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¹⁴ When a person dedicates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest shall assess it. Whatever value the priest assesses, whether high or low, will be binding. ¹⁵ But if the person who has dedicated his house redeems it, he must add one-fifth to its value in silver, so that it belongs to him again.

¹⁶ If a person dedicates any field from his family property to the Lord, its value shall be based on how much seed is needed to sow it. Land sown by six bushels^[a] of barley seed is worth fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he dedicates his field during the year of Jubilee, its value stands as stated, ¹⁸ but if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, the priest shall recalculate its value in silver based on the number of years that are left until the next year of Jubilee, and that much will be deducted from the value. ¹⁹ If the person who dedicated the field redeems it, he must add one-fifth to its value in silver, so that it may be returned to him. ²⁰ But if he does not redeem the field but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed. ²¹ When the field is released on the Jubilee, it will be set aside as holy. It belongs to the Lord as a dedicated field. It belongs to the priest as his holding.

²² If someone dedicates to the Lord a field he has purchased that is not part of his family landholding, ²³ the priest shall calculate the amount of value until the year of Jubilee, so that he may pay the value on that day as something holy to the Lord. ²⁴ In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to the person from whom the donor bought it, to the one to whom the landholding originally belonged. ²⁵ Every value shall be based on the sanctuary shekel, which has twenty gerahs to the shekel.^[b]

²⁶ However, no one may dedicate a firstborn from the livestock that has already been designated for the Lord as a firstborn, whether it is a head of cattle or a sheep or a goat. It already belongs to the Lord. ²⁷ But if it is one of the unclean livestock, he may buy it back at its set value plus one-fifth. If it is not redeemed, it may be sold at its set value.

²⁸ However, if anyone devotes anything that belongs to him to the Lord unconditionally, whether it is a human being or livestock or any part of his landholding, it may not be sold and may not be redeemed. Everything devoted unconditionally is most holy to the Lord.

²⁹ Any person who has been devoted to destruction may not be ransomed. He must certainly be put to death.

³⁰ But every tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or from the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If anyone redeems any of his tithe, he must add one-fifth to it. ³² The tithe from the herd or the flock, that is, every tenth animal that passes under the staff of the shepherd, shall be set apart as holy to the Lord. ³³ The donor must not sort out the good from the bad, and he must not make any substitutions for it. If he makes a substitution for it, then both the first animal and its substitute shall be set apart as holy. It cannot be redeemed.

³⁴ These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.

The First Census of Israel

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt. He said, ² “Take a census of the entire community of the people of Israel, according to their clans and their fathers’ houses.^[c] Count the names of every male, one by one, ³ twenty years old and up, all who are of age to serve in Israel’s army. Aaron and you are to register them by their military units.^{[d] 4} A man from each tribe will be with you. Every one of them will be the head of his fathers’ house. ⁵ These are the names of the men who will assist you:

¹⁶ These were the men chosen from the community, the chiefs of the tribes of their fathers. They were the heads of Israel’s divisions.^{[e] 17} Moses and Aaron brought together these men, who had been designated by name. ¹⁸ They assembled the entire community on the first day of the second month, and they recorded the people’s ancestry by their clans,^[f] by their fathers’ houses, listing the names of those who were twenty years old and up, one by one. ¹⁹ Moses registered them in the Wilderness of Sinai, exactly as the Lord commanded him.

⁴⁴ These are the men who were registered by Moses and Aaron and twelve tribal chiefs of Israel, each representing his fathers’ house. ⁴⁵ So all of the Israelite men twenty years old and up, who were of age to serve in Israel’s army, were registered according to their fathers’ houses. ⁴⁶ Those who were registered totaled 603,550.

The Levites Exempted

⁴⁷ But the Levites were not registered along with the others on the basis of their fathers’ tribe, ⁴⁸ for the Lord had said to Moses, ⁴⁹ “You are not to register the tribe of Levi, neither will you take a census of them along with the other Israelites. ⁵⁰ Instead, appoint the Levites over the Dwelling of the Testimony^[h] and over all its furnishings and over everything that belongs to it. They are to carry the Dwelling and all its furnishings. They are to take care of it, and they are to camp around it. ⁵¹ Whenever the Dwelling is to move, the Levites will take it down, and whenever the Dwelling is to stop for a new camp, the Levites will set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near it must be put to death. ⁵² The Israelites will set up camp, everyone in his own camp and under his own standard, according to their military divisions. ⁵³ But the Levites will camp around the Dwelling of the Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. In this way the Levites will perform the duties for the Dwelling of the Testimony.”

⁵⁴ So the Israelites did everything that the Lord commanded Moses, exactly as he commanded.

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry Into Jerusalem

11 As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples ² and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it, and he will send it back here without delay.’”

⁴ They left and found a colt on the street, tied at a door; and they untied it. ⁵ Some who were standing there asked them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ The disciples answered them just as Jesus had instructed them, and the men let them go.

⁷ They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their garments on the road. Others spread branches that they had cut from the fields. ⁹ Those who went in front and those who followed were crying out,

¹¹ Jesus went into the temple courts in Jerusalem and looked around at everything. Since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree

¹² The next day, after they had set out from Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ When he saw a fig tree in leaf in the distance, he went to see if he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, since it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ Jesus said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples were listening.

Jesus Cleanses His Father’s House

¹⁵ They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling doves. ¹⁶ He would not allow anyone to carry any merchandise through the temple courts. ¹⁷ He began to teach them: “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?^[c] But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’!”^[d]

¹⁸ The chief priests and the experts in the law heard this and were looking for a way to kill him. Indeed they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

¹⁹ When evening came, Jesus and his disciples would leave the city.

The Withered Fig Tree

²⁰ As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered down to the roots. ²¹ Peter remembered and said, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

²² Jesus replied, “Have faith in God. ²³ Amen I tell you: Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, everything that you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. ²⁶ But if you do not forgive, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.”^[e]

Psalm 46

The King’s Reign

Heading
For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah.
According to alamoth.^[a] A song.

The Earth Shaken

A City Unshaken

⁴⁷ If a resident alien living among you prospers, and if your brother Israelite becomes so indebted to him that he is sold to that alien living among you or to that alien’s family, ⁴⁸ the Israelite who has been sold shall have the right to be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone from his immediate family^[a] or extended family may redeem him, or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ Together with his buyer, he shall calculate the elapsed time from the year that he was sold until the year of Jubilee, and the price to redeem him shall be based on that number of years. It shall be calculated as if he were a hired laborer. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay the price of redemption proportionally to the years that have passed. ⁵² If only a few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he shall calculate the redemption in this way: He shall pay the price of his redemption on the basis of his years of work, ⁵³ as if he were a worker hired year by year. You shall see to it that the owner does not rule over him harshly. ⁵⁴ If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children with him shall become free in the year of Jubilee, ⁵⁵ because the Israelites are servants who really belong to me. They are my servants whom I freed from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Promises and Warnings

26 You shall not make gods that are really not gods for yourselves, and you shall not set up an image or a sacred memorial stone for yourselves, and you shall not set up a carved stone relief in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ² You shall observe my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³ If you walk according to my regulations and keep my commandments and carry them out, ⁴ I will give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees in the farmland will yield their fruit. ⁵ Threshing will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will last until the time for sowing. You will eat your food until you are full, and you will live securely in your land.

⁶ I will give peace in the land so that you may lie down without anyone frightening you. I will eliminate ferocious animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

⁹ I will look on you with favor, and I will make you fruitful and will multiply you, and I will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will eat grain from previous harvests, grain long stored, until you remove the old grain to make room for the new. ¹¹ I will place my Dwelling in your midst, and I will not at all detest you. ¹² I will walk about in your midst, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who freed you from the land of Egypt so that you would not be slaves to them. I broke the bars of your yoke so that I could make you walk upright.

¹⁴ But if you will not listen to me and do not obey all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you reject my regulations and you detest my ordinances so much that you do not obey all my commandments, so that you break my covenant, ¹⁶ I in turn will do this to you: I will inflict upon you panic, wasting disease, and fever, which will cause your eyes to fail and your vitality to slip away. You will sow your seed but get no return, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ I will set my face against you. You will be beaten by your enemies, and those who hate you will rule over you. You will flee, even though nobody is pursuing you.

¹⁸ If, despite these things, you will not listen to me, I will go on to discipline you seven times for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break your proud strength and make your sky like iron and your land as hard as bronze, ²⁰ so that your strength will be exhausted without accomplishing anything. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees on the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ If you still remain hostile to me and you are not willing to listen to me, I will multiply the plague against you seven times more according to your sins. ²² I will send against you the wild animals so that they will deprive you of your children and cut off your livestock. They will make you so few that your roads will be deserted.

²³ If in spite of all these things you still refuse to be disciplined by me, and you remain hostile to me, ²⁴ I will also remain hostile to you. I will strike you seven times more for your sins. ²⁵ I will bring a sword on you to avenge the covenant. If you withdraw into your towns, I will send an epidemic among you, so that you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy. ²⁶ When I break your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven. They will have to ration^[b] your bread, and though you eat, you will not be satisfied.

²⁷ But if, in spite of all this, you will not listen to me and remain hostile to me, ²⁸ I will remain hostile to you in anger. I myself will discipline you seven times as much for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I will destroy your high places,^[c] cut down your incense burners, and place your corpses on the corpses of your filthy idols. With all my heart I will detest you. ³¹ I will turn your towns into a wasteland and make your holy places desolate, and I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices. ³² I myself will make your land so desolate that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it, ³³ while I scatter you among the nations and unsheathe my sword against you. Then your land will be a desolation, and your towns will be a wasteland.

³⁴ The land will then enjoy its sabbaths during all the days of its desolation, while you are in the land of your enemies. Yes, the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.^{[d] 35} All the days when it is desolate it will rest, because it did not rest on your sabbaths when you lived there. ³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that the sound of a scattered leaf will scare them away. They will flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they will fall though no one is pursuing them. ³⁷ Each of them will stumble over his brother, as if from a sword, even though no one is pursuing him. You will have no power to stand against your enemies, ³⁸ and you will perish among the nations. The land of your enemies will devour you. ³⁹ Those of you who survive will rot away in the lands of your enemies because of their guilt. They will rot away because of the guilt of their ancestors. ⁴⁰ They will confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors because of the unfaithfulness that they committed against me, and also because they remained hostile to me. ⁴¹ So I in turn became hostile to them, and I brought them into the land of their enemies. So their uncircumcised hearts will then be humbled, and they will then accept the punishment for their guilt.

⁴² Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham as well. I will remember the land.

⁴³ The land will be empty of them, so that in its desolation it may enjoy its sabbaths without them, while they suffer punishment for their guilt, because, and only because, they rejected my ordinances and they detested my statutes with all their heart.

⁴⁴ Yet, for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, and I will not detest them so much that I exterminate them. I will not annul my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ I will remember in their favor the covenant to be their God that I made with their first generation, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations. I am the Lord.

⁴⁶ These are the regulations, the ordinances, and the laws^[e] that the Lord instituted between himself and the people of Israel at Mount Sinai through Moses.

Votive Offerings and Dedicated Things

27 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to the Israelites and say this to them.”

When a person makes a special vow to the Lord which is based on the value of different classes of people, ³ the set value of a male from twenty years to sixty years of age is fifty shekels of silver, using the sanctuary shekel as the standard. ⁴ If it is a female, the value is thirty shekels. ⁵ If the age is from five years to twenty years, the value is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁶ If the age is from one month to five years, the value for the male is five shekels of silver, while the value for the female is three shekels of silver. ⁷ If the age is sixty years or over, the value is fifteen shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁸ But if anyone making a dedication is too poor to pay that standard value, he shall appear before the priest with the dedicated person, and the priest shall assess a substitute valuation for the person. The priest shall assess a value on the basis of what the person who has made the vow can afford.

⁹ If what is vowed is livestock which is acceptable as an offering to the Lord, anything that a person dedicates to the Lord is set apart as holy. ¹⁰ He may not exchange it or substitute another for it, either good for bad, or bad for good. If he substitutes one animal for another, both the animal and its substitute are set aside as holy. ¹¹ If what has been vowed is any kind of unclean livestock, which may not be presented as an offering to the Lord, he shall present the animal before the priest ¹² so that the priest may assess it. Whatever value is set by the priest, whether high or low, will be binding. ¹³ But if he does indeed redeem it, he must add one-fifth to its value.

Again Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection

³² They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was leading them. The disciples were amazed, and the others who followed were afraid. He took the Twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. ³³ “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. ³⁴ They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day^[a] he will rise again.”

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we wish that you would do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶ He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³⁷ They said to him, “Promise that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”

³⁸ But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with?”

³⁹ “We can,” they replied.

Jesus told them, “You will drink the cup that I am going to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am going to be baptized with. ⁴⁰ But to sit at my right or at my left is not for me to give; rather, these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard this, they were angry with James and John.

⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ But that is not the way it is to be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus

⁴⁶ They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, a blind man, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road begging. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ Many told him to be quiet, but he kept shouting all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

They called the blind man, saying, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”

⁵⁰ He tossed aside his outer garment, jumped up, and went to Jesus.

⁵¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man replied, “Rabboni,^[b] I want to see again.”

⁵² Jesus told him, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus on the road.

Psalm 45

The Wedding of the Victorious King

Heading

For the choir director. According to “Lilies.”^[a]
By the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A love song.

Introduction

The Glory of the Royal Groom

The Beauty of the Bride

The Glory of the King’s Children

The Holy Oil

24 The Lord spoke to Moses:

² Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil from beaten^[a] olives for the Light so the lamps will be kept burning continually.^{[b] 3} Aaron shall set the Light before the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil which is in front of the Testimony, every night from the evening to the morning. It is a permanent regulation throughout your generations. ⁴ He shall set the lamps regularly on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord.

The Holy Bread

⁵ You shall take fine flour and bake twelve round loaves from it. Each loaf shall be made with four quarts of flour. ⁶ You shall put them in two stacks, six to each stack, on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ Upon the stacks you shall place clear frankincense as a memorial portion for the bread. It is a gift of food^[c] to the Lord. ⁸ On every Sabbath day he shall arrange it before the Lord regularly. It is a permanent covenant on behalf of the Israelites. ⁹ The bread shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat it in a holy place, for it belongs to him as a most holy thing from the gifts of food to the Lord, a perpetual allotment.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Name

¹⁰ A man who was the son of an Israelite woman and of an Egyptian man came along with the Israelites. This son of the Israelite woman fought with another Israelite in the camp. ¹¹ The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name^[d] and cursed, so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, belonging to the tribe of Dan.) ¹² They put him in custody to wait for a decision from the mouth of the Lord.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁴ “Take the man who cursed outside the camp, and all those who heard it shall lay their hands on his head, and the whole community shall stone him. ¹⁵ Then speak to the Israelites: If anyone curses his God, he shall bear his sin, ¹⁶ but if anyone blasphemes the name of the Lord, he must certainly be put to death; the whole community must stone him. Whether he is an alien or a citizen, when he has blasphemed the Name, he must be put to death.”

¹⁷ “If anyone hits someone and kills him, he must certainly be put to death. ¹⁸ But one who strikes and kills an animal must make restitution for it, a life for a life. ¹⁹ If anyone injures his fellow citizen, he shall have the same thing done to him as he has done: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he injured that other person, the same is to be done to him. ²¹ One who strikes an animal so that it dies shall make restitution for it, but one who strikes a human being and kills him shall be put to death. ²² You shall have the same standard of justice for the alien who lives with you and for the citizen, for I am the Lord your God.”

²³ After Moses had spoken this to the Israelites, the man who had cursed was taken outside the camp and stoned to death. The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Sabbatical Years

25 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, ² “Speak to the Israelites and say this to them.”

When you enter the land that I am giving to you, the land shall observe a sabbath rest for the Lord. ³ For six years you may sow your field, and for six years you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce. ⁴ But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard. ⁵ You shall not reap the produce that grows by itself from your harvest or gather the grapes from your unpruned vine. It shall be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶ The sabbath of the land will, however, provide food for you—for you, for your male slaves and for your female slaves, for your hired workers and for your servants who are living with you temporarily as aliens working for you, ⁷ for your livestock and for the wild animals which are in your land. You may eat all its produce.^[e]

The Jubilee

⁸ You shall count off seven weeks of years. Count off seven years seven times, so that the duration of the seven weeks of years is forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall sound loud blasts on the ram’s horn. In the seventh month on the tenth day, on the Day of Atonement, you are to have a ram’s horn sounded throughout your land, ¹⁰ so that you may set aside the fiftieth year as holy and proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, so that each of you may return to his family property and each of you may return to his clan. ¹¹ The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you. You shall not sow the field, and you shall not reap the grain that grows by itself, and you shall not gather fruit from its unpruned vines. ¹² Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy for you. You may eat its produce from the field. ¹³ In this year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his family property.

¹⁴ When you sell some land to your countryman, or when you buy land from your countryman, you must not cheat your brother Israelite. ¹⁵ When you buy from your countryman, set the price according to the number of years since the last Jubilee. When he sells it to you, he shall set the price according to the number of years of produce left till the next Jubilee. ¹⁶ When there are many years left, you shall increase the purchase price. When there are few years left, you shall decrease its purchase price, because what the owner is actually selling to you is the amount of produce. ¹⁷ So each of you must not cheat your countryman, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ You shall carry out my regulations, and you shall observe my ordinances. You shall carry them out, so that you may live on the land securely. ¹⁹ The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live securely on it. ²⁰ If you ask, “What will we eat during the seventh year, since we may not sow and we may not gather our produce?” ²¹ I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield enough produce for three years. ²² When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the sixth year’s crop. You will eat the sixth year’s crop until the ninth year, when its produce comes in.

²³ But the land must not be sold without a right to recover it, for the land really belongs to me. You are actually resident aliens under my authority. ²⁴ Therefore, throughout all the land that you possess, you shall grant the right of redemption for the land. ²⁵ When your brother Israelite becomes so impoverished that he has to sell some of the land that he holds, his closest relative shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ When the man who has no close relative prospers and acquires enough for the price to redeem his land, ²⁷ he may calculate the years since he sold it, refund the difference to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his family property. ²⁸ But if he does not acquire a sufficient amount to recover the land for himself, what he has sold shall remain under the control of the one who bought it until the year of Jubilee. It shall become free in the Jubilee, so that the seller may return to his family property.

