Old/New Testament
Exhortation to Obedience
26 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols,[a] so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before[b] it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence[c] my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
The Benefits of Obedience
3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,[d] 4 I will give you your rains in their time so that[e] the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.[f] 5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes,[g] and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so[h] you will eat your bread until you are satisfied,[i] and you will live securely in your land. 6 I will grant peace in the land so that[j] you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you.[k] I will remove harmful animals[l] from the land, and no sword of war[m] will pass through your land. 7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.[n] 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain[o] my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year[p] and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.[q]
11 “‘I will put my tabernacle[r] in your midst and I will not abhor you.[s] 12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves,[t] and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.[u]
The Consequences of Disobedience
14 “‘If, however,[v] you do not obey me and keep[w] all these commandments— 15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep[x] all my commandments and you break my covenant— 16 I for my part[y] will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life.[z] You will sow your seed in vain because[aa] your enemies will eat it.[ab] 17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.
18 “‘If, in spite of all these things,[ac] you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.[ad] 19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land[ae] will not produce their fruit.
21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me[af] and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction[ag] seven times according to your sins. 22 I will send the wild animals[ah] against you and they will bereave you of your children,[ai] annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population[aj] so that your roads will become deserted.
23 “‘If in spite of these things[ak] you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,[al] 24 then I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you[am] seven times on account of your sins. 25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.[an] Although[ao] you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.[ap] 26 When I break off your supply of bread,[aq] ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight,[ar] and you will eat and not be satisfied.
27 “‘If in spite of this[as] you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,[at] 28 I will walk in hostile rage against you[au] and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.[av] 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars,[aw] and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols.[ax] I will abhor you.[ay] 31 I will lay your cities waste[az] and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword[ba] after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.
34 “‘Then the land will make up for[bb] its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have[bc] on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.
36 “‘As for[bd] the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and will fall down even though there is no pursuer. 37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though[be] there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand[bf] for you before your enemies. 38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.
Restoration through Confession and Repentance
39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of[bg] their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’[bh] iniquities which are with them. 40 However, when[bi] they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquities which they committed by trespassing against me,[bj] by which they also walked[bk] in hostility against me[bl] 41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and[bm] then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for[bn] their iniquities, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham,[bo] and I will remember the land. 43 The land will be abandoned by them[bp] in order that it may make up for[bq] its Sabbaths while it is made desolate[br] without them,[bs] and they will make up for their iniquity because[bt] they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred[bu] my statutes. 44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors[bv] whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”
Summary Colophon
46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established[bw] between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through[bx] Moses.
Redemption of Persons Given as Votive Offerings
27 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering[by] based on the conversion value of a person to the Lord,[bz] 3 the conversion value of the male[ca] from twenty years old up to sixty years old[cb] is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel.[cc] 4 If the person is a female, the conversion value is thirty shekels. 5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the conversion value of the male is twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 6 If the person is one month old up to five years old, the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver,[cd] and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver. 7 If the person is from sixty years old and older, if he is a male the conversion value is fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 8 If the person making the votive offering[ce] is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value;[cf] according to what the man who made the votive offering can afford,[cg] the priest will establish his conversion value.
Redemption of Animals Given as Votive Offerings
9 “‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented[ch] to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal[ci] will be holy. 10 He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal[cj] and its substitute will be holy. 11 If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord, then he must stand the animal before the priest, 12 and the priest will establish its conversion value,[ck] whether good or bad. According to the conversion value assessed by the priest, thus it will be. 13 If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal,[cl] he must add one-fifth to[cm] its conversion value.
