Book Four

From Everlasting to Everlasting

A ^(A)Prayer of Moses, the ^(B)man of God.

The Nazirite Vow

6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of ^(A)a Nazirite,^{[a] (B)}to separate himself to the Lord, ³ he ^(C)shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. ⁴ All the days of his separation^[b] he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

⁵ “All the days of his vow of separation, no ^(D)razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. ^(E)He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

⁶ “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord ^(F)he shall not go near a dead body. ^7 (G)Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

⁹ “And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then ^(H)he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ^10 (I)On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹¹ and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day ¹² and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old ^(J)for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³ “And this is the law for the Nazirite, ^(K)when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹⁴ and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish ^(L)as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish ^(M)as a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened bread, ^(N)loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their ^(O)grain offering and their ^(P)drink offerings. ¹⁶ And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer ^(Q)his sin offering and his burnt offering, ¹⁷ and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸ And the Nazirite ^(R)shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. ¹⁹ And the priest shall take the ^(S)shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and ^(T)shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, ²⁰ and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ^(U)They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”

Aaron's Blessing

²² The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus ^(V)you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

^27 (AA)“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Teaching About Divorce

19 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from ^(A)Galilee and ^(B)entered ^(C)the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ² And ^(D)large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³ And Pharisees came up to him and ^(E)tested him by asking, ^(F)“Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” ⁴ He answered, ^(G)“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ^(H)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and ^(I)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^(J)What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷ They said to him, ^(K)“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸ He said to them, “Because of your ^(L)hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ^9 (M)And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”^[a]

¹⁰ The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹ But he said to them, ^(N)“Not everyone can receive this saying, but only ^(O)those to ^(P)whom it is given. ¹² For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs ^(Q)for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

Let the Children Come to Me

^13 (R)Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples ^(S)rebuked the people, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, ^(T)“Let the little children ^(U)come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went away.

The Rich Young Man

^16 (V)And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to ^(W)have ^(X)eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. ^(Y)If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, ^(Z)“You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, ^(AA)You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰ The young man said to him, ^(AB)“All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be ^(AC)perfect, go, ^(AD)sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have ^(AE)treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ^22 (AF)When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

²³ And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, ^(AG)only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. ^24 (AH)Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter ^(AI)the kingdom of God.” ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁶ But Jesus ^(AJ)looked at them and said, ^(AK)“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ²⁷ Then Peter said in reply, “See, ^(AL)we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” ²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,^{[b] (AM)}when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me ^(AN)will also sit on twelve thrones, ^(AO)judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ^29 (AP)And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold^[c] and will ^(AQ)inherit eternal life. ³⁰ But ^(AR)many who are ^(AS)first will be last, and the last first.