²⁹ When a man sells a house where he lives in a walled town, his right of redemption shall last until a full year after its sale. The time to redeem it lasts for a year. ³⁰ But if it is not redeemed before the completion of a full year, the house which is in a town which has a wall will belong to its buyer and his descendants. It cannot be reclaimed. It will not be released in the Jubilee. ³¹ But the houses in the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified as part of the farmland. They have the right of redemption and shall become free in the Jubilee.

³² All the towns of the Levites and the houses in the towns which are their property have a permanent right of redemption. ³³ Whatever a Levite is permitted to redeem (such as a house which he sold that had been his property in a city) will become free in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites.^{[f] 34} But the pastures and fields around the Levites’ towns may not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

³⁵ When your fellow Israelite^[g] becomes so impoverished that he cannot support himself,^[h] help him as you would help a resident alien or a temporary resident. Let him retain his right to work for a livelihood among you.^{[i] 36} You shall not take advance interest or accrued interest from him, but you shall fear your God and let your brother retain his livelihood with you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money for advance interest or your food for accrued interest. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God, who freed you from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹ When your fellow Israelite becomes so indebted to you that he is sold to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave. ⁴⁰ He shall remain with you as a hired laborer or a temporary resident. He shall work for you until the year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children with him will become free from your authority. He shall return to his family home and to his ancestral landholding, ⁴² for the Israelites are my servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³ You shall not rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

⁴⁴ You may buy a male slave or a female slave for yourself from the nations around you. ⁴⁵ You may also buy some of the children of those who reside as aliens among you and some of their extended families who are born in your land, so that they become your property. ⁴⁶ You may leave them to your children as inherited property. You may make them work as slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, each of you must not rule over your brother harshly.

Jesus Loves Little Children

¹³ Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said, “Let the little children come to me! Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵ Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

The Rich Young Ruler

¹⁷ As Jesus was setting out on a journey, one man ran up to him and knelt in front of him. He asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God. ¹⁹ You know the commandments. ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’”^[a]

²⁰ The man replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these since I was a child.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² When he heard this, he looked sad and went away grieving, because he had great wealth. ²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus told them again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in their riches to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “For people, it is impossible, but not for God, because all things are possible for God.”

²⁸ Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

²⁹ Jesus said, “Amen I tell you: There is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, ³⁰ who now at this time will fail to receive one hundred times as much: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields (along with persecutions)—and in the coming age: eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Present Defeat

Present Plea

Acceptable Offerings for the Israelites

¹⁷ The Lord told Moses ¹⁸ to speak to Aaron and his sons and the whole people of Israel and tell them this:

Whenever anyone of the house of Israel or any of the aliens residing in Israel presents their offerings—whether it is any kind of offering to fulfill a vow or any kind of voluntary^[a] offering, which may be presented to the Lord as a burnt offering— ¹⁹ in order for the offering to be accepted it must be a male without blemish, from the cattle or the sheep or the goats. ²⁰ You shall not present any animal with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.

²¹ If anyone presents a sacrifice as a fellowship offering to the Lord from the herd or the flock to fulfill a vow or as a voluntary offering, it must be without blemish for it to be accepted on your behalf. There must not be any defect in it. ²² Any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, with a growth in the eye, a festering boil, or sores—these you shall not present to the Lord. You shall not put any of these on the altar as an offering made by fire to the Lord. ²³ You may, however, make a voluntary offering with a head of cattle or with a sheep or goat that has a long or short leg, but it will not be accepted as an offering to fulfill a vow. ²⁴ You shall not present to the Lord any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn out or cut off. You shall not do this in your land. ²⁵ You shall not present any of these animals from a foreigner as the food of your God. Because they are flawed, with a defect in them, they will not be accepted on your behalf.

²⁶ Then the Lord told Moses this:

²⁷ When a calf or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering that is a gift made by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ But you shall not slaughter a cow or a ewe with her young on the same day.

²⁹ When you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you will be accepted. ³⁰ It must be eaten on the same day. You shall not leave any of it over until the morning. I am the Lord.

³¹ So you shall keep my commandments by doing them. I am the Lord. ³² Therefore you shall not defile my holy name, so that I may be honored as holy among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who sets you apart as holy, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.

The Calendar of Holy Times

23 The Lord told Moses ² to speak to the Israelites and to tell them this:

These are the appointed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations. These are my appointed times:

The Sabbath

³ On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It shall be a sabbath to the Lord in all the places you live.

⁴ These are the appointed times of the Lord, the holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.

The Festival of Passover

⁵ The first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover, ⁶ and the fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread for the Lord. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. ⁷ On the first day a holy convocation is to be proclaimed for you. You shall not do any work in your regular occupation. ⁸ You shall present an offering by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be proclaimed as a holy convocation. You shall not do any work for your regular occupation.

The Festival of Firstfruits

⁹ The Lord told Moses ¹⁰ to speak to the people of Israel and tell them this:

When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, and when you bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest ¹¹ so that he may wave the sheaf before the Lord so that you will be accepted, the priest shall wave it on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day that you wave the sheaf, you shall offer as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb without blemish, one year old. ¹³ The grain offering accompanying it is to be four quarts^[b] of fine wheat flour mixed with oil, a gift to the Lord, a pleasing aroma. The drink offering accompanying it shall be a quart^[c] of wine. ¹⁴ You shall not eat any of this year’s bread or roasted grain or fresh ears until this very day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a permanent regulation throughout your generations in all the places you live.

The Festival of Weeks or Pentecost

¹⁵ Then from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you bring the sheaf to be waved, you shall count off seven weeks for yourselves. They must be complete weeks. ¹⁶ You shall count fifty days, until you reach the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷ From the places where you live you shall bring two loaves of bread as a wave offering. They shall be made of four quarts of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, as first ripe produce for the Lord.

¹⁸ Then with the bread you shall present seven lambs without blemish, each of them one year old, one young bull from the herd, and two rams—they shall be a whole burnt offering for the Lord, together with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹ You shall also present the sin offering with one male goat and the fellowship offering with two one-year-old male lambs. ²⁰ The priest shall wave them, together with the bread from the first ripe produce, as a wave offering before the Lord, in addition to the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.

²¹ On this very same day you shall make a proclamation. A holy convocation will be proclaimed for you. You shall do no work in your regular occupation. This is a permanent regulation in all the places you live throughout your generations.

²² When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the edges of your field or gather the dropped stalks from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the resident alien. I am the Lord your God.

The Festival of the Ram’s Horn^[d]

²³ The Lord told Moses ²⁴ to speak to the people of Israel:

In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a complete rest, a memorial celebration with loud blasts of the ram’s horn, proclaimed as a holy convocation. ²⁵ You shall not do any work in your regular occupation, and you shall present a gift made by fire to the Lord.

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses:

²⁷ It is the tenth day of this seventh month that is the Day of Atonement. It shall be proclaimed as a holy convocation for you. You shall humble yourselves,^[e] and you shall present an offering made by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ You shall not do any work on this special day,^[f] because it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ Indeed, anyone who does not humble himself on this special day will be cut off from his people. ³⁰ Anyone who does any work on this very special day, I will exterminate from the midst of his people. ³¹ You shall do no work. This is a permanent regulation throughout your generations in all your places where you live. ³² It is a sabbath of complete rest for you. You shall humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month at evening. From that evening until the next evening, you shall observe a sabbath rest.

The Festival of Shelters

³³ The Lord told Moses ³⁴ to tell the people of Israel this:

Beginning on the fifteenth day of this seventh month, celebrate the Festival of Shelters^[g] for seven days for the Lord. ³⁵ On the first day proclaim a holy convocation. You shall not do any work for your regular occupation. ³⁶ For seven days you shall bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day proclaim a holy convocation for yourselves, and you shall present an offering made by fire to the Lord. This is a closing ceremony. You shall not do any work for your regular occupation.

³⁷ These are the appointed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations for the presentation of offerings made by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings as commanded for each day. ³⁸ Offer these in addition to the Sabbath offerings of the Lord, in addition to your personal wave offerings, in addition to all your offerings to fulfill a vow, and in addition to all your voluntary^[h] offerings that you give to the Lord.

³⁹ Beginning exactly on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, when you go to celebrate the festival of the Lord for seven days as a pilgrim, there shall be a complete sabbath rest on the first day and a complete sabbath rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰ On the first day you shall select for yourselves fruit from splendid trees, branches of palm trees, boughs from leafy trees, and willows from by the stream—and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ Celebrate the festival for the Lord as a pilgrim for seven days each year. This is a permanent regulation throughout your generations. In the seventh month you shall celebrate the festival as a pilgrim. ⁴² You shall live in temporary shelters for seven days—every native-born person in Israel shall live in shelters— ⁴³ so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

⁴⁴ That is what Moses said about the appointed times of the Lord to the people of Israel.

Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection Again

³⁰ They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know this, ³¹ because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.”

³² But they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.

Who Is the Greatest?

³³ They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” ³⁴ But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵ Jesus sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” ³⁶ Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us

³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. We tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not try to stop him, because no one who does a miracle in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil about me. ⁴⁰ Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ Amen I tell you: Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, will certainly not lose his reward.