Redemption of Houses Given as Votive Offerings
14 “‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand.[cn] 15 If the one who consecrates it redeems his house, he must add to it one-fifth of its conversion value in silver, and it will belong to him.[co]
Redemption of Fields Given as Votive Offerings
16 “‘If a man consecrates to the Lord some of his own landed property, the conversion value must be calculated in accordance with the amount of seed needed to sow it,[cp] a homer of barley seed being priced at fifty shekels of silver.[cq] 17 If he consecrates his field in the Jubilee year,[cr] the conversion value will stand, 18 but if[cs] he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate the price[ct] for him according to the years that are left until the next Jubilee year, and it will be deducted from the conversion value. 19 If, however, the one who consecrated the field redeems it,[cu] he must add to it one-fifth of the conversion price[cv] and it will belong to him.[cw] 20 If he does not redeem the field, but sells[cx] the field to someone else, he may never redeem it. 21 When it reverts[cy] in the Jubilee, the field will be holy to the Lord like a permanently dedicated field;[cz] it will become the priest’s property.[da]
22 “‘If he consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased,[db] which is not part of his own landed property, 23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of its conversion value until the Jubilee year, and he must pay[dc] the conversion value on that Jubilee day as something that is holy to the Lord. 24 In the Jubilee year the field will return to the one from whom he bought it, the one to whom it belongs as landed property. 25 Every conversion value must be calculated by the standard of the sanctuary shekel;[dd] twenty gerahs to the shekel.
Redemption of the Firstborn
26 “‘Surely no man may consecrate a firstborn that already belongs to the Lord as a firstborn among the animals; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it belongs to the Lord.[de] 27 If, however,[df] it is among the unclean animals, he may ransom it according to[dg] its conversion value and must add one-fifth to it, but if it is not redeemed it must be sold according to its conversion value.
Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord
28 “‘Surely anything that a man permanently dedicates to the Lord[dh] from all that belongs to him, whether from people, animals, or his landed property, must be neither sold nor redeemed; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord. 29 Any human being who is permanently dedicated[di] to the Lord[dj] must not be ransomed; such a person must be put to death.
Redemption of the Tithe
30 “‘Any tithe[dk] of the land, from the grain of the land or from the fruit of the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man redeems[dl] part of his tithe, however, he must add one-fifth to it.[dm] 32 All the tithe of herds or flocks, everything which passes under the rod, the tenth one will be holy to the Lord.[dn] 33 The owner[do] must not examine the animals to distinguish between good and bad, and he must not exchange it. If, however, he does exchange it,[dp] both the original animal[dq] and its substitute will be holy[dr] and must not be redeemed.’”
Final Colophon
34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Israelites[ds] at Mount Sinai.
Healing and Forgiving a Paralytic
2 Now[a] after some days, when he returned to Capernaum,[b] the news spread[c] that he was at home. 2 So many gathered that there was no longer any room, not even by[d] the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some people[e] came bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them.[f] 4 When they were not able to bring him in because of the crowd, they removed the roof[g] above Jesus.[h] Then,[i] after tearing it out, they lowered the stretcher the paralytic was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their[j] faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”[k] 6 Now some of the experts in the law[l] were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds:[m] 7 “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming![n] Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Now[o] immediately, when Jesus realized in his spirit that they were contemplating such thoughts,[p] he said to them, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?[q] 9 Which is easier,[r] to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up, take your stretcher, and walk’? 10 But so that you may know[s] that the Son of Man[t] has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—he said to the paralytic[u]— 11 “I tell you, stand up, take your stretcher, and go home.”[v] 12 And immediately the man[w] stood up, took his stretcher, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”
The Call of Levi; Eating with Sinners
13 Jesus[x] went out again by the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them. 14 As he went along, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth.[y] “Follow me,” he said to him. And he got up and followed him. 15 As Jesus[z] was having a meal[aa] in Levi’s[ab] home, many tax collectors[ac] and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the experts in the law[ad] and the Pharisees[ae] saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”[af] 17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do.[ag] I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The Superiority of the New
18 Now[ah] John’s[ai] disciples and the Pharisees[aj] were fasting.[ak] So[al] they came to Jesus[am] and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” 19 Jesus[an] said to them, “The wedding guests[ao] cannot fast while the bridegroom[ap] is with them, can they?[aq] As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast. 20 But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them,[ar] and at that time[as] they will fast. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins;[at] otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead new wine is poured into new wineskins.”[au]
Lord of the Sabbath
23 Jesus[av] was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat[aw] as they made their way. 24 So[ax] the Pharisees[ay] said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” 25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry— 26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest[az] and ate the sacred bread,[ba] which is against the law[bb] for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?”[bc] 27 Then[bd] he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people,[be] not people for the Sabbath. 28 For this reason the Son of Man is lord[bf] even of the Sabbath.”
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