Month: April 2018

The Covenant Renewed in Moab

29 ^[a] These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel ^(A)in the land of Moab, besides ^(B)the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

^2 [b] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: ^(C)“You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, ³ the great ^(D)trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴ But to this day ^(E)the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. ^5 (F)I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. ^6 (G)You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ And when you came to this place, ^(H)Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. ⁸ We took their land and ^(I)gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. ^9 (J)Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper^[c] in all that you do.

¹⁰ “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,^[d] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones, your wives, and the ^(K)sojourner who is in your camp, from ^(L)the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, ¹² so that you may enter into the ^(M)sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, ¹³ that he may ^(N)establish you today as his people, and that ^(O)he may be your God, as he promised you, and ^(P)as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ¹⁴ It is not with you alone ^(Q)that I am making this sworn covenant, ¹⁵ but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, ^(R)and with whoever is not here with us today.

¹⁶ “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. ¹⁷ And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. ¹⁸ Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you ^(S)a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹ one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. ²⁰ The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather ^(T)the anger of the Lord and ^(U)his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord ^(V)will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. ²² And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, ^(W)will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— ²³ the whole land burned out with brimstone and ^(X)salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, ^(Y)an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, ^(Z)Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— ²⁴ all the nations ^(AA)will say, ^(AB)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ ²⁵ Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, ²⁶ and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. ²⁷ Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, ^(AC)bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, ²⁸ and the Lord ^(AD)uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and ^(AE)cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Repentance and Forgiveness

30 ^(AF)“And ^(AG)when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and ^(AH)you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, ² and ^(AI)return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, ³ then the Lord your God ^(AJ)will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will ^(AK)gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ^4 (AL)If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. ⁵ And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. ^(AM)And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. ⁶ And ^(AN)the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, ^(AO)so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. ⁷ And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. ⁸ And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. ^9 (AP)The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. ^(AQ)For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, ¹⁰ when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life and Death

¹¹ “For this commandment that I command you today ^(AR)is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. ^12 (AS)It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

¹⁵ “See, ^(AT)I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. ¹⁶ If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God^[e] that I command you today, ^(AU)by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules,^[f] then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ¹⁷ But if ^(AV)your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, ^18 (AW)I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, ^(AX)blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, ²⁰ loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice ^(AY)and holding fast to him, for ^(AZ)he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in ^(BA)the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ While Jesus^[a] was speaking, ^(A)a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see ^(B)that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, ^(C)“Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of ^(D)greed and wickedness. ^40 (E)You fools! ^(F)Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But ^(G)give as alms those things that are within, and behold, ^(H)everything is clean for you.

^42 (I)“But woe to you Pharisees! For ^(J)you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect ^(K)justice and ^(L)the love of God. ^(M)These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For ^(N)you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! ^(O)For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of ^(P)the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” ⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you ^(Q)lawyers also! For ^(R)you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ^47 (S)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. ^48 (T)So you are witnesses and you ^(U)consent to the deeds of ^(V)your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore also ^(W)the Wisdom of God said, ^(X)‘I will send them ^(Y)prophets and apostles, ^(Z)some of whom they will ^(AA)kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ so that ^(AB)the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(AC)from the foundation of the world, may be ^(AD)charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of ^(AE)Abel to the blood of ^(AF)Zechariah, who perished between ^(AG)the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be ^(AH)required of this generation. ⁵² Woe to you ^(AI)lawyers! ^(AJ)For you have taken away the key of ^(AK)knowledge. You ^(AL)did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, ^54 (AM)lying in wait for him, ^(AN)to catch him in something he might say.

Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees

12 In the meantime, ^(AO)when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, ^(AP)“Beware of ^(AQ)the leaven of the Pharisees, ^(AR)which is hypocrisy. ^2 (AS)Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in ^(AT)private rooms shall be proclaimed on ^(AU)the housetops.

Have No Fear

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, ^(AV)do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him ^(AW)who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.^[b] Yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?^[c] And ^(AX)not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, ^(AY)even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; ^(AZ)you are of more value than many sparrows.