Do Not Cause Little Believers to Fall Into Sin

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall into sin,^[a] it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around his neck. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed, than to have two hands and go into hell,^[b] into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’^{[c] 45} If your foot causes you to fall into sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell,^{[d] 46} ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,^{[e] 48} ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good. But if the salt loses its flavor, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Marriage and Divorce

10 Jesus got up and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Crowds gathered around him again and, as he usually did, he taught them. ² Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

³ He replied, “What did Moses command you?”

⁴ They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”^[f]

⁵ But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.^{[g] 7} For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸ and the two will become one flesh.^[h] So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ In the house his disciples asked him about this again. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹² If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Psalm 44

Past Victory—Present Defeat

Heading
For the choir director. By the Sons of Korah. A maskil.

Past Victory

Present Trust

²² You shall keep all my regulations and all my ordinances and put them into practice, so that the land to which I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. ²³ You shall not walk according to the religious practices of the nation which I am casting out before you, for I was disgusted with them because they did all these things, ²⁴ so I said to you, “You will take possession of their land. I myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I, the Lord, am your God, who has distinguished you from the other peoples. ²⁵ You shall therefore distinguish the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable with an animal or a bird or anything that crawls on the ground that I have distinguished by declaring what is unclean for you. ²⁶ You will be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have distinguished you from the other peoples so that you belong to me.”

²⁷ A man or a woman who is a medium or deals with the spirits of the dead must certainly be put to death. They must be stoned to death. Their blood is on them.

Protecting the Holiness of the Priests

21 The Lord told Moses to speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them this:

No one shall make himself unclean for a dead person among his people, ² except for his closest relatives. He may do it for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, or his brother, ³ and also for his virgin sister, who is close to him because she does not have a husband—for her he may make himself unclean. ⁴ But he shall not make himself unclean for his relatives by marriage and so defile himself.

⁵ The priests shall not cut a bald patch on to their heads or cut off the edges of their beards or gash their bodies. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God, and they shall not defile the name of their God. Because they present offerings made by fire,^[a] the food of their God, they are to be set apart as holy.

⁷ They shall not marry a woman who has been a prostitute or is defiled. Neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for each priest is holy to his God. ⁸ So you shall treat him as holy. Since he presents the food of your God, he shall be holy to you, for I, the Lord, who sets you apart as holy, am holy.

⁹ When the daughter of a man who is a priest defiles herself through prostitution, she is defiling her father. She shall be burned in fire.

¹⁰ The high priest, who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the holy garments, shall not dishevel his hair nor tear his garments. ¹¹ He shall not enter any place where there is a dead person. He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother. ¹² He shall not leave the sanctuary, so that he will not defile the sanctuary of his God, for the mark of consecration with the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

¹³ The high priest shall marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ A widow or a divorcée or a woman defiled because of prostitution—these he shall not marry. Instead, he shall take a virgin from his own people as a wife, ¹⁵ so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord, who sets him apart as holy.

Disqualification From Priestly Service

¹⁶ The Lord told Moses ¹⁷ to tell Aaron this:

Any man from your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect may not approach to present the food of his God. ¹⁸ Indeed, any man who has a defect shall not approach—a man who is blind or lame, or who has a limb that is too short or too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has a crippled foot or a crippled hand, ²⁰ or who is deformed or abnormally small, or who has a growth in his eye, or a festering boil, or some other disfiguring skin condition,^[b] or a damaged testicle. ²¹ Any man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall not draw near to present the gifts of the Lord. He has a defect, so he shall not draw near to present the food of his God.

²² But he may eat the food of his God from the most holy things and from the holy things. ²³ Nevertheless, he shall not go in front of the veil and shall not approach the altar because he has a defect, so that he does not defile my holy things, for I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

Eating Holy Food

22 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to be very careful with the holy things of the people of Israel, which they consecrate to me, so that they may not defile my holy name. I am the Lord. ³ Tell them these things.”

In future generations, if any man among all your descendants, while he is in a state of uncleanness, approaches the holy things, which the Israelites consecrate to the Lord, that person is to be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.

⁴ Any man of Aaron’s descendants who has an impure skin disease or a bodily discharge shall not eat any of the holy things until he is clean.

Any man who touches anything made unclean by a dead person, or any man from whom an emission of semen goes out, ⁵ or any man who touches any swarming creature that makes him unclean, or who touches any human being who makes him unclean, whatever his uncleanness might be— ⁶ that person who touches any of these things will be unclean until sunset and shall not eat any of the holy things unless he has washed his body with water. ⁷ When the sun has gone down, he will be clean. After that he may eat from the holy things, for it is his food. ⁸ But he shall not eat anything that has died naturally or been torn by wild animals, and so become unclean by it. I am the Lord.

⁹ Aaron’s descendants shall therefore keep watch for me, so that they do not become responsible for sin on account of uncleanness and die for it because they have defiled something holy. I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

¹⁰ No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat anything holy. No guest or employee of a priest may eat anything holy. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases anyone with his money, that person may eat from it, and those who are born into his household may eat from his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter has a husband who is not a priest, she may not eat any of the holy things that have been donated as an elevated offering. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced and she has no children and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No person who is not a member of a priest’s family may eat of it.

¹⁴ If anyone eats a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add one fifth of its value to it and give the holy thing to the priest.

¹⁵ The priests shall not defile the holy things that the Israelites donate as an elevated offering to the Lord ¹⁶ by letting other people eat them and so make that person incur the penalty of a restitution offering for the holy things, because I am the Lord, who sets them apart as holy.

9 He said to them, “Amen I tell you: There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

The Transfiguration

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain where they were alone by themselves. There he was transfigured in front of them. ³ His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. ⁴ And Elijah appeared to them together with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ He did not know what to say because they were terrified.

⁷ A cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.”

⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus alone.

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ They kept the matter to themselves, discussing with one another what this “rising from the dead” meant.

¹¹ They asked him, “Why do the experts in the law say that Elijah must come first?”

¹² He said to them, “Elijah does come first and restores all things. Why was it also written about the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be rejected? ¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it was written about him.”

Jesus Heals a Boy With a Demon

¹⁴ When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some experts in the law were arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people in the crowd saw Jesus, they were very excited and ran to greet him. ¹⁶ He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”

¹⁷ One man from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. ¹⁸ Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”

¹⁹ “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied. “How long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”

²⁰ They brought the boy to Jesus. As soon as the spirit saw him, it threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell on the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

“From childhood,” he said. ²² “It has often thrown him into the fire and into the water to kill him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³ “If you can?”^[a] Jesus said to him. “All things are possible for the one who believes.”

²⁴ The child’s father immediately cried out and said with tears,^[b] “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. “You mute and deaf spirit,” he said, “I command you to come out of him and never enter him again!”

²⁶ The spirit screamed, shook the boy violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many of them said, “He’s dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him up, and he stood up.

²⁸ When Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why were we not able to drive it out?”

²⁹ He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out, except by prayer and fasting.”^[c]

Psalm 43

A Plea for Vindication

Refrain

Laws of Holiness

19 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy^(A) because I, the Lord your God, am holy.^(B)

³ “Each of you is to respect his mother and father.^(C) You are to keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to worthless idols^(D) or make cast images^(E) of gods for yourselves;^(F) I am the Lord your God.

⁵ “When you offer a fellowship sacrifice to the Lord, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ⁶ It is to be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day, but what remains on the third day must be burned.^{(G) 7} If any is eaten on the third day, it is a repulsive thing; it will not be accepted.^{(H) 8} Anyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people.^(I)

⁹ “When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings^(J) of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor^(K) and the resident alien;^(L) I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ “Do not steal.^(M) Do not act deceptively^(N) or lie^(O) to one another. ¹² Do not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God;^(P) I am the Lord.

¹³ “Do not oppress^(Q) your neighbor or rob^(R) him. The wages due a hired worker^(S) must not remain with you until morning. ¹⁴ Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind,^(T) but you are to fear your God;^(U) I am the Lord.^(V)

¹⁵ “Do not act unjustly^(W) when deciding a case. Do not be partial^(X) to the poor or give preference to the rich;^(Y) judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ Do not go about spreading slander^(Z) among your people; do not jeopardize^[a] your neighbor’s life; I am the Lord.

¹⁷ “Do not harbor hatred against your brother.^[b](AA) Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him.^{(AB) 18} Do not take revenge^(AC) or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself;^(AD) I am the Lord.

¹⁹ “You are to keep my statutes. Do not crossbreed two different kinds of your livestock, sow your fields with two kinds of seed, or put on a garment made of two kinds of material.^(AE)

²⁰ “If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman who is a slave designated for another man, but she has not been redeemed^(AF) or given her freedom, there must be punishment.^[c] They are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. ²¹ However, he must bring a ram as his guilt^[d] offering to the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting.^{(AG) 22} The priest will make atonement on his behalf before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven for the sin he committed.

²³ “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you are to consider the fruit forbidden.^[e] It will be forbidden to you for three years; it is not to be eaten. ²⁴ In the fourth year all its fruit is to be consecrated as a praise offering^(AH) to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way its yield will increase for you;^(AI) I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ “You are not to eat anything with blood in it.^[f](AJ) You are not to practice divination^(AK) or witchcraft.^{(AL) 27} You are not to cut off the hair at the sides of your head or mar the edge of your beard.^{(AM) 28} You are not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead^(AN) or put tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.

