Category: DAB Readings

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

26 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ^2 (A)you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall ^(B)go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³ And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ^(C)that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵ “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A ^(D)wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, ^(E)few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶ And ^(F)the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷ Then ^(G)we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸ And ^(H)the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(I)with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,^[a] with signs and wonders. ⁹ And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, ^(J)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹ And ^(K)you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

¹² “When you have finished paying all ^(L)the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ^(M)the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³ then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, ^(N)nor have I forgotten them. ^14 (O)I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it ^(P)to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ^15 (Q)Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. ^17 (R)You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. ¹⁸ And the Lord has declared today that you are ^(S)a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, ¹⁹ and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor ^(T)high above all nations ^(U)that he has made, and that you shall be ^(V)a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”

The Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. ² And on the day ^(W)you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. ^3 (X)And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(Y)a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. ⁴ And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, ^(Z)on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. ⁵ And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. ^(AA)You shall wield no iron tool on them; ⁶ you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut^[b] stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, ⁷ and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and ^(AB)shall eat there, and you ^(AC)shall rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸ And ^(AD)you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

Curses from Mount Ebal

⁹ Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: ^(AE)this day you have become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”

¹¹ That day Moses charged the people, saying, ¹² “When you have crossed over the Jordan, ^(AF)these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³ And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ¹⁴ And ^(AG)the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice:

^15 (AH)“‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ ^(AI)And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

^16 (AJ)“‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^17 (AK)“‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^18 (AL)“‘Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind man on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^19 (AM)“‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^20 (AN)“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his father's wife, because he has ^(AO)uncovered his father's nakedness.’^[c] And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^21 (AP)“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^22 (AQ)“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^23 (AR)“‘Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^24 (AS)“‘Cursed be anyone who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^25 (AT)“‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

^26 (AU)“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Martha and Mary

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, Jesus^[a] entered a village. And a woman named ^(A)Martha ^(B)welcomed him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called ^(C)Mary, who ^(D)sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are ^(E)anxious and troubled about many things, ⁴² but one thing is necessary.^[b] Mary has chosen ^(F)the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The Lord's Prayer

11 Now Jesus^[c] was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, ^(G)as John taught his disciples.” ² And he said to them, ^(H)“When you pray, say:

⁵ And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? ⁸ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything ^(Q)because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence^[e] he will rise and give him whatever he needs. ⁹ And I tell you, ^(R)ask, and ^(S)it will be given to you; ^(T)seek, and you will find; ^(U)knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for^[f] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; ¹² or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, ^(V)who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father ^(W)give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Who Can Stand Before You?

To the choirmaster: with ^(A)stringed instruments. A Psalm of ^(B)Asaph. A Song.

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

^2 (A)“No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

^3 (B)“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ^4 (C)because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they ^(D)hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^(E)Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned ^(F)the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. ⁶ You ^(G)shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

⁷ “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for ^(H)he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because ^(I)you were a sojourner in his land. ⁸ Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹ “When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰ “If any man among you becomes ^(J)unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, ¹¹ but when evening comes, he shall ^(K)bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

¹² “You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. ¹³ And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴ Because ^(L)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

^15 (M)“You shall not give up to his master a slave^[a] who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶ He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

¹⁷ “None of the ^(N)daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none ^(O)of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸ You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog^[b] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

^19 (P)“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, ^(Q)interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. ^20 (R)You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, ^(S)that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

^21 (T)“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²² But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³ You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

²⁴ “If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. ²⁵ If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, ^(U)you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

Laws Concerning Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and ^(V)he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, ² and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, ³ and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, ⁴ then ^(W)her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Miscellaneous Laws

^5 (X)“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year ^(Y)to be happy with his wife^[c] whom he has taken.

⁶ “No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge.

^7 (Z)“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he ^(AA)treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. ^(AB)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

⁸ “Take care, in ^(AC)a case of leprous^[d] disease, to be very careful to do according to all that the Levitical priests shall direct you. As I commanded them, so you shall be careful to do. ⁹ Remember what the Lord your God did to ^(AD)Miriam ^(AE)on the way as you came out of Egypt.

¹⁰ “When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. ¹¹ You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. ¹² And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. ^13 (AF)You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and ^(AG)bless you. And ^(AH)it shall be righteousness for you before the Lord your God.

¹⁴ “You shall not ^(AI)oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. ^15 (AJ)You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), ^(AK)lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.

^16 (AL)“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

^17 (AM)“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, ^(AN)or take a widow's garment in pledge, ¹⁸ but ^(AO)you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.

^19 (AP)“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, ^(AQ)that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. ²⁰ When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹ When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. ^22 (AR)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.

25 “If there is a ^(AS)dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, ^(AT)acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, ² then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. ^3 (AU)Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

^4 (AV)“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Laws Concerning Levirate Marriage

^5 (AW)“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her ^(AX)husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. ⁶ And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that ^(AY)his name may not be blotted out of Israel. ⁷ And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall ^(AZ)go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ^(BA)‘I do not wish to take her,’ ⁹ then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and ^(BB)pull his sandal off his foot and ^(BC)spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not ^(BD)build up his brother's house.’ ¹⁰ And the name of his house^[e] shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

Miscellaneous Laws

¹¹ “When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts, ¹² then you shall cut off her hand. ^(BE)Your eye shall have no pity.

¹³ “You ^(BF)shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ A full and fair^[f] weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, ^(BG)that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶ For ^(BH)all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, ^(BI)are an abomination to the Lord your God.

^17 (BJ)“Remember what Amalek did to you ^(BK)on the way as you came out of Egypt, ¹⁸ how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and ^(BL)cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore ^(BM)when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall ^(BN)blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

^13 (A)“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in ^(B)Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ^14 (C)But it will be more bearable in the judgment for ^(D)Tyre and Sidon than for you. ¹⁵ And you, Capernaum, ^(E)will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to ^(F)Hades.