Tell the Coming Generation

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

Blessings for Obedience

28 “And ^(A)if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you ^(B)high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and ^(C)overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. ³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and ^(D)blessed shall you be in the field. ⁴ Blessed shall be ^(E)the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your ^(F)kneading bowl. ⁶ Blessed shall you be ^(G)when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ “The Lord ^(H)will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. ⁸ The Lord ^(I)will command the blessing on you in your barns and ^(J)in all that you undertake. ^(K)And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ^9 (L)The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. ¹⁰ And ^(M)all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are ^(N)called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be ^(O)afraid of you. ¹¹ And ^(P)the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in ^(Q)the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, ^(R)to give the rain to your land in its season and ^(S)to bless all the work of your hands. And ^(T)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ And the Lord will make you ^(U)the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, ^14 (V)and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Curses for Disobedience

¹⁵ “But ^(W)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and ^(X)overtake you. ¹⁶ Cursed shall you be ^(Y)in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. ¹⁷ Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸ Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. ¹⁹ Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰ “The Lord ^(Z)will send on you curses, confusion, and ^(AA)frustration in all that you undertake to do, ^(AB)until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. ²¹ The Lord will make ^(AC)the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ^22 (AD)The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought^[a] and with ^(AE)blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And ^(AF)the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

^25 (AG)“The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you ^(AH)shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ And ^(AI)your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and ^(AJ)there shall be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will strike you ^(AK)with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and ^(AL)scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with ^(AM)madness and blindness and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and you shall ^(AN)grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways.^[b] And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. ^30 (AO)You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. ^(AP)You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. ^(AQ)You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. ^32 (AR)Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, ^(AS)but you shall be helpless. ³³ A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, ³⁴ so that you are driven mad ^(AT)by the sights that your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs ^(AU)with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will ^(AV)bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you ^(AW)nor your fathers have known. And ^(AX)there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become ^(AY)a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away. ^38 (AZ)You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for ^(BA)the locust shall consume it. ^39 (BB)You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you ^(BC)shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for ^(BD)they shall go into captivity. ^42 (BE)The cricket^[c] shall possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground. ^43 (BF)The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ^44 (BG)He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. ^(BH)He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

^45 (BI)“All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. ⁴⁶ They shall be ^(BJ)a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. ^47 (BK)Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he ^(BL)will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. ^49 (BM)The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, ^(BN)swooping down like the eagle, a nation ^(BO)whose language you do not understand, ⁵⁰ a hard-faced nation ^(BP)who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. ⁵¹ It shall ^(BQ)eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

⁵² “They shall ^(BR)besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. ⁵³ And ^(BS)you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, ^(BT)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The man who is the most tender and refined among you will ^(BU)begrudge food to his brother, to ^(BV)the wife he embraces,^[d] and to the last of the children whom he has left, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, ^(BW)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. ^56 (BX)The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces,^[e] to her son and to her daughter, ⁵⁷ her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, ^(BY)in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, ^(BZ)the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. ⁶⁰ And he will bring upon you again all ^(CA)the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. ⁶² Whereas ^(CB)you were as numerous ^(CC)as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And as the Lord ^(CD)took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will ^(CE)take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

⁶⁴ “And the Lord ^(CF)will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and ^(CG)there you shall serve other gods ^(CH)of wood and stone, ^(CI)which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ And ^(CJ)among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but ^(CK)the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and ^(CL)a languishing soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life. ^67 (CM)In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the dread that your heart shall feel, and ^(CN)the sights that your eyes shall see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord ^(CO)will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ^(CP)you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Jesus and Beelzebul

^14 (A)Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. ¹⁵ But some of them said, “He casts out demons ^(B)by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” ¹⁶ while others, ^(C)to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. ^17 (D)But he, ^(E)knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. ¹⁸ And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, ^(F)by whom do ^(G)your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁰ But if it is by ^(H)the finger of God that I cast out demons, then ^(I)the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²¹ When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; ^22 (J)but when one stronger than he attacks him and ^(K)overcomes him, he takes away his ^(L)armor in which he trusted and ^(M)divides his spoil. ^23 (N)Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Return of an Unclean Spirit

^24 (O)“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through ^(P)waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ ²⁵ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. ²⁶ Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And ^(Q)the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

True Blessedness

²⁷ As he said these things, ^(R)a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ^(S)“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” ²⁸ But he said, ^(T)“Blessed rather are those ^(U)who hear the word of God and ^(V)keep it!”

The Sign of Jonah

^29 (W)When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ^(X)“This generation is an evil generation. ^(Y)It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as ^(Z)Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ^31 (AA)The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and ^(AB)condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, ^(AC)something greater than Solomon is here. ^32 (AD)The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and ^(AE)condemn it, for ^(AF)they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^(AG)something greater than Jonah is here.

The Light in You

^33 (AH)“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is ^(AI)the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is ^(AJ)bad, your body is full of darkness. ^35 (AK)Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, ^(AL)as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord

To the choirmaster: according to ^(A)Jeduthun. A Psalm of ^(B)Asaph.

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.