The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday March 6, 2017 (NIV)

Rules for Nazirites

6 The Lord commanded Moses ² to give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Any of you, male or female, who make a special vow to become a nazirite and dedicate yourself to the Lord ^3 (A)shall abstain from wine and beer. You shall not drink any kind of drink made from grapes or eat any grapes or raisins. ⁴ As long as you are a nazirite, you shall not eat anything that comes from a grapevine, not even the seeds or skins of grapes.

⁵ As long as you are under the nazirite vow, you must not cut your hair or shave. You are bound by the vow for the full time that you are dedicated to the Lord, and you shall let your hair grow. ^6-7 Your hair is the sign of your dedication to God, and so you must not defile yourself by going near a corpse, not even that of your father, mother, brother, or sister. ⁸ As long as you are a nazirite, you are consecrated to the Lord.

⁹ If your consecrated hair is defiled because you are right beside someone who suddenly dies, you must wait seven days and then shave your head; and so you become ritually clean. ¹⁰ On the eighth day you shall bring two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence. ¹¹ The priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, to perform the ritual of purification for you because of your contact with a corpse. On the same day you shall reconsecrate your hair ¹² and rededicate to the Lord your time as a nazirite. The previous period of time doesn't count, because your consecrated hair was defiled. As a repayment offering you shall bring a one-year-old lamb.

^13 (B)When you complete your nazirite vow, you shall perform this ritual. You shall go to the entrance of the Tent ¹⁴ and present to the Lord three animals without any defects: a one-year-old male lamb for a burnt offering, a one-year-old ewe lamb for a sin offering, and a ram for a fellowship offering. ¹⁵ You shall also offer a basket of bread made without yeast: thick loaves made of flour mixed with olive oil and thin cakes brushed with olive oil, and in addition the required offerings of grain and wine.

¹⁶ The priest shall present all these to the Lord and offer the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷ He shall sacrifice the ram to the Lord as a fellowship offering, and offer it with the basket of bread; he shall also present the offerings of grain and wine. ¹⁸ At the entrance of the Tent you nazirites shall shave off your hair and put it on the fire on which the fellowship offering is being burned.

¹⁹ Then, when the shoulder of the ram is boiled, the priest shall take it and put it, together with one thick loaf of bread and one thin cake from the basket, into the hands of the nazirite. ²⁰ Next, the priest shall present them as a special gift to the Lord; they are a sacred offering for the priest, in addition to the breast and the leg of the ram which by law belong to the priest. After that, the nazirite may drink wine.

²¹ These are the regulations for you nazirites; but if you promise an offering beyond what your vow requires you to give, you must fulfill exactly the promise you made.

The Priestly Blessing

²² The Lord commanded Moses ²³ to tell Aaron and his sons to use the following words in blessing the people of Israel:

²⁷ And the Lord said, “If they pronounce my name as a blessing upon the people of Israel, I will bless them.”

The Offerings of the Leaders

7 On the day Moses finished setting up the Tent of the Lord's presence, he anointed and dedicated the Tent and all its equipment, and the altar and all its equipment. ² Then the clan chiefs who were leaders in the tribes of Israel, the same men who were in charge of the census, ³ brought their offerings to the Lord: six wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two leaders and an ox for each leader. After they had presented them, ⁴ the Lord said to Moses, ⁵ “Accept these gifts for use in the work to be done for the Tent; give them to the Levites according to the work they have to do.” ⁶ So Moses gave the wagons and the oxen to the Levites. ⁷ He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonites, ⁸ and four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarites. All their work was to be done under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron. ⁹ But Moses gave no wagons or oxen to the Kohathites, because the sacred objects they took care of had to be carried on their shoulders.

¹⁰ The leaders also brought offerings to celebrate the dedication of the altar. When they were ready to present their gifts at the altar, ¹¹ the Lord said to Moses, “Tell them that each day for a period of twelve days one of the leaders is to present his gifts for the dedication of the altar.”

^12-83 They presented their offerings in the following order:

The offerings each one brought were identical: one silver bowl weighing 50 ounces and one silver basin weighing 30 ounces, by the official standard, both of them full of flour mixed with oil for the grain offering; one gold dish weighing 4 ounces, full of incense; one young bull, one ram, and a one-year-old lamb, for the burnt offering; one goat for the sin offering; and two bulls, five rams, five goats, and five one-year-old lambs, for the fellowship offering.

^84-88 The totals of the offerings brought by the twelve leaders for the dedication of the altar were as follows:

• twelve silver bowls and twelve silver basins weighing a total of 60 pounds
• twelve gold dishes weighing a total of 48 ounces, filled with incense
• twelve bulls, twelve rams, and twelve one-year-old lambs, plus the grain offerings that go with them, for the burnt offerings
• twelve goats for the sin offerings
• twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty goats, sixty one-year-old lambs, for the fellowship offerings

⁸⁹ When Moses went into the Tent to talk with the Lord, he heard the Lord speaking to him from above the lid on the Covenant Box, between the two winged creatures.^[a]

³⁸ As he taught them, he said, “Watch out for the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplace, ³⁹ who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. ⁴⁰ They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!”

The Widow's Offering^(A)

⁴¹ As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; ⁴² then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. ⁴³ He called his disciples together and said to them, “I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. ⁴⁴ For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.”

Jesus Speaks of the Destruction of the Temple^(B)

13 As Jesus was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples said, “Look, Teacher! What wonderful stones and buildings!”

² Jesus answered, “You see these great buildings? Not a single stone here will be left in its place; every one of them will be thrown down.”

Troubles and Persecutions^(C)

³ Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, across from the Temple, when Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. ^4 (D)“Tell us when this will be,” they said, “and tell us what will happen to show that the time has come for all these things to take place.”

⁵ Jesus said to them, “Watch out, and don't let anyone fool you. ⁶ Many men, claiming to speak for me, will come and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will fool many people. ⁷ And don't be troubled when you hear the noise of battles close by and news of battles far away. Such things must happen, but they do not mean that the end has come. ⁸ Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be earthquakes everywhere, and there will be famines. These things are like the first pains of childbirth.

^9 (E)“You yourselves must watch out. You will be arrested and taken to court. You will be beaten in the synagogues; you will stand before rulers and kings for my sake to tell them the Good News. ¹⁰ But before the end comes, the gospel must be preached to all peoples. ¹¹ And when you are arrested and taken to court, do not worry ahead of time about what you are going to say; when the time comes, say whatever is then given to you. For the words you speak will not be yours; they will come from the Holy Spirit. ¹² Men will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children. Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. ^13 (F)Everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

The Foolishness of Trusting in Riches^[a]

²⁷ Obey the Lord, and you will live longer. The wicked die before their time.

²⁸ The hopes of good people lead to joy, but wicked people can look forward to nothing.