^16 (G)“The one who hears you hears me, and ^(H)the one who rejects you rejects me, and ^(I)the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The Return of the Seventy-Two

^17 (J)The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, ^(K)even the demons are subject to us in your name!” ¹⁸ And he said to them, ^(L)“I saw Satan ^(M)fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority ^(N)to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of ^(O)the enemy, and ^(P)nothing shall hurt you. ^20 (Q)Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that ^(R)your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus Rejoices in the Father's Will

^21 (S)In that same hour ^(T)he rejoiced ^(U)in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, ^(V)Lord of heaven and earth, that ^(W)you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and ^(X)revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for ^(Y)such was your gracious will.^{[a] 22 (Z)}All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is ^(AA)except the Father, or who the Father is ^(AB)except the Son and anyone ^(AC)to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²³ Then turning to the disciples he said privately, ^(AD)“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴ For I tell you ^(AE)that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

^25 (AF)And behold, a ^(AG)lawyer stood up to ^(AH)put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to ^(AI)inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” ²⁷ And he answered, ^(AJ)“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and ^(AK)your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; ^(AL)do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But he, ^(AM)desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man ^(AN)was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a ^(AO)priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise ^(AP)a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a ^(AQ)Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ He went to him and ^(AR)bound up his wounds, pouring on ^(AS)oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ And the next day he took out two ^(AT)denarii^[b] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

God Will Judge with Equity

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)Do Not Destroy. ^(B)A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

Atonement for Unsolved Murders

21 “If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, ² then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. ³ And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer ^(A)that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. ⁴ And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen ^(B)them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and ^(C)by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. ⁶ And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man ^(D)shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ⁷ and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed. ⁸ Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and ^(E)do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’ ⁹ So ^(F)you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

Marrying Female Captives

¹⁰ “When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, ¹¹ and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, ¹² and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. ¹³ And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and ^(G)lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ But if you no longer delight in her, you shall ^(H)let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you ^(I)treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, ^(J)the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,^{[a] 16} then on the day when ^(K)he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, ¹⁷ but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is ^(L)the firstfruits of his strength. ^(M)The right of the firstborn is his.

A Rebellious Son

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, ²⁰ and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ^21 (N)Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. ^(O)So you shall purge the evil from your midst, ^(P)and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

²² “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ^23 (Q)his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for ^(R)a hanged man is cursed by God. ^(S)You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Various Laws

22 “You ^(T)shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. ² And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. ³ And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. ^4 (U)You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵ “A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, ^(V)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(W)you shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷ You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(X)that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

^9 (Y)“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,^[b] the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰ You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹ You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

^12 (Z)“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

¹³ “If any man takes a wife and ^(AA)goes in to her and then hates her ¹⁴ and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶ And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip^[c] him, ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels^[d] of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin^[e] of Israel. And she shall be his wife. ^(AB)He may not divorce her all his days. ²⁰ But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and ^(AC)the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has ^(AD)done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. ^(AE)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

^22 (AF)“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. ^(AG)So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³ “If there is a ^(AH)betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. ^(AI)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵ “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶ But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, ²⁷ because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

^28 (AJ)“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹ then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

^{30 [f] (AK)}“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not ^(AL)uncover his father's nakedness.^[g]

A Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus

⁵¹ When the days drew near for ^(A)him to be taken up, ^(B)he set his face ^(C)to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² And ^(D)he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of ^(E)the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. ⁵³ But ^(F)the people did not receive him, because ^(G)his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell ^(H)fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”^{[a] 55} But he turned and rebuked them.^{[b] 56} And they went on to another village.

The Cost of Following Jesus

⁵⁷ As they were going ^(I)along the road, ^(J)someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ⁵⁹ To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ And Jesus^[c] said to him, “Leave ^(K)the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and ^(L)proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, ^(M)but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” ⁶² Jesus said to him, ^(N)“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

10 After this the Lord appointed ^(O)seventy-two^[d] others and ^(P)sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. ^2 (Q)And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ^(R)Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³ Go your way; ^(S)behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. ^4 (T)Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and ^(U)greet no one on the road. ⁵ Whatever house you enter, first say, ^(V)‘Peace be to this house!’ ⁶ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, ^(W)it will return to you. ⁷ And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for ^(X)the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. ⁸ Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. ⁹ Heal the sick in it and say to them, ^(Y)‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ^11 (Z)‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that ^(AA)the kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹² I tell you, ^(AB)it will be more bearable on ^(AC)that day for Sodom than for that town.

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

A Maskil^[a] of ^(A)Asaph.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, ^(A)shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They ^(B)shall eat the Lord's food offerings^[a] as their^[b] inheritance. ² They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³ And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: ^(C)they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ^4 (D)The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(E)to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, ^(F)where he lives—and he may come when he desires^[c]—^(G)to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷ and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ^(H)like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸ then he may have equal ^(I)portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.^[d]

Abominable Practices

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(J)you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(K)who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,^[e] anyone who ^(L)practices divination or ^(M)tells fortunes or interprets omens, or ^(N)a sorcerer ¹¹ or a charmer or ^(O)a medium or a necromancer or ^(P)one who inquires of the dead, ^12 (Q)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And ^(R)because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

^15 (S)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^(T)on the day of the assembly, when you said, ^(U)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ^(V)‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18 (W)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^(X)And I will put my words in his mouth, and ^(Y)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (Z)And whoever will ^(AA)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ^20 (AB)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or^[f] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (AC)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ^(AD)the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

19 “When ^(AE)the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (AF)you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall measure the distances^[g] and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴ “This is the provision for ^(AG)the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— ⁵ as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, ⁶ lest ^(AH)the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. ^8 (AI)And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, ^(AJ)as he has sworn to your fathers, and ^(AK)gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—^(AL)then you shall add three other cities to these three, ¹⁰ lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him ^(AM)and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13 (AN)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(AO)but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood^[h] from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14 (AP)“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. ^(AQ)Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. ¹⁶ If ^(AR)a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, ^(AS)before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges shall ^(AT)inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ^19 (AU)then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil^[i] from your midst. ²⁰ And the rest ^(AV)shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. ^21 (AW)Your eye shall not pity. ^(AX)It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Laws Concerning Warfare

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see ^(AY)horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is ^(AZ)with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. ² And when you draw near to the battle, ^(BA)the priest shall come forward and speak to the people ³ and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, ⁴ for the Lord your God is he who goes with you ^(BB)to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ ⁵ Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not ^(BC)enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ^7 (BD)And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ ⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(BE)‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, ^(BF)offer terms of peace to it. ¹¹ And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. ¹² But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(BG)you shall put all its males to the sword, ^14 (BH)but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you ^(BI)shall take as plunder for yourselves. And ^(BJ)you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. ¹⁶ But ^(BK)in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, ¹⁷ but ^(BL)you shall devote them to complete destruction,^[j] the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, ¹⁸ that ^(BM)they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you ^(BN)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, ^(BO)you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

The Transfiguration

^28 (A)Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him ^(B)Peter and John and James and ^(C)went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was ^(D)altered, and ^(E)his clothing became dazzling white. ³⁰ And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure,^[a] which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³² Now Peter and those who were with him ^(F)were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake ^(G)they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³ And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three ^(H)tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—^(I)not knowing what he said. ³⁴ As he was saying these things, ^(J)a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ And ^(K)a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, ^(L)my Chosen One;^{[b] (M)}listen to him!” ³⁶ And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. ^(N)And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

^37 (O)On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. ³⁸ And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for ^(P)he is my only child. ³⁹ And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. ⁴⁰ And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but ^(Q)they could not.” ⁴¹ Jesus answered, “O ^(R)faithless and twisted generation, ^(S)how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” ⁴² While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus ^(T)rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and ^(U)gave him back to his father. ⁴³ And all were astonished at ^(V)the majesty of God.

