17 (LY: iv) Adonai said to Moshe, ² “Speak to Aharon and his sons and to all the people of Isra’el. Tell them that this is what Adonai has ordered: ³ ‘When someone from the community of Isra’el slaughters an ox, lamb or goat inside or outside the camp ⁴ without bringing it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to present it as an offering to Adonai before the tabernacle of Adonai, he is to be charged with blood — he has shed blood, and that person is to be cut off from his people. ⁵ The reason for this is so that the people of Isra’el will bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice out in the field — so that they will bring them to Adonai, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the cohen, and sacrifice them as peace offerings to Adonai. ⁶ The cohen will splash the blood against the altar of Adonai at the entrance to the tent of meeting and make the fat go up in smoke as a pleasing aroma for Adonai. ⁷ No longer will they offer sacrifices to the goat-demons, before whom they prostitute themselves! This is a permanent regulation for them through all their generations.’

(RY: iii, LY: v) ⁸ “Also tell them, ‘When someone from the community of Isra’el or one of the foreigners living with you offers a burnt offering or sacrifice ⁹ without bringing it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to Adonai, that person is to be cut off from his people. ¹⁰ When someone from the community of Isra’el or one of the foreigners living with you eats any kind of blood, I will set myself against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people. ¹¹ For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life.’ ¹² This is why I told the people of Isra’el, ‘None of you is to eat blood, nor is any foreigner living with you to eat blood.’

¹³ “When someone from the community of Isra’el or one of the foreigners living with you hunts and catches game, whether animal or bird that may be eaten, he is to pour out its blood and cover it with earth. ¹⁴ For the life of every creature — its blood is its life. Therefore I said to the people of Isra’el, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it will be cut off.’

¹⁵ “Anyone eating an animal that dies naturally or is torn to death by wild animals, whether he is a citizen or a foreigner, is to wash his clothes and bathe himself in water; he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean. ¹⁶ But if he doesn’t wash them or bathe his body, he will bear the consequences of his wrongdoing.”

22 A prophecy about the Valley of Vision:

¹⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim-Tzva’ot: “Go and find that steward, Shevna, administrator of the palace, and ask him:

²³ “I will fasten him firmly in place like a peg, so that he will become a seat of honor for his clan. ²⁴ They will hang on him all the weight of his clan, descendants and offspring, as well as all the vessels of small capacity, from pitchers to cups. ²⁵ When that day comes, the peg fastened firmly in place will give way; it will be cut down and fall, and the weight that was on it will be cut off.” For Adonai has said it.

2 Then after fourteen years I again went up to Yerushalayim, this time with Bar-Nabba; and I took with me Titus. ² I went up in obedience to a revelation, and I explained to them the Good News as I proclaim it among the Gentiles — but privately, to the acknowledged leaders. I did this out of concern that my current or previous work might have been in vain.

³ But they didn’t force my Gentile companion Titus to undergo b’rit-milah. ⁴ Indeed, the question came up only because some men who pretended to be brothers had been sneaked in — they came in surreptitiously to spy out the freedom we have in the Messiah Yeshua, so that they might enslave us. ⁵ Not even for a minute did we give in to them, so that the truth of the Good News might be preserved for you.

⁶ Moreover, those who were the acknowledged leaders — what they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by outward appearances — these leaders added nothing to me. ⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Uncircumcised, just as Kefa had been for the Circumcised; ⁸ since the One working in Kefa to make him an emissary to the Circumcised had worked in me to make me an emissary to the Gentiles. ⁹ So, having perceived what grace had been given to me, Ya‘akov, Kefa and Yochanan, the acknowledged pillars of the community, extended to me and Bar-Nabba the right hand of fellowship; so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the Circumcised. ¹⁰ Their only request was that we should remember the poor — which very thing I have spared no pains to do.

¹¹ Furthermore, when Kefa came to Antioch, I opposed him publicly, because he was clearly in the wrong. ¹² For prior to the arrival of certain people from [the community headed by] Ya‘akov, he had been eating with the Gentile believers; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of the faction who favored circumcising Gentile believers. ¹³ And the other Jewish believers became hypocrites along with him, so that even Bar-Nabba was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, keeping in line with the truth of the Good News, I said to Kefa, right in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Goy and not like a Jew, why are you forcing the Goyim to live like Jews? ¹⁵ We are Jews by birth, not so-called ‘Goyishe sinners’; ¹⁶ even so, we have come to realize that a person is not declared righteous by God on the ground of his legalistic observance of Torah commands, but through the Messiah Yeshua’s trusting faithfulness. Therefore, we too have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua and become faithful to him, in order that we might be declared righteous on the ground of the Messiah’s trusting faithfulness and not on the ground of our legalistic observance of Torah commands. For on the ground of legalistic observance of Torah commands, no one will be declared righteous.^[a]

¹⁷ But if, in seeking to be declared righteous by God through our union with the Messiah, we ourselves are indeed found to be sinners, then is the Messiah an aider and abettor of sin? Heaven forbid! ¹⁸ Indeed, if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed, I really do make myself a transgressor. ¹⁹ For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God. ²⁰ When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me. ²¹ I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless.