The Lord Has Chosen Zion

A Song of ^(A)Ascents.

¹⁸ “Thus says the Lord God: In the first month, ^(A)on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and ^(B)purify the sanctuary. ^19 (C)The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it ^(D)on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. ²⁰ You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple.

^21 (E)“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. ²² On that day the prince ^(F)shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. ²³ And on ^(G)the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and ^(H)a male goat daily for a sin offering. ²⁴ And ^(I)he shall provide as ^(J)a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin^[a] of oil to each ephah. ^25 (K)In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, ^(L)he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil.

The Prince and the Feasts

46 “Thus says the Lord God: ^(A)The gate of ^(B)the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and ^(C)on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. ^2 (D)The prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by ^(E)the post of the gate. ^(F)The priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at ^(G)the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. ^3 (H)The people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. ^4 (I)The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord ^(J)on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. ⁵ And ^(K)the grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah,^[a] and the grain offering with the lambs shall be ^(L)as much as he is able, together with a hin^[b] of oil to each ephah. ⁶ On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. ⁷ As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs ^(M)as much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. ^8 (N)When the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.

^9 (O)“When the people of the land ^(P)come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. ¹⁰ When they enter, ^(Q)the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

¹¹ “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, ^(R)the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs ^(S)as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. ¹² When the prince provides ^(T)a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, ^(U)the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings ^(V)as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

^13 (W)“You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. ¹⁴ And ^(X)you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. ¹⁵ Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for ^(Y)a regular burnt offering.

¹⁶ “Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. ¹⁷ But if he makes a gift ^(Z)out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to ^(AA)the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. ^18 (AB)The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, ^(AC)thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be ^(AD)scattered from his property.”

Boiling Places for Offerings

¹⁹ Then he brought me through the entrance, which was ^(AE)at the side of the gate, to the north row of ^(AF)the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. ²⁰ And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests ^(AG)shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where ^(AH)they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so ^(AI)transmit holiness to the people.”

²¹ Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court— ²² in the four corners of the court were small^[c] courts, forty cubits^[d] long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. ²³ On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. ²⁴ Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who ^(AJ)minister at the temple ^(AK)shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

9 And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to ^(A)his own city. ^2 (B)And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus ^(C)saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ^(D)“Take heart, my son; ^(E)your sins are forgiven.” ³ And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, ^(F)“This man is blaspheming.” ⁴ But Jesus, ^(G)knowing^[a] their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? ⁵ For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? ⁶ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ⁷ And he rose and went home. ⁸ When the crowds saw it, ^(H)they were afraid, and ^(I)they glorified God, who had ^(J)given such authority to men.

Jesus Calls Matthew

^9 (K)As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called ^(L)Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁰ And as Jesus^[b] reclined at table in the house, behold, many ^(M)tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ^(N)“Why does your teacher eat with ^(O)tax collectors and sinners?” ¹² But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ Go and learn ^(P)what this means: ^(Q)‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For ^(R)I came not to call the righteous, ^(S)but sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

¹⁴ Then ^(T)the disciples of John came to him, saying, ^(U)“Why do we and ^(V)the Pharisees fast,^[c] but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, ^(W)“Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? ^(X)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(Y)then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷ Neither is new wine put into old ^(Z)wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”