Jesus Again Foretells His Death

^(W)But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus^[c] said ^(X)to his disciples, ⁴⁴ “Let these words sink into your ears: ^(Y)The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” ^45 (Z)But they did not understand this saying, and ^(AA)it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Who Is the Greatest?

^46 (AB)An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷ But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side ⁴⁸ and said to them, ^(AC)“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and ^(AD)whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For ^(AE)he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Anyone Not Against Us Is For Us

^49 (AF)John answered, “Master, we saw someone ^(AG)casting out demons in your name, and ^(AH)we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” ⁵⁰ But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, ^(AI)for the one who is not against you is for you.”

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

Provision for Priests and Levites

18 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, ^(A)shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They ^(B)shall eat the Lord's food offerings^[a] as their^[b] inheritance. ² They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³ And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: ^(C)they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. ^4 (D)The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^(E)to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.

⁶ “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, ^(F)where he lives—and he may come when he desires^[c]—^(G)to the place that the Lord will choose, ⁷ and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, ^(H)like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, ⁸ then he may have equal ^(I)portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.^[d]

Abominable Practices

⁹ “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, ^(J)you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. ¹⁰ There shall not be found among you anyone ^(K)who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,^[e] anyone who ^(L)practices divination or ^(M)tells fortunes or interprets omens, or ^(N)a sorcerer ¹¹ or a charmer or ^(O)a medium or a necromancer or ^(P)one who inquires of the dead, ^12 (Q)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And ^(R)because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. ¹³ You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ¹⁴ for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

A New Prophet like Moses

^15 (S)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^(T)on the day of the assembly, when you said, ^(U)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ^(V)‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18 (W)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^(X)And I will put my words in his mouth, and ^(Y)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (Z)And whoever will ^(AA)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ^20 (AB)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or^[f] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— ^22 (AC)when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; ^(AD)the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Laws Concerning Cities of Refuge

19 “When ^(AE)the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, ^2 (AF)you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. ³ You shall measure the distances^[g] and divide into three parts the area of the land that the Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.

⁴ “This is the provision for ^(AG)the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past— ⁵ as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live, ⁶ lest ^(AH)the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past. ⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities. ^8 (AI)And if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, ^(AJ)as he has sworn to your fathers, and ^(AK)gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers— ⁹ provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways—^(AL)then you shall add three other cities to these three, ¹⁰ lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.

¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him ^(AM)and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, ¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. ^13 (AN)Your eye shall not pity him, ^(AO)but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood^[h] from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Property Boundaries

^14 (AP)“You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Laws Concerning Witnesses

¹⁵ “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. ^(AQ)Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. ¹⁶ If ^(AR)a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, ^(AS)before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. ¹⁸ The judges shall ^(AT)inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, ^19 (AU)then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil^[i] from your midst. ²⁰ And the rest ^(AV)shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. ^21 (AW)Your eye shall not pity. ^(AX)It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Laws Concerning Warfare

20 “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see ^(AY)horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is ^(AZ)with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. ² And when you draw near to the battle, ^(BA)the priest shall come forward and speak to the people ³ and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, ⁴ for the Lord your God is he who goes with you ^(BB)to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ ⁵ Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not ^(BC)enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ^7 (BD)And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’ ⁸ And the officers shall speak further to the people, and say, ^(BE)‘Is there any man who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.’ ⁹ And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.

¹⁰ “When you draw near to a city to fight against it, ^(BF)offer terms of peace to it. ¹¹ And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. ¹² But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. ¹³ And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, ^(BG)you shall put all its males to the sword, ^14 (BH)but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you ^(BI)shall take as plunder for yourselves. And ^(BJ)you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁵ Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. ¹⁶ But ^(BK)in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, ¹⁷ but ^(BL)you shall devote them to complete destruction,^[j] the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, ¹⁸ that ^(BM)they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you ^(BN)sin against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, ^(BO)you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you? ²⁰ Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

The Transfiguration

^28 (A)Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him ^(B)Peter and John and James and ^(C)went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was ^(D)altered, and ^(E)his clothing became dazzling white. ³⁰ And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure,^[a] which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³² Now Peter and those who were with him ^(F)were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake ^(G)they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. ³³ And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three ^(H)tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—^(I)not knowing what he said. ³⁴ As he was saying these things, ^(J)a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ And ^(K)a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, ^(L)my Chosen One;^{[b] (M)}listen to him!” ³⁶ And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. ^(N)And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

^37 (O)On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. ³⁸ And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for ^(P)he is my only child. ³⁹ And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. ⁴⁰ And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but ^(Q)they could not.” ⁴¹ Jesus answered, “O ^(R)faithless and twisted generation, ^(S)how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” ⁴² While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus ^(T)rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and ^(U)gave him back to his father. ⁴³ And all were astonished at ^(V)the majesty of God.

Jesus Again Foretells His Death

^(W)But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus^[c] said ^(X)to his disciples, ⁴⁴ “Let these words sink into your ears: ^(Y)The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” ^45 (Z)But they did not understand this saying, and ^(AA)it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Who Is the Greatest?

^46 (AB)An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. ⁴⁷ But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side ⁴⁸ and said to them, ^(AC)“Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and ^(AD)whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For ^(AE)he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Anyone Not Against Us Is For Us

^49 (AF)John answered, “Master, we saw someone ^(AG)casting out demons in your name, and ^(AH)we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” ⁵⁰ But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, ^(AI)for the one who is not against you is for you.”

