Old/New Testament
Chapter 45
The Sacred Plot. 1 When you draw lots to divide the country as an inheritance, you shall set aside a sacred portion of the land for the Lord, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand cubits wide. Its entire area will be regarded as sacred. 2 Of this land, a plot, five hundred cubits square, shall be set aside for the sanctuary, and that plot will be surrounded by an open space of fifty cubits.
3 Out of this area you must also set aside a section twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, within which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. 4 This will be the sacred portion of the land belonging to the priests who minister in the sanctuary and approach the Lord to serve him. It will be both a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.
5 Another section, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide, will be set apart for the Levites who minister at the temple, so that they will have towns in which to live. 6 Near the land belonging to the sanctuary, you are to grant the city possession of an area five thousand cubits wide and twenty-five thousand cubits long. This shall belong to the whole house of Israel.
7 To the prince will belong the land that borders on both sides of the sacred district and the property of the city, extending westward from the west and eastward from the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions and extending from the western to the eastern borders 8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. Therefore, the princes of Israel will no longer oppress my people, but they will grant the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
Weights and Measures. 9 Thus says the Lord God: Enough, you princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression and do what is right and just. Stop evicting my people from their land, says the Lord God.
10 [a]You must use scales that are accurate, and have an honest ephah and an accurate liquid measure. 11 The ephah and the liquid measure must be of equal size. The liquid measure must contain one-tenth of a homer, and the ephah must contain one-tenth of a homer. The homer will be the standard measure for both. 12 The shekel must consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels will constitute one mina.
13 Grain Offerings. This is the special offering you shall make: one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one-sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. 14 The prescribed portion of oil: one-tenth of a measure for every measure of oil, consisting of ten liquid measures to a kor (or a homer, since ten liquid measures equal one homer).
15 In addition, you must take from the pastures of Israel one sheep from every flock of two hundred. These will be used for sacrifice—burnt offerings and peace offerings and fellowship offerings—to make atonement for the people, says the Lord God.
16 All the people of the land will be required to contribute to this offering for the prince of Israel. 17 The prince himself has the obligation to provide the holocausts, the cereal offerings, and the libations for all of the feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He, himself, must provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the burnt offerings, and the fellowship offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.
18 The Feast of Passover. Thus says the Lord God: On the first day of the first month you shall sacrifice an unblemished young bull to purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court. 20 You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned inadvertently or because of ignorance. In this way, you will make atonement for the temple.
21 On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days, everyone must eat unleavened bread. 22 On that day the prince must provide a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.
23 On each of the seven days of the feast, the prince must offer as a holocaust to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, and as a sin offering, he must offer one male goat each day. 24 He also is to provide as a grain offering one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, as well as a hin[b] of oil for each ephah.
25 The Feast of Booths. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and for the entire seven days of the festival, he shall provide the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.
Chapter 46
Sabbath Offerings. 1 Thus says the Lord God: The east gate of the inner court must remain closed during the six working days. However, it shall be opened on the Sabbath and on the day of the new moon. 2 The prince is to enter from the outside through the vestibule of the gate and stand by the doorposts of the gate. Then the priest must offer his burnt offerings and his peace offerings, and he shall bow down at the threshold of the gate. After this, he will go out, but the gate is not to be closed until evening. 3 The people of the land shall worship before the Lord at the entrance of the gate on the Sabbaths and the days of the new moon.
4 The burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord on the Sabbath shall consist of six lambs without blemish and one unblemished ram. 5 The grain offering presented with the ram shall be an ephah, and the grain offering with the lambs shall be whatever he chooses to present; also, a hin of oil must be included for every ephah.
6 On the day of the new moon, the prince must offer an unblemished young bull, six unblemished lambs, and one unblemished ram. 7 As a grain offering, he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram. With the lambs, he shall provide as much as he wishes to give, adding a hin of oil for every ephah.
Ritual Regulations. 8 Whenever the prince comes in, he must enter by the porch of the gate, and he must depart by the same way. 9 When the people of the land come to worship before the Lord on designated festival days, anyone who enters by the north gate to worship must depart by the south gate, and anyone who enters by the south gate must leave by the north gate. No one may return through the gate by which he entered but must depart by the opposite gate. 10 The prince will be in their midst, coming in when they enter and also departing with them as they leave.
11 On feast days and solemn festivities, the grain offering shall be one ephah for every bull, one ephah for every ram, and as much as he wishes to give for the lambs, together with a hin of oil for every ephah. 12 When the prince makes a free-will offering to the Lord, whether a burnt offering or a peace offering, the east gate will be opened for him. After presenting his burnt offering or peace offering as he does on the Sabbath, then he will leave, and the gate will be closed after his departure.