²⁹ “Do not debase^[g](AO) your daughter by making her a prostitute,^(AP) or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity. ³⁰ Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary;^(AQ) I am the Lord.

³¹ “Do not turn to mediums^[h](AR) or consult spiritists,^[i](AS) or you will be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God.

³² “You are to rise in the presence of the elderly and honor the old.^(AT) Fear your God; I am the Lord.

³³ “When an alien resides with you in your land, you must not oppress^(AU) him. ³⁴ You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself,^(AV) for you were aliens in the land of Egypt;^(AW) I am the Lord your God.

³⁵ “Do not be unfair^(AX) in measurements of length, weight, or volume. ³⁶ You are to have honest balances,^(AY) honest weights, an honest dry measure,^[j] and an honest liquid measure;^[k](AZ) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ Keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.”

Molech Worship and Spiritism

20 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or alien residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech^(BA) must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him.^{(BB) 3} I will turn^[l] against that man and cut him off from his people, because he gave his offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary^(BC) and profaning my holy name.^{(BD) 4} But if the people of the country look the other way when that man^[m] gives any of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, ⁵ then I will turn against that man and his family, and cut off from their people both him and all who follow^[n] him in prostituting^(BE) themselves with Molech.

⁶ “Whoever turns to mediums^[o](BF) or spiritists^[p] and prostitutes himself with them, I will turn against that person and cut him off from his people. ⁷ Consecrate yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ⁸ Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sets you apart.

Family and Sexual Offenses

⁹ “If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.^(BG) He has cursed his father or mother; his death is his own fault.^[q]

¹⁰ “If a man commits adultery^(BH) with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. ¹¹ If a man sleeps with his father’s wife, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his father.^[r](BI) Both of them must be put to death; their death is their own fault.^{[s] 12} If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law,^(BJ) both of them must be put to death. They have acted perversely; their death is their own fault. ¹³ If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman,^(BK) they have both committed a detestable act.^(BL) They must be put to death; their death is their own fault. ¹⁴ If a man marries^[t] a woman and her mother,^(BM) it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned,^(BN) so that there will be no depravity among you. ¹⁵ If a man has sexual intercourse with^[u] an animal, he must be put to death; you are also to kill the animal. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any animal and mates with it, you are to kill the woman and the animal.^(BO) They must be put to death; their death is their own fault. ¹⁷ If a man marries his sister,^(BP) whether his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and they have sexual relations,^[v](BQ) it is a disgrace.^(BR) They are to be cut off publicly from their people. He has had sexual intercourse with his sister; he will bear his iniquity. ¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a menstruating woman and has sexual intercourse with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood.^(BS) Both of them are to be cut off from their people. ¹⁹ You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister,^(BT) for it is exposing one’s own blood relative; both people will bear their iniquity. ²⁰ If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has violated the intimacy that belongs to his uncle;^[w](BU) they will bear their guilt and die childless. ²¹ If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is impurity.^(BV) He has violated the intimacy that belongs to his brother;^[x](BW) they will be childless.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Herod

¹¹ The^(A) Pharisees^(B) came and began to argue with him, demanding of him a sign^(C) from heaven^(D) to test^(E) him. ¹² Sighing deeply in his spirit,^(F) he said, “Why does this generation^(G) demand a sign? Truly I tell you,^(H) no sign will be given to this generation.” ¹³ Then he left them, got back into the boat, and went to the other side.

¹⁴ The disciples had forgotten to take bread and had only one loaf with them in the boat. ¹⁵ Then^(I) he gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven^[a](J) of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”^{(K) 16} They were discussing among themselves that they did not have any bread. ¹⁷ Aware of this, he said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact you have no bread? Don’t you understand or comprehend? Do you have hardened hearts?^{(L) 18} Do you have eyes and not see; do you have ears and not hear?^[b](M) And do you not remember?^{(N) 19} When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of leftovers did you collect?”

“Twelve,” they told him.

²⁰ “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you collect?”

“Seven,” they said.

²¹ And he said to them, “Don’t you understand yet?” ^(O)

Healing a Blind Man

²² They came to Bethsaida.^(P) They brought a blind^(Q) man to him and begged him to touch him. ²³ He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting^(R) on his eyes and laying his hands on^(S) him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴ He looked up and said, “I see people—they look like trees walking.”^(T)

²⁵ Again Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Then he sent^(U) him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”^[c](V)

Peter’s Confession of the Messiah

²⁷ Jesus^(W) went out with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the road he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸ They answered him, “John the Baptist;^(X) others, Elijah; still others, one of the prophets.”^(Y)

²⁹ “But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

Peter^(Z) answered him, “You are the Messiah.”^{(AA) 30} And he strictly warned^(AB) them to tell no one about him.

His Death and Resurrection Predicted

³¹ Then^(AC) he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man^(AD) to suffer many things and be rejected^(AE) by the elders,^(AF) chief priests, and scribes,^(AG) be killed, and rise^(AH) after three days.^{(AI) 32} He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³ But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!^(AJ) You are not thinking about God’s concerns^[d] but human concerns.”

Take Up Your Cross

³⁴ Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself,^(AK) take up his cross,^(AL) and follow me.^{(AM) 35} For whoever wants to save^(AN) his life will lose it,^(AO) but whoever loses^(AP) his life^(AQ) because of me^(AR) and the gospel^(AS) will save it.^{(AT) 36} For what does it benefit^(AU) someone to gain^(AV) the whole world^(AW) and yet lose^(AX) his life?^{(AY) 37} What can anyone give in exchange for his life?^{(AZ) 38} For whoever is ashamed^(BA) of me and my words^(BB) in this adulterous and sinful^(BC) generation,^(BD) the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory^(BE) of his Father^(BF) with the holy^(BG) angels.”^(BH)

BOOK II

(Psalms 42–72)

Psalm 42

Longing for God

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.

²⁹ “This is to be a permanent statute^(A) for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month you are to practice self-denial^(B) and do no work,^(C) both the native and the alien^(D) who resides among you. ³⁰ Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you,^(E) and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. ³¹ It is a Sabbath^(F) of complete rest for you,^(G) and you must practice self-denial; it is a permanent statute. ³² The priest who is anointed and ordained^[a](H) to serve as high priest^(I) in place of his father will make atonement. He will put on the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³ and make atonement for the most holy place. He will make atonement for the tent of meeting and the altar and will make atonement for the priests and all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement for the Israelites once a year^(J) because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the Lord commanded Moses.

Forbidden Sacrifices

17 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them: This is what the Lord has commanded: ³ Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters^(K) an ox, sheep, or goat in the camp, or slaughters it outside the camp, ⁴ instead of bringing it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord before his tabernacle—that person will be considered guilty.^[b](L) He has shed blood^(M) and is to be cut off from his people.^{(N) 5} This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices^(O) they have been offering in the open country. They are to bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting and offer them as fellowship sacrifices^(P) to the Lord. ⁶ The priest will then splatter the blood on the Lord’s altar at the entrance to the tent of meeting and burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁷ They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons^(Q) that they have prostituted^(R) themselves with. This will be a permanent statute^(S) for them throughout their generations.

⁸ “Say to them: Anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens^(T) who reside among them who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice ⁹ but does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord, that person is to be cut off from his people.

Eating Blood and Carcasses Prohibited

¹⁰ “Anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them who eats any blood,^(U) I will turn^[c] against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people. ¹¹ For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for^[d] your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.^{(V) 12} Therefore I say to the Israelites: None of you and no alien who resides among you may eat blood.

¹³ “Any Israelite or alien residing among them, who hunts^(W) down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten must drain its blood^(X) and cover it with dirt. ¹⁴ Since the life of every creature is its blood, I have told the Israelites: You are not to eat the blood of any creature,^(Y) because the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.

¹⁵ “Every person, whether the native or the resident alien,^(Z) who eats an animal that died a natural death or was mauled by wild beasts^(AA) is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening; then he will be clean. ¹⁶ But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe himself, he will bear his iniquity.”

Prohibited Pagan Practices

18 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the Lord your God.^{(AB) 3} Do not follow the practices of the land of Egypt,^(AC) where you used to live, or follow the practices of the land of Canaan,^(AD) where I am bringing you. You must not follow their customs.^{(AE) 4} You are to practice my ordinances^(AF) and you are to keep my statutes^(AG) by following them; I am the Lord your God. ⁵ Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live^(AH) if he does them.^(AI) I am the Lord.