Book Three

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

Passover celebration

16 Wait for the month of Abib,^[a] at which time you must perform the Passover for the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at nighttime during the month of Abib. ² Offer a Passover sacrifice from the flock or herd to the Lord your God at the location the Lord selects for his name to reside. ³ You must not eat anything containing yeast along with it.^[b] Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread, bread symbolizing misery, along with it because you fled Egypt in a great hurry. Do this so you remember the day you fled Egypt for as long as you live. ⁴ No dough with yeast should appear in any of your territory for seven days. Furthermore, none of the meat that you sacrificed on the first night should remain until morning. ⁵ You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice in any of the cities that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶ Instead, you must offer the Passover sacrifice at the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside, at evening time, when the sun sets, which was the time you fled Egypt. ⁷ Cook it and eat it in the location that the Lord your God selects. The next morning you can return to your tents. ⁸ For six days you will eat unleavened bread. The seventh day will be a celebration for the Lord your God. Don’t do any work.

Festival of Weeks

⁹ Count out seven weeks, starting the count from the beginning of the grain harvest. ¹⁰ At that point, perform the Festival of Weeks for the Lord your God. Offer a spontaneous gift in precise measure with the blessing the Lord your God gives you. ¹¹ Then celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God—you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites who live in your cities, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—in the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside. ¹² Remember how each of you was a slave in Egypt, so follow these regulations most carefully.

Festival of Booths

¹³ Once you have collected the food and drink you need, perform the Festival of Booths for seven days. ¹⁴ Celebrate your festival: you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, the immigrants, the orphans, and the widows who live in your cities. ¹⁵ Seven days you must perform the festival for the Lord your God in the location the Lord selects because the Lord your God will bless you in all you do and in all your work. You will be overjoyed.

¹⁶ Three times a year every male among you must appear before the presence of the Lord your God in the location he will select: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. They must not appear before the Lord’s presence empty-handed. ¹⁷ Each one should have his gift in hand, in precise measure with the blessing the Lord your God gives you.

Judges and officials

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every city that the Lord your God gives you. They must judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Don’t delay justice; don’t show favoritism. Don’t take bribes because bribery blinds the vision of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Righteousness! Pursue righteousness so that you live long and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Rules for worship

²¹ Don’t plant any tree to serve as a sacred pole^[c] next to the altar you make for the Lord your God. ²² Don’t set up any sacred stone either, because the Lord your God hates such things.

17 Don’t sacrifice to the Lord your God any oxen or sheep that have defects of any kind, because that is detestable to the Lord your God.

Capital punishment

² If someone, whether male or female, is found in your community—in one of the cities the Lord your God is giving you—who does evil in the Lord your God’s eyes, by breaking God’s covenant, ³ by following and serving other gods, and by bowing down to them, to the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly bodies that I haven’t permitted— ⁴ and you hear news about it, then you must look into this situation very carefully. And if it’s definitely true that this detestable thing was done in Israel, ⁵ then you must bring out the man or woman who has done this evil thing to the gates of the city. Stone that person until he or she is dead.

⁶ Capital punishment must be decided by two or three witnesses. No one may be executed on the basis of only one testimony. ⁷ In the execution, the hands of the witnesses must be against the guilty person from the start; the hand of all the people will be involved at the end. Remove^[d] such evil from your community!

Legal disputes

⁸ If some legal dispute in your cities is too difficult for you to decide—say, between different kinds of bloodshed, different kinds of legal ruling, or different kinds of injury—then take it to the location the Lord your God selects. ⁹ Go to the levitical priests and to the head judge in office at that time and look into things there. They will announce to you the correct ruling. ¹⁰ You must then act according to the ruling they announced to you from that location, the one the Lord selects. You must follow very carefully everything they instruct you to do. ¹¹ Act precisely according to the instruction they give you and the ruling they announce to you. Don’t deviate even a bit from the word they announce. ¹² And whoever acts rashly by not listening to the priest who is in office serving the Lord your God or to the head judge will die. Remove^[e] such evil from Israel! ¹³ All the people will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t act arrogantly anymore.

Law of the king

¹⁴ Once you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you and you have taken possession of it and settled down in it, you might say: “Let’s appoint a king over us, as all our neighboring nations have done.” ¹⁵ You can indeed appoint over you a king that the Lord your God selects. You can appoint over you a king who is one of your fellow Israelites. You are not allowed to appoint over you a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. ¹⁶ That granted, the king must not acquire too many horses, and he must not return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, because the Lord told you: “You will never go back by that road again.” ¹⁷ The king must not take numerous wives so that his heart doesn’t go astray. Nor can the king acquire too much silver and gold. ¹⁸ Instead, when he sits on his royal throne, he himself must write a copy of this Instruction on a scroll in the presence of the levitical priests. ¹⁹ That Instruction must remain with him, and he must read in it every day of his life so that he learns to revere the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this Instruction and these regulations, by doing them, ²⁰ by not being overbearing toward his fellow Israelites, and by not deviating even a bit from the commandment. If the king does all that, he will ensure lasting rule in Israel for himself and for his successors.

Herod’s confusion

⁷ Herod the ruler^[a] heard about everything that was happening. He was confused because some people were saying that John had been raised from the dead, ⁸ others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. ⁹ Herod said, “I beheaded John, so now who am I hearing about?” Herod wanted to see him.

Jesus feeds the five thousand

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they described for Jesus what they had done. Taking them with him, Jesus withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹ When the crowds figured it out, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about God’s kingdom, and healed those who were sick.

¹² When the day was almost over, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can go to the nearby villages and countryside and find lodging and food, because we are in a deserted place.”

¹³ He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

But they said, “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ (They said this because about five thousand men were present.)

Jesus said to his disciples, “Seat them in groups of about fifty.” ¹⁵ They did so, and everyone was seated. ¹⁶ He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ Everyone ate until they were full, and the disciples filled twelve baskets with the leftovers.

Following Christ

¹⁸ Once when Jesus was praying by himself, the disciples joined him, and he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

¹⁹ They answered, “John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others that one of the ancient prophets has come back to life.”

²⁰ He asked them, “And what about you? Who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered, “The Christ sent from God.”

²¹ Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. ²² He said, “The Human One^[b] must suffer many things and be rejected—by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts—and be killed and be raised on the third day.”

²³ Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. ²⁴  All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them. ²⁵  What advantage do people have if they gain the whole world for themselves yet perish or lose their lives? ²⁶  Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Human One^[c] will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷  I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom.”

Psalm 72

Of Solomon.