13 The prince will offer as a daily sacrifice to the Lord, a yearling without blemish for a burnt offering. He must offer this every morning. 14 With it in addition, he must regularly provide as a grain offering, morning after morning, one-sixth of an ephah and one-third of a hin of oil to moisten the fine flour. The presentation of this grain offering to the Lord is a mandatory decree, prescribed for all time. 15 The lamb, the grain offering, and the oil must be offered every morning as an established holocaust.
16 The Prince’s Inheritance. Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift of a portion of his inheritance to any of his sons, it will belong to his sons. That gift becomes their property by inheritance. 17 However, if he makes a gift of a portion of his inheritance to one of his servants, it will belong to that servant until the year of liberation; then it must revert to the prince. Only the sons of the prince may rightfully keep their inheritance.[c]
18 On the other hand, the prince may not seize any of the inheritance of the people by evicting them from their property. He must provide an inheritance for his sons out of his own property, so that none of my people will be deprived of holdings that are rightfully theirs.
19 The Temple Kitchens. Then he led me through the entrance on the side of the gate to the rooms facing north that were reserved for the priests. There before us, at the western end, he pointed to a space, 20 and he said to me, “This is the place where the priests must boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where they bake the cereal offering, so that they may avoid bringing them into the outer court and thereby run the risk of transmitting holiness to the people.”
21 Then he brought me to the outer court and led me around to its four corners. In each of the corners, I saw that there was another court. 22 In each of the four corners of the court, there were four small courts, forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, all four being the same size.
23 On the inside, around each of the four courts, there was a ledge of stone, with a hearth all around at the bottom of the wall. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where the temple servants boil the sacrifices offered by the people.”
Chapter 2
1 My dear children,
I am writing this to you
so that you may avoid committing sin.
However, if anyone does sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He is himself the sacrifice for our sins—
and not only for our sins
but also for the sins of the whole world.
The Commandment of Love[a]
3 Now we may be certain that we know him
if we obey his commandments.
4 Whoever says, “I know him,”
but does not keep his commandments,
is a liar,
and the truth is not in him.[b]
5 However, the love of God is truly perfected
in the one who obeys his word.
This is how we can be certain
that we are in union with him:
6 whoever claims to abide in him
must live just as he himself lived.
7 Beloved,
I am not writing a new commandment[c] for you,
but an old commandment
that you have had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word
that you have heard.
8 And yet I am writing you a new commandment,
whose truth is in him and in you,
because the darkness is passing away
and the true light is already shining.
9 Whoever says, “I am in the light,”
yet hates his brother,
is still in the darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light,
and there is nothing in him
to make him stumble.
11 Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness,
and he walks about in darkness.
He does not know where he is going
because the darkness has blinded him.
The Concupiscences of the World[d]
12 I am writing to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven
on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have known him
who has existed from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
because you have conquered the evil one.
14 I am writing to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have known him
who has existed from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
15 Do not love the world
or what is in the world.
If anyone does love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything that is in the world—
the concupiscence of the flesh,
the concupiscence of the eyes,
and the pride of life—
comes not from the Father
but from the world.[e]
17 And the world with all its enticements
is passing away,
but whoever does the will of God
abides forever.
Behold the Antichrist[f]
18 Dear children,
this is the last hour.
You have heard that the Antichrist was coming,
and now many antichrists have already come.[g]
Thus, we know
that it is the final hour.
19 They went out from us,
but they never really belonged to us.
If they had belonged to us,
they would have remained with us.
By departing from us,
they made it clear
that none of them belonged to us.
20 However, you have been anointed
by the Holy One,[h]
and you all have knowledge.
21 I write to you
not because you do not know the truth
but because you do know it,
and because no lie can come from the truth.
22 Who is the liar
but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
The antichrist is
anyone who denies both the Father and the Son.
23 Whoever denies the Son
does not have the Father,
but whoever acknowledges the Son
has the Father also.
24 Let what you heard from the beginning
remain in you.
If what you heard from the beginning
remains in you,
then you will remain in the Son
and in the Father
25 And this is the promise he made to us:
eternal life.
26 I write these things to you
in reference to those
who seek to lead you astray.
27 But as for you,
the anointing you received from him
remains in you,
and therefore you do not need anyone
to teach you.
This same anointing
teaches you everything
and is true and not false,
so abide in him just as he taught you.
28 And now, dear children,
abide in him,
so that when he appears
we may have confidence
and not be put to shame by him
at his coming.
Children of God
Everyone Whose Life Is Righteous Has Been Born of God[i]
29 If you know that he is righteous,
you also know that everyone whose life is righteous
is born of him.
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