⁶ “You are not to come near^(AJ) any close relative^[e] for sexual intercourse;^(AK) I am the Lord. ⁷ You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to your father^(AL) and mother.^[f] She is your mother; you must not have sexual intercourse with her. ⁸ You are not to have sex with your father’s wife;^(AM) she is your father’s family.^{(AN) 9} You are not to have sexual intercourse with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s,^(AO) whether born at home or born elsewhere. You are not to have sex with her. ¹⁰ You are not to have sexual intercourse with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for they are your family.^{[g] 11} You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife’s daughter, who is adopted by^[h] your father; she is your sister. ¹² You are not to have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister;^(AP) she is your father’s close relative. ¹³ You are not to have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister,^(AQ) for she is your mother’s close relative. ¹⁴ You are not to violate the intimacy that belongs to^[i] your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual intercourse; she is your aunt.^{(AR) 15} You are not to have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law.^(AS) She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sex with her. ¹⁶ You are not to have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s family.^{(AT) 17} You are not to have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter.^(AU) You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sex with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.^{(AV) 18} You are not to marry a woman as a rival to her sister and have sexual intercourse with her during her sister’s lifetime.^(AW)

¹⁹ “You are not to approach^(AX) a woman during her menstrual impurity to have sexual intercourse with her.^{(AY) 20} You are not to have sexual intercourse with^[j] your neighbor’s wife, defiling yourself with her.^(AZ)

²¹ “You are not to sacrifice any of your children in the fire^[k] to Molech.^(BA) Do not profane the name^(BB) of your God; I am the Lord. ²² You are not to sleep with a man as with a woman;^(BC) it is detestable.^{(BD) 23} You are not to have sexual intercourse with^[l] any animal, defiling yourself with it; a woman is not to present herself to an animal to mate with it;^(BE) it is a perversion.

²⁴ “Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves by all these things. ²⁵ The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.^{(BF) 26} But you are to keep my statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable acts—not the native or the alien who resides among you. ²⁷ For the people who were in the land prior to you have committed all these detestable acts, and the land has become defiled. ²⁸ If you defile the land, it will vomit^(BG) you out as it has vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ Any person who does any of these detestable practices is to be cut off from his people. ³⁰ You must keep my instruction to not do any of the detestable customs^(BH) that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.”

A Gentile Mother’s Faith

²⁴ He got up and departed from^(A) there to the region of Tyre.^[a](B) He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice. ²⁵ Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit^(C) came and fell at his feet.^{(D) 26} The woman was a Gentile,^[b](E) a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon^(F) out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”^(G)

²⁸ But she replied to him, “Lord,^(H) even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰ When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

Jesus Does Everything Well

³¹ Again, leaving the region of Tyre,^(I) he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,^(J) through^[c] the region of the Decapolis.^{(K) 32} They brought to him a deaf^(L) man who had difficulty speaking^(M) and begged Jesus to lay his hand on^(N) him. ³³ So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting,^(O) he touched his tongue. ³⁴ Looking up to heaven,^(P) he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”^[d] (that is, “Be opened!”). ³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened,^(Q) his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.^{(R) 36} He ordered them to tell no one,^(S) but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.^(T)

³⁷ They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well.^(U) He even makes the deaf^(V) hear and the mute speak.”^(W)

Feeding Four Thousand

8 In^(X) those days there was again a large crowd, and they had nothing to eat. He called^(Y) the disciples^(Z) and said to them, ² “I have compassion^(AA) on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. ³ If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way,^(AB) and some of them have come a long distance.”

⁴ His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread here in this desolate place to feed^(AC) these people?”

⁵ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked them.

“Seven,” they said. ⁶ He commanded the crowd to sit down on the ground. Taking the seven loaves, he gave thanks, broke^(AD) them, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. So they served them to the crowd. ⁷ They also had a few small fish, and after he had blessed them, he said these were to be served as well. ⁸ They ate and were satisfied. Then they collected seven large baskets of leftover pieces. ⁹ About four thousand were there. He dismissed them. ¹⁰ And he immediately got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

Psalm 41

Victory in spite of Betrayal

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

Bodily Discharges

15 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any man has a discharge^(A) from his member, he is unclean. ³ This is uncleanness of his discharge: Whether his member secretes the discharge or retains it, he is unclean. All the days that his member secretes or retains anything because of his discharge,^[a] he is unclean. ⁴ Any bed the man with the discharge lies on will be unclean, and any furniture he sits on will be unclean. ⁵ Anyone who touches his bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁶ Whoever sits on furniture that the man with the discharge was sitting on is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁷ Whoever touches the body^[b] of the man with a discharge is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁸ If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is clean, he is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ⁹ Any saddle the man with the discharge rides on will be unclean.^{(B) 10} Whoever touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening, and whoever carries such things is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ¹¹ If the man with the discharge touches anyone without first rinsing his hands in water,^(C) the person who was touched is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ¹² Any clay pot that the man with the discharge touches must be broken, while any wooden utensil is to be rinsed with water.^(D)

¹³ “When the man with the discharge has been cured of it, he is to count seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in fresh water; he will be clean. ¹⁴ He must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons on the eighth day, come before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and give them to the priest. ¹⁵ The priest is to sacrifice them, one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering.^(E) In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the Lord because of his discharge.

¹⁶ “When a man has an emission of semen,^(F) he is to bathe himself completely with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ¹⁷ Any clothing or leather on which there is an emission of semen is to be washed with water, and it will remain unclean until evening. ¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them are to bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.^(G)

¹⁹ “When a woman has a discharge, and it consists of blood from her body, she will be unclean because of her menstruation^(H) for seven days. Everyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Anything she lies on during her menstruation will become unclean, and anything she sits on will become unclean. ²¹ Everyone who touches her bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ²² Everyone who touches any furniture she was sitting on is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ²³ If discharge is on the bed or the furniture she was sitting on, when he touches it he will be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man sleeps with her, and blood from her menstruation gets on him, he will be unclean for seven days, and every bed he lies on will become unclean.^(I)

²⁵ “When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days, though it is not the time of her menstruation, or if she has a discharge beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, as she is during the days of her menstruation. ²⁶ Any bed she lies on during the days of her discharge will be like her bed during menstrual impurity; any furniture she sits on will be unclean as in her menstrual period. ²⁷ Everyone who touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. ²⁸ When she is cured of her discharge, she is to count seven days, and after that she will be clean.^{(J) 29} On the eighth day she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ³⁰ The priest is to sacrifice one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her before the Lord because of her unclean discharge.

³¹ “You must keep the Israelites from their uncleanness, so that they do not die by defiling my tabernacle^(K) that is among them. ³² This is the law for someone with a discharge: a man who has an emission of semen, becoming unclean by it; ³³ a woman who is in her menstrual period; anyone who has a discharge, whether male or female; and a man who sleeps with a woman who is unclean.”

The Day of Atonement

16 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence^(L) of^[c] the Lord and died.^{(M) 2} The Lord said to Moses, “Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place^(N) behind the curtain^(O) in front of the mercy seat^(P) on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud^(Q) above the mercy seat.^(R)

³ “Aaron is to enter the most holy place^(S) in this way: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.^{(T) 4} He is to wear a holy linen tunic, and linen undergarments are to be on his body. He is to tie a linen sash around him and wrap his head with a linen turban.^(U) These are holy garments; he must bathe his body with water before he wears them. ⁵ He is to take from the Israelite community two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.^(V)

⁶ “Aaron will present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷ Next he will take the two goats and place them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸ After Aaron casts lots^(W) for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place,^{[d][e](X) 9} he is to present the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering.^{(Y) 10} But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness^(Z) for an uninhabitable place.

¹¹ “When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he will slaughter the bull for his sin offering. ¹² Then he is to take a firepan full of blazing coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense,^(AA) and bring them inside the curtain.^{(AB) 13} He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud^(AC) of incense covers the mercy seat that is over the testimony,^(AD) or else he will die.^{(AE) 14} He is to take some of the bull’s blood^(AF) and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat; then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times.^(AG)

¹⁵ “When he slaughters the male goat for the people’s sin offering and brings its blood inside the curtain, he will do the same with its blood as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it. ¹⁶ He will make atonement for the most holy place in this way for all their sins because of the Israelites’ impurities and rebellious acts.^(AH) He will do the same for the tent of meeting that remains among them, because it is surrounded by their impurities. ¹⁷ No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the most holy place until he leaves after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel.^{(AI) 18} Then he will go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on the horns on all sides of the altar. ¹⁹ He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse and set it apart^(AJ) from the Israelites’ impurities.^(AK)

²⁰ “When he has finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he is to present the live male goat. ²¹ Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess^(AL) over it all the Israelites’ iniquities^(AM) and rebellious acts—all their sins.^(AN) He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness^(AO) by the man appointed for the task.^{[f] 22} The goat will carry all their iniquities into a desolate land,^(AP) and the man will release it there.

²³ “Then Aaron is to enter the tent of meeting, take off the linen garments^(AQ) he wore when he entered the most holy place, and leave them there. ²⁴ He will bathe his body with water in a holy place^(AR) and put on his clothes.^(AS) Then he must go out and sacrifice his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering; he will make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵ He is to burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. ²⁶ The man who released the goat for an uninhabitable place is to wash his clothes and bathe his body with water; afterward he may reenter the camp. ²⁷ The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the most holy place to make atonement, must be brought outside the camp^(AT) and their hide,^(AU) flesh, and waste burned.^{(AV) 28} The one who burns them is to wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp.

The Traditions of the Elders

7 The^(A) Pharisees^(B) and some of the scribes^(C) who had come from Jerusalem^(D) gathered around him. ² They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean^(E)—that is, unwashed—hands. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace,^(F) they do not eat unless they have washed.^(G) And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.^[a](H)) ⁵ So the Pharisees^(I) and the scribes^(J) asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live^[b] according to the tradition of the elders,^(K) instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean^[c] hands?”