False prophets and false gods

13 ^[a] Now if a prophet or a dream interpreter appears among you and performs a sign or wonder for you, ² and the sign or wonder that was spoken actually occurs; if he says: “Come on! We should follow other gods”—ones you haven’t experienced—“and we should worship them,” ³ you must not listen to that prophet’s or dream interpreter’s words, because the Lord your God is testing you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your being. ⁴ You must follow the Lord your God alone! Revere him! Follow his commandments! Obey his voice! Worship him! Cling to him—no other! ⁵ That prophet or dream interpreter must be executed because he encouraged you to turn away from the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, who redeemed you from the house of slavery; they tried to lead you away from the path the Lord your God commanded you to take. Remove^[b] such evil from your community!

⁶ Similarly, if one of your relatives—even one of your own siblings—or your own son or daughter or your dear spouse or best friend entices you secretly, if someone like that says: “Come on! We should follow and worship other gods”—ones that neither you nor your ancestors have experienced, ⁷ gods from all the neighboring peoples, whether nearby or far away, from one end of the earth to the other— ⁸ don’t give in to them! Don’t obey them! Don’t have any mercy on them! Don’t have compassion on them and don’t protect them! ⁹ Instead, you must execute them. Your own hand must be against them from the beginning of the execution; the hand of all the people will be involved at the end. ¹⁰ Stone them until they are dead because they desired to lead you away from the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ All Israel will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again.

¹² Or if you hear about one of your towns the Lord your God is giving you to inhabit, that ¹³ certain wicked people have gone out from your community and they’ve led the citizens of their town astray by saying: “Come on! We should follow and worship other gods”—ones you haven’t experienced before; ¹⁴ at that point you must look into this situation very carefully to see if it’s true. And if it’s definitely true that this detestable thing was done in your community, ¹⁵ you must completely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Place it and all that is in it under the ban.^[c] Put its animals to the sword. ¹⁶ Gather all the plunder into the middle of the town’s square. Then burn the city and all of its plunder as an entirely burned offering to the Lord your God. It must remain a heap of rubble forever. It must not be rebuilt. ¹⁷ Don’t hold on to any of the banned items—this will ensure that the Lord turns from his great anger and is compassionate to you, showing you mercy and multiplying you just like he swore to your ancestors. ¹⁸ You must definitely obey the Lord your God’s voice, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you right now, by doing what is right in the Lord your God’s eyes!

Complete devotion to the Lord

14 You are the Lord’s children. Don’t cut yourselves and don’t shave your foreheads for the dead, ² because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You are the ones whom the Lord selected to be his own, to be a treasured people out of all other people on earth.

Dietary laws

³ Don’t eat any detestable thing. ⁴ Here’s a list of animals you are allowed to eat: ox, sheep, goat, ⁵ deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. ⁶ You are also allowed to eat any animal with a divided hoof—the hoof being divided into two parts—and that rechews food among the various kinds of animals. ⁷ However, here’s a list of animals that either rechew food or have hooves divided in two parts that you are not allowed to eat:

⁹ Here’s a list of the water animals you are allowed to eat: you can eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But you aren’t allowed to eat anything that lacks scales or fins. These are off-limits for you.

¹¹ You are allowed to eat any clean bird. ¹² Here’s a list of those you are not allowed to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, ¹³ the red kite, the black kite, and any kind of bird of prey, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ the small owl and the large owl, the water hen, ¹⁷ the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.^[d]

¹⁹ Also, all winged insects are off-limits for you. They are not to be eaten. ²⁰ Any clean winged creature can be eaten, however.

²¹ You must not eat any decayed animal flesh because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You can give decayed animal flesh to the immigrants who live in your cities, and they can eat it; or you can sell it to foreigners.

Don’t cook a lamb in its own mother’s milk.

Tenth part

²² You must reserve a tenth part of whatever your fields produce each year. ²³ Eat the tenth part of your grain, wine, oil, oldest offspring of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God in the location he selects for his name to reside so that you learn to fear the Lord your God at all times. ²⁴ But if the trip is too long, because the location the Lord your God has selected to put his name is far away from where you live so that you can’t transport the tenth part—because the Lord your God will certainly bless you— ²⁵ then you can convert it to money. Take the money with you and go to the location the Lord your God selects. ²⁶ Then you can use the money for anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever else you might like. Then you should feast there and celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God, along with your entire household. ²⁷ Only make sure not to neglect the Levites who are living in your cities because they don’t have a designated inheritance like you do.

²⁸ Every third year you must bring the tenth part of your produce from that year and leave it at your city gates. ²⁹ Then the Levites, who have no designated inheritance like you do, along with the immigrants, orphans, and widows who live in your cities, will come and feast until they are full. Do this so that the Lord your God might bless you in everything you do.

Year of canceled debts

15 Every seventh year you must cancel all debts. ² This is how the cancellation is to be handled: Creditors will forgive the loans of their fellow Israelites. They won’t demand repayment from their neighbors or their relatives because the Lord’s year of debt cancellation has been announced. ³ You are allowed to demand payment from foreigners, but whatever is owed you from your fellow Israelites you must forgive. ⁴ Of course there won’t be any poor persons among you because the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, ⁵ but only if you carefully obey the Lord your God’s voice, by carefully doing every bit of this commandment that I’m giving you right now. ⁶ Once the Lord your God has blessed you, exactly as he said he would, you will end up lending to many different peoples but won’t need to borrow a thing. You will dominate many different peoples, but they won’t dominate you.

⁷ Now if there are some poor persons among you, say one of your fellow Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor fellow Israelites. ⁸ To the contrary! Open your hand wide to them. You must generously lend them whatever they need. ⁹ But watch yourself! Make sure no wicked thought crosses your mind, such as, The seventh year is coming—the year of debt cancellation—so that you resent your poor fellow Israelites and don’t give them anything. If you do that, they will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ No, give generously to needy persons. Don’t resent giving to them because it is this very thing that will lead to the Lord your God’s blessing you in all you do and work at. ¹¹ Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That’s why I’m giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land.

¹² If any of your fellow Hebrews, male or female, sell themselves into your service, they can work for you for six years, but in the seventh year you must set them free from your service. ¹³ Furthermore, when you set them free from your service, you must not let them go empty-handed. ¹⁴ Instead, provide for them fully from your flock, food, and wine. You must give to them from that with which the Lord your God has blessed you. ¹⁵ Remember how each of you were slaves in Egypt and how the Lord your God saved you. That’s why I am commanding you to do this right now. (¹⁶ Now if your male servant says to you: “I don’t want to leave your service” because he loves you and your family and because life is good for him in your service, ¹⁷ then you may take a needle and pierce his ear with it into the doorframe. From that point on, he will be your permanent servant. Do the same thing for female servants.) ¹⁸ Don’t consider it a hardship to set these servants free from your service, because they worked for you for six years—at a value double that of a paid worker. The Lord your God will bless you in everything that you do.

