faithfully worship God MET! You want me to perform a miracle that would prove to you that God sent me, but God will enable you to see only one miracle. It will be like what happened to Jonah the prophet MET.

⁴⁰Jonah was in the stomach of a huge fish for three days and nights before God caused him to live again. Similarly, for three days and nights I, the one who came from heaven, will be in a place where dead people are, and then God will cause me to live again.

⁴¹When God judges all people, the people who lived in Nineveh will stand in front of him with you people who have seen me perform miracles. The people of Nineveh turned from their sinful ways as a result of hearing what Jonah preached. Jonah was important, but I, who am more important than Jonah, have come and preached to you, but you have not turned from your sinful ways. So when God judges all people, he will condemn you.

⁴²The queen from Sheba, South of Israel, who lived long ago, came from a distant region in order to listen to King Solomon teach many wise things. But now I, a man who is much greater and wiser than Solomon, am here, but you have not listened to what I have told you. So at the time when God judges all people, the queen from Sheba will stand in front of him, along with you people, and will condemn you.”

⁴³“ Sometimes when an evil spirit leaves a person, it wanders around in desolate areas, seeking someone in whom it can rest. If it does not find anyone,

⁴⁴it says to itself, ‘I will return to the person MET in whom I used to live.’ So it goes back and finds that the Spirit of God is not in control of that person's life. The person's life is like a house that has been swept clean and everything put in order MET, but it is empty.