Old/New Testament
23 1-2 The Lord said to Moses, “Announce to the people of Israel that they are to celebrate several annual festivals of the Lord—times when all Israel will assemble and worship me. 3 (These are in addition to your Sabbaths[a]—the seventh day of every week—which are always days of rest in every home, times for assembling to worship, and for resting from the normal business of the week.) 4 These are the holy festivals which are to be observed each year:
5 “The Passover of the Lord: This is to be celebrated on the first day of April,[b] beginning at sundown.
6 “The Festival of Unleavened Bread: This is to be celebrated beginning the day following the Passover, and for seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast. 7 On the first day of this festival, you shall gather the people for worship, and all ordinary work shall cease.[c] 8 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the festival. On each of the intervening days you shall make an offering by fire to the Lord.
9-11 “The Festival of First Fruits: When you arrive in the land I will give you and you reap your first harvest, bring the first sheaf of the harvest to the priest on the day after the Sabbath. He shall wave it before the Lord in a gesture of offering, and it will be accepted by the Lord as your gift. 12 That same day you shall sacrifice to the Lord a male yearling lamb without defect as a burnt offering. 13 A grain offering shall accompany it, consisting of a fifth of a bushel of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil, to be offered by fire to the Lord; this will be very pleasant to him. Also offer a drink offering consisting of three pints of wine. 14 Until this is done you must not eat any of the harvest for yourselves—neither fresh kernels nor bread nor parched grain. This is a permanent law throughout your nation.
15-16 “The Harvest Festival (Festival of Pentecost): Fifty days later you shall bring to the Lord an offering of a sample of the new grain of your later crops. 17 This shall consist of two loaves of bread from your homes to be waved before the Lord in a gesture of offering. Bake this bread from a fifth of a bushel of fine flour containing yeast. It is an offering to the Lord of the first sampling of your later crops.[d] 18 Along with the bread and the wine, you shall sacrifice as burnt offerings to the Lord seven yearling lambs without defects, one young bull, and two rams. All are fire offerings, very acceptable to Jehovah.[e] 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male yearling lambs for a peace offering.
20 “The priests shall wave these offerings before the Lord along with the loaves representing the first sampling of your later crops. They are holy to the Lord and will be given to the priests as food. 21 That day shall be announced as a time of sacred convocation of all the people; don’t do any work that day. This is a law to be honored from generation to generation. 22 (When you reap your harvests, you must not thoroughly reap all the corners of the fields, nor pick up the fallen grain; leave it for the poor and for foreigners living among you who have no land of their own; I am Jehovah your God!)
23-24 “The Festival of Trumpets: Mid-September[f] is a time for all the people to meet together for worship; it is a time of remembrance, and is to be announced by loud blowing of trumpets. 25 Don’t do any hard work on that day, but offer a sacrifice by fire to the Lord.
26-27 “The Day of Atonement follows nine days later:[g] All the people are to come together before the Lord, saddened by their sin; and they shall offer sacrifices by fire to the Lord. 28 Don’t do any work that day, for it is a special day for making atonement before the Lord your God. 29 Anyone who does not spend the day in repentance and sorrow for sin shall be excommunicated from his people. 30-31 And I will put to death anyone who does any kind of work that day. This is a law of Israel from generation to generation. 32 For this is a Sabbath of rest, and in it you shall go without food and be filled with sorrow; this time for atonement begins in the evening and continues through the next day.
33-34 “The Festival of Shelters: Five days later, on the last day of September,[h] is the Festival of Shelters to be celebrated before the Lord for seven days. 35 On the first day there will be a sacred assembly of all the people; don’t do any hard work that day. 36 On each of the seven days of the festival you are to sacrifice an offering by fire to the Lord. The eighth day requires another sacred convocation of all the people, at which time there will again be an offering by fire to the Lord. It is the closing assembly, and no regular work is permitted.
37 “(These, then, are the regular annual festivals—sacred convocations of all people—when offerings to the Lord are to be made by fire. 38 These annual festivals are in addition to your regular Sabbaths—the weekly days of holy rest. The sacrifices made during the festivals are to be in addition to your regular giving and normal fulfillment of your vows.)