¹⁹ You must devote every oldest male animal from your herds or flocks to the Lord your God. Don’t plow with your oldest male ox and don’t shear your oldest male sheep. ²⁰ Year after year, you and your family are allowed to eat these animals in the presence of the Lord your God, in the location the Lord selects. ²¹ But if there is any defect in it, lameness, blindness, any flaw whatsoever, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² You are allowed to eat those in your own cities, whether you are polluted or purified, just as you would eat gazelle or deer. ²³ Even so, don’t consume any blood. Pour it out on the ground, like water.

Jesus heals two women

⁴⁰ When Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they had been waiting for him. ⁴¹ A man named Jairus, who was a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. He pleaded with Jesus to come to his house ⁴² because his only daughter, a twelve-year-old, was dying.

As Jesus moved forward, he faced smothering crowds. ⁴³ A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had spent her entire livelihood on doctors, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the hem of his clothes, and at once her bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When everyone denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds are surrounding you and pressing in on you!”

⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me. I know that power has gone out from me.”

⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she couldn’t escape notice, she came trembling and fell before Jesus. In front of everyone, she explained why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.

⁴⁸ “Daughter, your faith has healed you,” Jesus said. “Go in peace.”

⁴⁹ While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Don’t bother the teacher any longer.”

⁵⁰ When Jesus heard this, he responded, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting, and she will be healed.”

⁵¹ When he came to the house, he didn’t allow anyone to enter with him except Peter, John, and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵² They were all crying and mourning for her, but Jesus said, “Don’t cry. She isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.”

⁵³ They laughed at him because they knew she was dead.

⁵⁴ Taking her hand, Jesus called out, “Child, get up.” ⁵⁵ Her life returned and she got up at once. He directed them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were beside themselves with joy, but he ordered them to tell no one what had happened.

The Twelve sent out

9 Jesus called the Twelve together and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal sicknesses. ² He sent them out to proclaim God’s kingdom and to heal the sick. ³ He told them, “Take nothing for the journey—no walking stick, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt. ⁴  Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. ⁵  Wherever they don’t welcome you, as you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.” ⁶ They departed and went through the villages proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Psalm 71

11 So love the Lord your God and follow his instruction, his regulations, his case laws, and his commandments always. ² And know right now what your children haven’t known or yet witnessed:^[a]

⁷ Your own eyes witnessed each of these powerful acts the Lord performed. ⁸ So keep every part of the commandment that I am giving you today so that you stay strong to enter and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to possess, ⁹ and so that you might prolong your life on the fertile land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants—a land full of milk and honey.

¹⁰ The land you are about to enter and possess is definitely not like the land of Egypt, where you came from, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it by hand^[c] like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ No, the land you are entering to possess is a land of hills and valleys, where your drinking water will be rain from heaven. ¹² It’s a land that the Lord cares for: the Lord’s eyes are on it constantly from the first of the year until the very end of the year.

¹³ Now, if you completely obey God’s^[d] commandments that I am giving you right now, by loving the Lord your God and by serving him with all your heart and all your being, ¹⁴ then he^[e] will provide rain for your land at the right time—early rain and late rain—so you can stock up your grain, wine, and oil. ¹⁵ He^[f] will also make your fields lush for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ But watch yourselves! Otherwise, your heart might be led astray so you stray away, serving other gods and worshipping them. ¹⁷ Then the Lord’s anger would burn against you. He will close the sky up tight. There won’t be any rain, and the ground won’t yield any of its crops. You will quickly disappear off the wonderful land the Lord is giving to you.

¹⁸ Place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol.^{[g] 19} Teach them to your children, by talking about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. ²⁰ Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates. ²¹ Do all that so your days and your children’s days on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors are many—indeed, as many as the number of days that the sky’s been over the earth!

²² It’s true: if you carefully keep all this commandment that I’m giving you, by doing it, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in all his ways, and by clinging to him, ²³ then the Lord will clear out all these nations before you. You will inherit what belonged to nations that are larger and stronger than you are. ²⁴ Every place you set foot on will be yours: your territory will run from the wilderness all the way to the Lebanon range, and from the Euphrates River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand up to you. Just as he promised, the Lord your God will make the entire land deathly afraid of you wherever you advance in it.

Ceremony on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal

²⁶ Pay attention! I am setting blessing and curse before you right now: ²⁷ the blessing if you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I am giving you right now, ²⁸ but the curse if you don’t obey the Lord your God’s commandments and stray from the path that I am giving you today by following other gods that you have not known. ²⁹ Now when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of, put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. (³⁰ Aren’t both of these mountains across the Jordan River, down along the western road in the region of the Canaanites who live in the desert plain, across from Gilgal, next to the Moreh Oak Grove?)

³¹ So then, once you cross the Jordan River to enter and possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you take possession of it, settling down in it, ³² you must carefully follow the regulations and the case laws that I am laying out before you right now.

Regulations and the case laws:

Worship at the location the Lord selects

12 These are the regulations and the case laws that you must carefully keep in the fertile land the Lord, your ancestors’ God, has given to you to possess for as long as you live on that land:

² You must completely destroy every place where the nations that you are displacing worshipped their gods—whether on high mountains or hills or under leafy green trees. ³ Rip down their altars and shatter their sacred stones. Burn their sacred poles^[h] with fire. Hack their gods’ idols into pieces. Wipe out their names from that place.

⁴ Don’t act like they did toward the Lord your God!

⁵ Instead, you must search for the location the Lord your God will select from all your tribes to put his name there, as his residence, and you must go there. ⁶ You must bring your entirely burned offerings, your sacrifices, your tenth-part gifts, your contributions,^[i] your payments for solemn promises, your spontaneous gifts, and the oldest offspring of your herds and flocks to that place. ⁷ You will have a feast there, each of you and your families, in the Lord your God’s presence, and you will celebrate all you have done because the Lord your God has blessed you. ⁸ Don’t act like we’ve been acting here lately—everyone doing what seems right to them— ⁹ because up to this point you haven’t yet reached the place of rest or the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But you are about to cross the Jordan River and will settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your inheritance. Then he will give you rest from all your enemies on every side so that you live safely and securely. ¹¹ At that point, you must bring all that I am commanding you, your entirely burned offerings, your sacrifices, your tenth-part gifts, your contributions, and all your best payments that you solemnly promised to the Lord, to the location the Lord your God selects for his name to reside. ¹² Then you will rejoice in the Lord your God’s presence: each of you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites who dwell in your cities because they have no designated inheritance.

