Old/New Testament
Chapter 16
Feast of the Passover.[a] 1 Observe the month of Abib,[b] and celebrate the Passover of the Lord, your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord, your God, brought you forth from Egypt during the night. 2 Make a Passover sacrifice from your flock or your herd to the Lord, your God, in the place where the Lord has chosen to place his name. 3 Do not eat leavened bread, but eat unleavened bread for seven days. This is the bread of affliction, for you had to leave the land of Egypt in haste. Thus, all of your life you will remember the day that you came forth from Egypt. 4 There should be no leavened bread in your entire land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat of the sacrifice that was made on the first evening remain until the next morning. 5 [c]You are not to make the Passover sacrifice in any of the towns that the Lord, your God, has given you. 6 Do it only in the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen to place his name. You will make the Passover sacrifice in the evening, when the sun goes down, at the time when you went forth out of Egypt. 7 Roast the lamb and eat it in the place that the Lord, your God, will choose. Then, in the morning, return to your homes. 8 For six days you are to eat unleavened bread. Then, on the seventh day, you will hold a solemn assembly to the Lord, your God, and you are to do no heavy labor.
Feast of Weeks. 9 Count off seven weeks from the time that you put the sickle to the standing grain. You are to count off seven weeks, 10 and then you will celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord, your God, making a freewill offering in proportion to how much the Lord, your God, has blessed you. 11 You and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, the Levite who lives in your town, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow are all to rejoice in the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen to place his name. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and carefully observe these statutes.
13 Feast of Booths. Celebrate the Feast of Booths for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at the feast, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, as well as the Levite, the orphans, and the widows who live in your town. 15 For seven days you are to celebrate the feast to the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord, your God, has blessed you with all your harvest and all of the works of your hands. Therefore, you must surely rejoice.
16 Three times a year all of your men must appear before the Lord, your God, in the place that he will choose: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths. You are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Each of you is to bring a gift that is proportionate to how much the Lord, your God, has blessed you.
18 Justice.[d]Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town that the Lord, your God, gives you. They are to judge the people fairly. 19 Do not pervert justice nor show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 Seek justice, so that you may live in and inherit the land that the Lord, your God, has given you.
21 False Worship. Do not plant any sacred grove beside the altar that you will build to the Lord, your God. 22 Do not set up any sacred pillar, for the Lord, your God, hates these things.
Chapter 17
1 You shall not sacrifice an ox or a sheep that has any blemish or any defect[e] whatsoever to the Lord, your God, for that would be an abomination to the Lord, your God. 2 If any man or woman is discovered in any of the towns that the Lord, your God, has given you who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, transgressing his covenant, 3 going over and serving and worshiping other gods, whether it be the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, something that I have forbidden, 4 and you are told about it, and you hear of it, then you shall carefully check into it. If it is true, then an abomination has been committed in Israel; 5 you are to bring that man or woman who has done this evil thing to the town gates, and you shall stone that man or woman to death.
6 A person can be put to death upon the testimony of two or three witnesses; a person is not to be put to death upon the testimony of a single witness. 7 The witnesses will be the first to raise their hand against him to put him to death, then all of the people will raise their hands against him, in order to purge this evil from your midst.
Judges. 8 If cases come before you that are too difficult to judge, whether concerning bloodshed, or lawsuits, or assault, then take them to the place that the Lord, your God, will choose. 9 Go to the priests, the Levites, and the judge whose term it is, and consult with them. They will give you a verdict. 10 You must proceed according to the verdict that they will have given you at the place that the Lord will choose. Do everything that they tell you to do. 11 Act according to the law that they teach you and the judgment that they render. Do not turn away from the sentence that they pronounce, either to the right or the left. 12 The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying either the priest who stands before the Lord, your God, to minister there, or the judge, is to die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel.[f] 13 All the people will hear of it and be filled with fear; they will not act presumptuously anymore.
14 A Suitable King. When you enter the land that the Lord, your God, has given you and you take possession of it and dwell there and you say, “I will set a king over me like all the other nations that surround me,” 15 you can indeed have a king whom the Lord, your God, will choose. You will make one of your brethren your king, you are not to choose a foreigner as king who is not one of your brethren. 16 He must not build up a large stable for himself, and he must not send people back to Egypt to procure a large stable, for the Lord has said that you are not to return that way again. 17 He should also not have many wives, lest his heart be turned astray. He must not accumulate large sums of silver or gold. 18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write a copy of the law that is entrusted to the priests, the Levites for himself on a scroll. 19 He should read it every day of his life so that he can learn to fear the Lord, his God, and to observe all the words of these laws and statutes, fulfilling them. 20 In this way he will not consider himself to be better than his brethren in his heart, and he will not turn away from the commandments to the right or the left. He and his descendants will thus reign a long time in the kingdom of Israel.
Chapter 18
1 The priests who are Levites,[g] in fact, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They can eat from the burnt offerings made to the Lord, that is their inheritance. 2 They will have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as he has promised them. 3 This is the portion due to the priest from the people who offer a sacrifice of either an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowl, and the inner organs. 4 You will give them the firstfruits of the grain, the wine, and the oil, as well as the first sheering of the sheep 5 for the Lord, your God, has chosen him and his sons out of all of the tribes to minister in the Lord’s name forever. 6 If any Levite in all of Israel moves from his town where he had been living and he desires to go to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 then he may minister in the name of the Lord, his God, like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. 8 He will be given an equal share in their benefits in addition to the proceeds from the sale of his inheritance.
Forbidden Practices. 9 When you enter the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, you are not to learn to perform the abominations that those nations do. 10 Let no one among you offer his son or his daughter as a burnt offering, or practice divination, or interpret omens, or practice witchcraft,[h] 11 or cast spells, or act as a medium, or act as a wizard, or seek oracles from the dead. 12 Whoever does any of these things is an abomination to the Lord. It is because of these abominations that the Lord, your God, is driving them out before you.
13 You are to be blameless before the Lord, your God. 14 These nations that you are dispossessing listened to those who practice witchcraft and the diviners. It is not to be that way among you, for the Lord, your God, does not permit it.
15 Prophets. The Lord, your God, will raise up from among your countrymen a prophet who will do what I have done for you, and you will listen to him. 16 This is just as you asked the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord, my God, anymore, nor look upon this great fire, lest I die.” 17 The Lord said to me, “They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen who will be like you. I will place my words in his mouth, and he will tell them all that I command him. 19 I myself will call to account whoever does not heed my words that he will proclaim in my name. 20 But if a prophet presumes to proclaim something in my name that I have not said to him, or he speaks in the names of other gods, that prophet is to be put to death.” 21 You might say to yourself, “How can we know that the Lord did not speak the message?” 22 If what the prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord is not true and it does not happen, then the message was not proclaimed by the Lord. The prophet has spoken presumptuously, you should not fear him.[i]
When Will the End Come?[a]
Chapter 13
Jesus Announces the Destruction of the Temple.[b] 1 As Jesus was making his departure from the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at the size of these stones and buildings!” 2 Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not a single stone will be left upon another; every one will be thrown down.”
The End Has Not Yet Come.[c] 3 As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives directly across from the temple, Peter,[d] James, John, and Andrew questioned him when they were alone. 4 “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign that all those things are about to be accomplished?”
5 Jesus began to say to them, “Take care that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed, for those things are bound to happen, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famine. These are only the beginning of the labor pangs.
The Coming Persecution.[e] 9 “Be on your guard. For they will hand you over to courts and beat you in synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings because of me to testify before them. 10 But first the gospel must be preached to all nations.
11 “When they arrest you and bring you to trial, do not be concerned beforehand about what you are to say. Simply say whatever is given to you when that time comes, for it will not be you who speak but the Holy Spirit.
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever stands firm to the end will be saved.
14 The Great Trial.“Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation[f] standing where it does not belong (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, 15 the one who is standing on the roof must not come down or go inside to take anything out of the house, 16 and someone who is in the field must not turn back to retrieve his coat.
17 “Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing infants in those days. 18 Pray that all this may not occur in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such suffering as has not been since the beginning of the creation that God made until now and will never be again. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did cut short those days.
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