⁶ He answered them, “Isaiah^(L) prophesied^(M) correctly about you hypocrites,^(N) as it is written: ^(O)

⁸ Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.”^{[e] 9} He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up^[f] your tradition! ¹⁰ For Moses^(T) said: Honor your father and your mother; ^[g](U) and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.^{[h](V) 11} But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit^(W) you might have received from me is corban’” (that is, an offering^(X) devoted to God), ¹² “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³ You nullify the word of God^(Y) by your tradition that you have handed^(Z) down. And you do many other similar things.”

¹⁴ Summoning^(AA) the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:^{(AB) 15} Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”^[i]

¹⁷ When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸ He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach^(AC) and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean^(AD)). ²⁰ And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities,^(AE) thefts, murders,^{(AF) 22} adulteries,^(AG) greed,^(AH) evil actions, deceit,^(AI) self-indulgence,^(AJ) envy,^[j] slander,^(AK) pride,^(AL) and foolishness.^{(AM) 23} All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

Cleansing of Skin Diseases

14 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “This is the law^(A) concerning the person afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing.^(B) He is to be brought to the priest,^{(C) 3} who will go outside the camp^(D) and examine him.^(E) If the skin disease has disappeared from the afflicted person,^{[a] 4} the priest will order that two live clean birds,^(F) cedar wood,^(G) scarlet^(H) yarn, and hyssop^(I) be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. ⁵ Then the priest will order that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in a clay pot. ⁶ He is to take the live bird together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and dip them all into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. ⁷ He will then sprinkle the blood seven times on the one who is to be cleansed from the skin disease. He is to pronounce him clean and release the live bird over the open countryside.^{(J) 8} The one who is to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe with water; he is clean. Afterward he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days. ⁹ He is to shave off all his hair again on the seventh day: his head, his beard, his eyebrows, and the rest of his hair. He is to wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; he is clean.

¹⁰ “On the eighth day he must take two unblemished^(K) male lambs, an unblemished year-old ewe lamb, a grain offering of six quarts^[b] of fine flour mixed with olive oil, and one-third of a quart^[c] of olive oil. ¹¹ The priest who performs the cleansing will place the person who is to be cleansed, together with these offerings, before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ¹² The priest is to take one male lamb and present it as a guilt offering,^(L) along with the one-third quart of olive oil, and he will present them as a presentation offering^(M) before the Lord. ¹³ He is to slaughter the male lamb at the place in the sanctuary area where the sin offering^(N) and burnt offering^(O) are slaughtered,^(P) for like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest;^(Q) it is especially holy.^{(R) 14} The priest is to take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.^{(S) 15} Then the priest will take some of the one-third quart of olive oil and pour it into his left palm. ¹⁶ The priest will dip his right finger into the oil in his left palm and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. ¹⁷ From the oil remaining in his palm the priest will put some on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.^{(T) 18} What is left of the oil in the priest’s palm he is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed. In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the Lord. ¹⁹ The priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness.^(U) Afterward he will slaughter the burnt offering. ²⁰ The priest is to offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. The priest will make atonement for him, and he will be clean.^(V)

²¹ “But if he is poor^(W) and cannot afford these,^(X) he is to take one male lamb for a guilt offering to be presented in order to make atonement for him, along with two quarts^[d] of fine flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, one-third of a quart of olive oil, ²² and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whatever he can afford, one to be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. ²³ On the eighth day he is to bring these things for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the Lord. ²⁴ The priest will take the male lamb for the guilt offering and the one-third quart of olive oil, and present them as a presentation offering before the Lord. ²⁵ After he slaughters the male lamb for the guilt offering, the priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. ²⁶ Then the priest will pour some of the oil into his left palm. ²⁷ With his right finger the priest will sprinkle some of the oil in his left palm seven times before the Lord. ²⁸ The priest will also put some of the oil in his palm on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the same place as the blood of the guilt offering. ²⁹ What is left of the oil in the priest’s palm he is to put on the head of the one to be cleansed to make atonement for him before the Lord.^{(Y) 30} He is to then sacrifice one type of what he can afford, either the turtledoves or young pigeons, ³¹ one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, sacrificing what he can afford together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the Lord for the one to be cleansed. ³² This is the law for someone who has^[e] a skin disease and cannot afford the cost of his cleansing.”

Cleansing of Contaminated Objects

³³ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ³⁴ “When you enter the land of Canaan^(Z) that I am giving you as a possession,^(AA) and I place a mildew contamination in a house in the land you possess,^{[f] 35} the owner of the house is to come and tell the priest: Something like mildew contamination has appeared^[g] in my house. ³⁶ The priest must order them to clear the house before he enters to examine the contamination, so that nothing in the house becomes unclean. Afterward the priest will come to examine the house. ³⁷ He will examine it, and if the contamination in the walls of the house consists of green or red indentations^[h] that appear to be beneath the surface of the wall, ³⁸ the priest is to go outside the house to its doorway and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ The priest is to return on the seventh day and examine it. If the contamination has spread on the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ the priest must order that the stones with the contamination be pulled out and thrown into an unclean place outside the city. ⁴¹ He is to have the inside of the house completely scraped, and have the plaster^[i] that is scraped off dumped in an unclean place outside the city. ⁴² Then they are to take different stones to replace the former ones and take additional plaster to replaster the house.

⁴³ “If the contamination reappears in the house after the stones have been pulled out, and after the house has been scraped and replastered, ⁴⁴ the priest is to come and examine it. If the contamination has spread in the house, it is harmful mildew; the house is unclean. ⁴⁵ It must be torn down with its stones, its beams, and all its plaster, and taken outside the city to an unclean place. ⁴⁶ Whoever enters the house during any of the days the priest quarantines it will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Whoever lies down in the house is to wash his clothes, and whoever eats in it is to wash his clothes.

⁴⁸ “But when the priest comes and examines it, if the contamination has not spread in the house after it was replastered, he is to pronounce the house clean because the contamination has disappeared.^{[j] 49} He is to take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop to purify the house, ⁵⁰ and he is to slaughter one of the birds over a clay pot containing fresh water. ⁵¹ He will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn, and the live bird, dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² He will purify the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet yarn. ⁵³ Then he is to release the live bird into the open countryside^(AB) outside the city. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

⁵⁴ “This is the law for any skin disease or mildew, for a scaly outbreak, ⁵⁵ for mildew in clothing or on a house, ⁵⁶ and for a swelling, scab, or spot, ⁵⁷ to determine when something is unclean or clean. This is the law regarding skin disease and mildew.”

Feeding of the Five Thousand

³⁰ The^(A) apostles^(B) gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

³² So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, ³³ but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.^[a]

³⁴ When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion^(C) on them, because they were like sheep^(D) without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it grew late, his disciples^(E) approached him and said, “This place is deserted,^(F) and it is already late. ³⁶ Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ “You give them something to eat,” he responded.

They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii^[b] worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

³⁸ He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” ³⁹ Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² Everyone ate and was satisfied.^{(G) 43} They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men.

Walking on the Water

⁴⁵ Immediately^(H) he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida,^(I) while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain^(J) to pray.^{(K) 47} Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ He saw them straining^(L) at the oars,^[c] because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning^[d] he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them. ⁴⁹ When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost^(M) and cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.^(N) Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Have courage!^(O) It is I.^(P) Don’t be afraid.”^{(Q) 51} Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, ⁵² because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.^(R)

Miraculous Healings

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret^(S) and anchored there.

⁵⁴ As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him. ⁵⁵ They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick^(T) on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end^(U) of his robe.^(V) And everyone who touched it was healed.

Psalm 40

Thanksgiving and a Cry for Help

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

Skin Diseases

13 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: ² “When a person has a swelling,^[a] scab,^[b] or spot on the skin of his body, and it may be a serious disease on the skin^(A) of his body, he is to be brought to the priest Aaron or to one of his sons, the priests. ³ The priest will examine the sore^(B) on the skin of his body. If the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is in fact a serious skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean. ⁴ But if the spot on the skin of his body is white and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest will quarantine the stricken person for seven days.^{(C) 5} The priest will then reexamine him on the seventh day. If he sees that the sore remains unchanged and has not spread on the skin, the priest will quarantine him for another seven days. ⁶ The priest will examine him again on the seventh day. If the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest is to pronounce him clean;^(D) it is a scab. The person is to wash his clothes and will become clean. ⁷ But if the scab spreads further on his skin after he has presented himself to the priest for his cleansing,^(E) he is to present himself again to the priest. ⁸ The priest will examine him, and if the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest must pronounce him unclean; he has a serious skin disease.

⁹ “When a case of serious skin disease may have developed on a person, he is to be brought to the priest. ¹⁰ The priest will examine him. If there is a white swelling on the skin that has turned the hair white, and there is a patch of raw flesh in the swelling, ¹¹ it is a chronic serious disease on the skin of his body, and the priest must pronounce him unclean.^(F) He need not quarantine him, for he is unclean. ¹² But if the skin disease breaks out all over the skin so that it covers all the skin of the stricken person from his head to his feet so far as the priest can see, ¹³ the priest will look, and if the skin disease has covered his entire body, he is to pronounce the stricken person clean.^(G) Since he has turned totally white, he is clean. ¹⁴ But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean. ¹⁵ When the priest examines the raw flesh, he must pronounce him unclean. Raw flesh is unclean; this is a serious skin disease. ¹⁶ But if the raw flesh changes^[c] and^[d] turns white, he is to go to the priest. ¹⁷ The priest will examine him, and if the sore has turned white, the priest must pronounce the stricken person clean; he is clean.

¹⁸ “When a boil appears on the skin^(H) of someone’s body^(I) and it heals, ¹⁹ and a white swelling or a reddish-white spot develops where the boil was, the person is to present himself to the priest. ²⁰ The priest will make an examination, and if the spot seems to be beneath the skin and the hair in it has turned white, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is a case of serious skin disease that has broken out in the boil. ²¹ But when the priest examines it, if there is no white hair in it, and it is not beneath the skin but is faded, the priest will quarantine him seven days. ²² If it spreads further on the skin, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is in fact a disease. ²³ But if the spot remains where it is and does not spread, it is only the scar from the boil. The priest is to pronounce him clean.

²⁴ “When there is a burn on the skin of one’s body produced by fire, and the patch made raw by the burn becomes reddish-white or white, ²⁵ the priest is to examine it. If the hair in the spot has turned white and the spot appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a serious skin disease that has broken out in the burn. The priest must pronounce him unclean; it is a serious skin disease. ²⁶ But when the priest examines it, if there is no white hair in the spot and it is not beneath the skin but is faded, the priest will quarantine him seven days. ²⁷ The priest will reexamine him on the seventh day. If it has spread further on the skin, the priest must pronounce him unclean; it is in fact a case of serious skin disease. ²⁸ But if the spot has remained where it was and has not spread on the skin but is faded, it is the swelling from the burn. The priest is to pronounce him clean, for it is only the scar from the burn.

²⁹ “When a man or woman has a condition on the head or chin, ³⁰ the priest is to examine the condition. If it appears to be deeper than the skin,^(J) and the hair in it is yellow and sparse, the priest must pronounce the person unclean. It is a scaly outbreak, a serious skin disease of the head or chin. ³¹ When the priest examines the scaly condition, if it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, the priest will quarantine the person with the scaly condition for seven days. ³² The priest will reexamine the condition on the seventh day. If the scaly outbreak has not spread and there is no yellow hair in it and it does not appear to be deeper than the skin, ³³ the person is to shave himself^(K) but not shave the scaly area. Then the priest will quarantine the person who has the scaly outbreak for another seven days. ³⁴ The priest will examine the scaly outbreak on the seventh day, and if it has not spread on the skin and does not appear to be deeper than the skin, the priest is to pronounce the person clean. He is to wash his clothes, and he will be clean. ³⁵ But if the scaly outbreak spreads further on the skin after his cleansing, ³⁶ the priest is to examine the person. If the scaly outbreak has spread on the skin, the priest does not need to look for yellow hair; the person is unclean. ³⁷ But if as far as he can see, the scaly outbreak remains unchanged and black hair has grown in it, then it has healed; he is clean. The priest is to pronounce the person clean.

³⁸ “When a man or a woman has white spots on the skin of the body, ³⁹ the priest is to make an examination. If the spots on the skin of the body are dull white, it is only a rash^[e] that has broken out on the skin; the person is clean.

⁴⁰ “If a man loses the hair of his head, he is bald,^(L) but he is clean. ⁴¹ Or if he loses the hair at his hairline, he is bald on his forehead, but he is clean. ⁴² But if there is a reddish-white condition on the bald head or forehead, it is a serious skin disease breaking out on his head or forehead.^{(M) 43} The priest is to examine him, and if the swelling of the condition on his bald head or forehead is reddish-white, like the appearance of a serious skin disease on his body, ⁴⁴ the man is afflicted with a serious skin disease;^(N) he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean; the infection is on his head.

⁴⁵ “The person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his clothes torn^(O) and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth^(P) and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’ ⁴⁶ He will remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.^(Q)

Contaminated Fabrics

⁴⁷ “If a fabric is contaminated with mildew—in wool or linen fabric, ⁴⁸ in the warp or weft of linen or wool, or in leather or anything made of leather— ⁴⁹ and if the contamination is green or red in the fabric, the leather, the warp, the weft, or any leather article, it is a mildew contamination and is to be shown to the priest. ⁵⁰ The priest is to examine the contamination and quarantine the contaminated fabric for seven days. ⁵¹ The priest is to reexamine the contamination on the seventh day. If it has spread in the fabric, the warp, the weft, or the leather, regardless of how it is used, the contamination is harmful mildew; it is unclean.^{(R) 52} He is to burn the fabric, the warp or weft in wool or linen, or any leather article, which is contaminated. Since it is harmful mildew it must be burned.

⁵³ “When the priest examines it, if the contamination has not spread in the fabric, the warp or weft, or any leather article, ⁵⁴ the priest is to order whatever is contaminated to be washed and quarantined for another seven days. ⁵⁵ After it has been washed, the priest is to reexamine the contamination. If the appearance of the contaminated article has not changed, it is unclean. Even though the contamination has not spread, you must burn the fabric. It is a fungus^[f] on the front or back of the fabric.

⁵⁶ “If the priest examines it, and the contamination has faded after it has been washed, he is to cut the contaminated section out of the fabric, the leather, or the warp or weft. ⁵⁷ But if it reappears in the fabric, the warp or weft, or any leather article, it has broken out again. You must burn whatever is contaminated. ⁵⁸ But if the contamination disappears from the fabric, the warp or weft, or any leather article, which have been washed, it is to be washed again, and it will be clean.

⁵⁹ “This is the law concerning a mildew contamination in wool or linen fabric, warp or weft, or any leather article, in order to pronounce it clean or unclean.”^(S)

Rejection at Nazareth

6 He^(A) left there and came to his hometown,^(B) and his disciples^(C) followed him. ² When the Sabbath^(D) came, he began to teach^(E) in the synagogue,^(F) and many who heard him were astonished. “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom^(G) that has been given to him, and how are these miracles^(H) performed by his hands? ³ Isn’t this the carpenter,^(I) the son of Mary,^(J) and the brother of James,^(K) Joses, Judas,^(L) and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended^(M) by him.

⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet^(N) is not without honor^(O) except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his household.” ⁵ He was not able to do a miracle^(P) there, except that he laid his hands on^(Q) a few sick^(R) people and healed^(S) them. ⁶ And he was amazed^(T) at their unbelief.^(U) He was going around the villages teaching.^(V)

Commissioning the Twelve

⁷ He^(W) summoned^(X) the Twelve^(Y) and began to send^(Z) them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean^(AA) spirits.^{(AB) 8} He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a staff—no bread, no traveling bag,^(AC) no money in their belts, ⁹ but to wear sandals and not put on an extra shirt.^{(AD) 10} He said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. ¹¹ If any place does not welcome^(AE) you or listen to you, when you leave there, shake the dust off your feet^(AF) as a testimony^(AG) against them.”^{[a] 12} So they went out and preached^(AH) that people should repent.^{(AI) 13} They drove out many demons,^(AJ) anointed^(AK) many sick^(AL) people with oil^(AM) and healed them.^(AN)

John the Baptist Beheaded

¹⁴ King^(AO) Herod^(AP) heard about it, because Jesus’s name^(AQ) had become well known. Some^[b] said, “John the Baptist^(AR) has been raised from the dead,^(AS) and that’s why miraculous powers^(AT) are at work^(AU) in him.” ¹⁵ But others said, “He’s Elijah.”^(AV) Still others said, “He’s a prophet, like one of the prophets from long ago.”^(AW)

¹⁶ When Herod^(AX) heard of it, he said, “John,^(AY) the one I beheaded, has been raised!” ^(AZ)

¹⁷ For^(BA) Herod himself had given orders to arrest John and to chain^(BB) him in prison on account of Herodias,^(BC) his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.^{(BD) 18} John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful^(BE) for you to have your brother’s wife.”^{(BF) 19} So Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill^(BG) him. But she could not, ²⁰ because Herod feared^(BH) John and protected him, knowing he was a righteous^(BI) and holy^(BJ) man. When Herod heard him he would be very perplexed,^[c](BK) and yet he liked to listen to him.^(BL)

²¹ An opportune time came on his birthday, when Herod gave a banquet^(BM) for his nobles,^(BN) military commanders,^(BO) and the leading men of Galilee.^{(BP) 22} When Herodias’s own daughter^[d] came in and danced,^(BQ) she pleased Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you.” ²³ He promised her with an^(BR) oath:^(BS) “Whatever you ask me I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”^(BT)

²⁴ She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”

“John the Baptist’s^(BU) head,” she said.

²⁵ At once she hurried to the king and said, “I want you to give me John the Baptist’s^(BV) head on a platter^(BW) immediately.” ²⁶ Although the king was deeply distressed,^(BX) because of his oaths^(BY) and the guests^[e] he did not want to refuse^(BZ) her. ²⁷ The king immediately sent for an executioner and commanded him to bring John’s head. So he went and beheaded him in prison, ²⁸ brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. ²⁹ When John’s disciples^(CA) heard about it, they came and removed his corpse and placed it in a tomb.^(CB)

Psalm 39

The Fleeting Nature of Life

For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.