¹³ But watch yourself! Make sure you don’t offer up your entirely burned offerings in just any place you see. ¹⁴ No, only at the location the Lord selects from one of your tribal areas—that’s where you must offer up your entirely burned offerings and that’s where you must perform everything I’m telling you. ¹⁵ However, whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat, as the Lord your God sees fit to bless you with such in your cities. People who are polluted and people who are purified can join in the feast, as they would if they were eating gazelle or deer. ¹⁶ But you must not consume any of the animals’ blood. Pour it out on the ground, just like water.

¹⁷ Within your cities you are not allowed to eat any of the following: your tenth-part gifts of grain, wine, and oil; the oldest offspring of your herds and flocks; any of the payments you have solemnly promised; your spontaneous gifts or your contributions. ¹⁸ Only in the presence of the Lord your God, at the location the Lord your God selects, can you eat these things—that holds true for you, your son and daughter, your male and female servant, and the Levite who lives in your city. Then celebrate all you have done in the Lord your God’s presence. ¹⁹ But watch yourself: as long as you are on the land, don’t forget about the Levites.

²⁰ Once the Lord your God has enlarged your territory, as he promised you, and you think to yourself, I’d like to eat some meat (because you have the desire to do so), feel free to do so whenever you want. ²¹ But if the location that the Lord your God will choose to put his name is far away from where you live, then slaughter an animal from your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and eat it in your cities whenever you wish. ²² But be sure to eat it as if it were gazelle or deer. People who are polluted and people who are purified can feast on it together.

²³ Furthermore, make sure that you don’t consume any of the blood, because blood is life. You must not consume the life along with the meat. ²⁴ You must not consume any of it. Pour it out on the ground, just like water. ²⁵ You must not consume any of it so that things go well for you and for your children later because you did what was right in the Lord’s eyes.

²⁶ Note that you must bring your sacred offerings and your payments for solemn promises to the location the Lord selects, ²⁷ offering up your entirely burned sacrifices—both meat and blood—on the Lord your God’s altar. The blood from your sacrifices must be poured out on the Lord your God’s altar, but you are allowed to eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and obey all these words that I am commanding you so that things always go well for you and your children later because you did what was good and right in the Lord your God’s eyes.

²⁹ Once the Lord your God has removed from before you all the nations that you are entering and taking possession of, and you have displaced them and are living in their land, ³⁰ then watch yourself! Don’t be trapped by following their practices after they’ve been wiped out before you. Don’t go investigating their gods, thinking, How did these nations worship their gods? I want to do the very same thing!

³¹ Don’t act like they did toward the Lord your God because they did things for their gods that are detestable to the Lord, which he hates. They even burned their own sons and daughters with fire for their gods!

^32 [j] Everything I’m commanding you, you must do it with utmost care! Don’t add anything to it or take anything away from it.

Jesus calms the sea

²² One day Jesus and his disciples boarded a boat. He said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail.

²³ While they were sailing, he fell asleep. Gale-force winds swept down on the lake. The boat was filling up with water and they were in danger. ²⁴ So they went and woke Jesus, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” But he got up and gave orders to the wind and the violent waves. The storm died down and it was calm.

²⁵ He said to his disciples, “Where is your faith?”

Filled with awe and wonder, they said to each other, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him!”

Jesus frees a demon-possessed man

²⁶ Jesus and his disciples sailed to the Gerasenes’ land, which is across the lake from Galilee. ²⁷ As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a certain man met him. The man was from the city and was possessed by demons. For a long time, he had lived among the tombs, naked and homeless. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down before him. Then he shouted, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ He said this because Jesus had already commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had taken possession of him, so he would be bound with leg irons and chains and placed under guard. But he would break his restraints, and the demon would force him into the wilderness.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had entered him. ³¹ They pleaded with him not to order them to go back into the abyss.^{[a] 32} A large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. Jesus gave them permission, ³³ and the demons left the man and entered the pigs. The herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned.

³⁴ When those who tended the pigs saw what happened, they ran away and told the story in the city and in the countryside. ³⁵ People came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully dressed and completely sane. They were filled with awe. ³⁶ Those people who had actually seen what had happened told them how the demon-possessed man had been delivered. ³⁷ Then everyone gathered from the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave their area because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and returned across the lake. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged to come along with Jesus as one of his disciples. Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return home and tell the story of what God has done for you.” So he went throughout the city proclaiming what Jesus had done for him.

Psalm 70

For the music leader. Of David. For the memorial offering.

Against false piety and immodesty

9 Listen, Israel! Today you will cross the Jordan River to enter and take possession of nations larger and more powerful than you, along with huge cities with fortifications that reach to the sky. ² These people are large and tall—they are the Anakim. You know and have heard what people say: “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” ³ Know right now that the Lord your God, who is crossing over before you, is an all-consuming fire! He will wipe them out! He will subdue them before you! Then you will take possession of their land, eliminating them quickly, exactly as the Lord told you.

⁴ Once the Lord your God has driven them out before you, don’t think to yourself, It’s because I’m righteous that the Lord brought me in to possess this land. It is instead because of these nations’ wickedness that the Lord is removing them before you. ⁵ You aren’t entering and taking possession of their land because you are righteous or because your heart is especially virtuous; rather, it is because these nations are wicked—that’s why the Lord your God is removing them before you, and because he wishes to establish the promise he made to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Gold calf

⁶ Know then that the Lord your God isn’t giving you this excellent land for you to possess on account of your righteousness—because you are a stubborn people! ⁷ Remember—don’t ever forget!—how you made the Lord your God furious in the wilderness. From the very first day you stepped out of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebels against the Lord. ⁸ Even at Horeb you angered the Lord! He was so enraged by you that he threatened to wipe you out. ⁹ When I went up on the mountain to get the stone tablets, the covenant tablets that the Lord made with you, I was up there forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread, drank no water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by God’s finger, and on them were all the words that the Lord had said to you on the mountain, out of the very fire itself, on the day we assembled. ¹¹ At the end of those forty days and nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets—the covenant tablets. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, “Get going! Get down from here quickly because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have ruined everything! They couldn’t wait to turn from the path I commanded them! They’ve made themselves an idol out of cast metal.”