39 “This last day of September, at the end of your harvesting, is the time to begin to celebrate this seven-day festival before the Lord. Remember that the first and last days of the festival are special days of rest. 40 On the first day, take boughs of fruit trees laden with fruit, and palm fronds, and the boughs of leafy trees—such as willows that grow by the brooks—and build shelters with them,[i] rejoicing before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 This seven-day annual feast is a law from generation to generation. 42 During those seven days, all of you who are native Israelites are to live in these shelters. 43 The purpose of this is to remind the people of Israel, generation after generation, that I rescued you from Egypt, and caused you to live in shelters. I am Jehovah your God.”
44 So Moses announced these annual festivals of the Lord to the people of Israel.
24 1-2 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring you pure olive oil for an eternal flame 3-4 in the lampstand of pure gold which stands outside the veil that secludes the Holy of Holies. Each morning and evening Aaron shall supply it with fresh oil and trim the wicks. It will be an eternal flame before the Lord from generation to generation.
5-8 “Every Sabbath day the High Priest shall place twelve loaves of bread in two rows upon the gold table that stands before the Lord. These loaves shall be baked from finely ground flour, using a fifth of a bushel for each. Pure frankincense shall be sprinkled along each row. This will be a memorial offering made by fire to the Lord, in memory of his everlasting covenant with the people of Israel. 9 The bread shall be eaten by Aaron and his sons, in a place set apart for the purpose. For these are offerings made by fire to the Lord under a permanent law of God and are most holy.”
10 Out in the camp one day, a young man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian got into a fight with one of the men of Israel. 11 During the fight the Egyptian man’s son[j] cursed God, and was brought to Moses for judgment. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.) 12 He was put in jail until the Lord would indicate what to do with him.
13-14 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take him outside the camp and tell all who heard him to lay their hands upon his head; then all the people are to execute him by stoning. 15-16 And tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses his God must pay the penalty: he must die. All the congregation shall stone him; this law applies to the foreigner as well as to the Israelite who blasphemes the name of Jehovah. He must die.
17 “Also, all murderers must be executed. 18 Anyone who kills an animal that isn’t his[k] shall replace it. 19 The penalty for injuring anyone is to be injured in exactly the same way: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever anyone does to another shall be done to him.
21 “To repeat, whoever kills an animal must replace it, and whoever kills a man must die. 22 You shall have the same law for the foreigner as for the home-born citizen, for I am Jehovah your God.”
23 So they took the youth out of the camp and stoned him until he died, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
1 Here begins the wonderful story of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
2 In the book written by the prophet Isaiah, God announced that he would send his Son[a] to earth, and that a special messenger would arrive first to prepare the world for his coming.
3 “This messenger will live out in the barren wilderness,” Isaiah said,[b] “and will proclaim that everyone must straighten out his life to be ready for the Lord’s arrival.”
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and taught that all should be baptized as a public announcement of their decision to turn their backs on sin, so that God could forgive them.[c] 5 People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the Judean wastelands to see and hear John, and when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from camel’s hair and he wore a leather belt; locusts and wild honey were his food. 7 Here is a sample of his preaching:
“Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am, so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave.[d] 8 I baptize you with water[e] but he will baptize you with God’s Holy Spirit!”
9 Then one day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John there in the Jordan River. 10 The moment Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending on him, 11 and a voice from heaven said, “You are my beloved Son; you are my Delight.”
12-13 Immediately the Holy Spirit urged Jesus into the desert. There, for forty days, alone except for desert animals, he was subjected to Satan’s temptations to sin. And afterwards[f] the angels came and cared for him.
14 Later on, after John was arrested by King Herod,[g] Jesus went to Galilee to preach God’s Good News.
15 “At last the time has come!” he announced. “God’s Kingdom is near! Turn from your sins and act on this glorious news!”
16 One day as Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing with nets, for they were commercial fishermen.
17 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me! And I will make you fishermen for the souls of men!” 18 At once they left their nets and went along with him.
19 A little farther up the beach, he saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat mending their nets. 20 He called them too, and immediately they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went with him.
21 Jesus and his companions now arrived at the town of Capernaum and on Saturday morning went into the Jewish place of worship—the synagogue—where he preached. 22 The congregation was surprised at his sermon because he spoke as an authority and didn’t try to prove his points by quoting others—quite unlike what they were used to hearing![h]
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.