¹³ The Lord said more to me: “I have seen this people. Look! What a stubborn people they are! ¹⁴ Now stand back. I am going to wipe them out. I will erase their name from under heaven, then I will make a nation out of you—one stronger and larger than they were.”

¹⁵ So I went down the mountain while it was blazing with fire. The two covenant tablets were in my two hands. ¹⁶ It was then that I saw how you sinned against the Lord your God: you made yourselves a calf, an idol made of cast metal! You couldn’t wait to turn from the path the Lord commanded you! ¹⁷ I grabbed the two tablets and threw them down with my own hands, shattering them while you watched. ¹⁸ Then I fell before the Lord as I had done the previous forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water, all because of the sin that you had committed by doing such evil in the Lord’s sight, infuriating him. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the massive anger and rage the Lord had for you—he was going to wipe you out! However, the Lord listened to me again in that moment.

²⁰ But the Lord was furious with Aaron—he was going to wipe him out! So I also prayed hard for Aaron at that time. ²¹ And as for that sinful thing you made, that calf, I took it and I burned it with fire. Then I smashed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust. Then I dumped the dust into the stream that ran down the mountain.

²² Also at Taberah, again at Massah, and then again at Kibroth-hattaavah, you have been the kind of people who make the Lord angry. ²³ And then, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, telling you: “Go up and take possession of the land that I’m giving you,” you disobeyed the Lord your God’s command. You didn’t trust him. You didn’t obey God’s voice. ²⁴ You’ve been rebellious toward the Lord from the day I^[a] met you.

Moses’ intercessory prayer

²⁵ But I fell on my knees in the Lord’s presence forty days and forty nights, lying flat out, because the Lord planned on wiping you out. ²⁶ But I prayed to the Lord! I said: Lord, my Lord! Don’t destroy your people, your own possession, whom you saved by your own power, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand! ²⁷ Remember your servants: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Don’t focus on this people’s stubbornness, wickedness, and sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, that land out of which you brought us will say: The Lord wasn’t strong enough to bring them into the land he’d promised them. Because he didn’t care for them in the least, he brought them out to die in the desert. ²⁹ But these are your people! Your own possession! The people you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm!

New tablets

10 At that time the Lord told me: Carve two stone tablets, just like the first ones, and hike up the mountain to me. Construct a wooden chest as well. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets—the ones you smashed—then you will place them in the chest.

³ So I built a chest out of acacia wood and carved two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I hiked up the mountain holding the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ God wrote on the new tablets what had been written on the first set: the Ten Commandments that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain, from the very fire itself, on the day we assembled there. Then the Lord gave them to me.

⁵ So I came back down the mountain. I put the tablets in the chest that I’d made, and that’s where they are now, exactly as the Lord commanded me.

(⁶ Now, the Israelites had set out from Beeroth-bene-jaakan^[b] to Moserah. It was there that Aaron died and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him in the priestly role. ⁷ From there the Israelites traveled to Gudgodah, then from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, which is a land with flowing streams. ⁸ At that time, the Lord selected the tribe of Levi to carry the chest containing the Lord’s covenant, to minister before the Lord, to serve him, and to offer blessings in his name. That’s the way things are right now. ⁹ That’s why the Levites don’t have a stake or inheritance with the rest of their relatives. The Lord is the Levites’ inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised them.)

¹⁰ Just as the first time, I remained on the mountain forty days and nights. And the Lord listened to me again in this instance. The Lord wasn’t willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord told me: Get going. Lead the people so they can enter and take possession of the land that I promised I’d give to their ancestors.

What the Lord requires

¹² Now in light of all that, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? Only this: to revere the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, by loving him, by serving the Lord your God with all your heart and being, ¹³ and by keeping the Lord’s commandments and his regulations that I’m commanding you right now. It’s for your own good!

¹⁴ Clearly, the Lord owns the sky, the highest heavens, the earth, and everything in it. ¹⁵ But the Lord adored your ancestors, loving them and choosing the descendants that followed them—you!—from all other people. That’s how things still stand now. ¹⁶ So circumcise your hearts^[c] and stop being so stubborn, ¹⁷ because the Lord your God is the God of all gods and Lord of all lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who doesn’t play favorites and doesn’t take bribes. ¹⁸ He enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹ That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt. ²⁰ Revere the Lord your God, serve him, cling to him, swear by his name alone! ²¹ He is your praise, and he is your God—the one who performed these great and awesome acts that you witnessed with your very own eyes. ²² Your ancestors went down to Egypt with a total of seventy people, but now look! The Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the nighttime sky!

Parable of the soils

⁴ When a great crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from one city after another, he spoke to them in a parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to scatter his seed. As he was scattering it, some fell on the path where it was crushed, and the birds in the sky came and ate it. ⁶  Other seed fell on rock. As it grew, it dried up because it had no moisture. ⁷  Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorns grew with the plants and choked them. ⁸  Still other seed landed on good soil. When it grew, it produced one hundred times more grain than was scattered.” As he said this, he called out, “Everyone who has ears should pay attention.”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰ He said, “You have been given the mysteries of God’s kingdom, but these mysteries come to everyone else in parables so that when they see, they can’t see, and when they hear, they can’t understand.^[a]

¹¹ “The parable means this: The seed is God’s word. ¹² The seed on the path are those who hear, but then the devil comes and steals the word from their hearts so that they won’t believe and be saved. ¹³ The seed on the rock are those who receive the word joyfully when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while but fall away when they are tempted. ¹⁴ As for the seed that fell among thorny plants, these are the ones who, as they go about their lives, are choked by the concerns, riches, and pleasures of life, and their fruit never matures. ¹⁵ The seed that fell on good soil are those who hear the word and commit themselves to it with a good and upright heart. Through their resolve, they bear fruit.

Sharing the light

¹⁶ “No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand so that those who enter can see the light. ¹⁷  Nothing is hidden that won’t be exposed. Nor is anything concealed that won’t be made known and brought to the light. ¹⁸  Therefore, listen carefully. Those who have will receive more, but as for those who don’t have, even what they seem to have will be taken away from them.”

Jesus’ family

¹⁹ Jesus’ mother and brothers came to him but were unable to reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰ Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

²¹ He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who listen to God’s word and do it.”