Old/New Testament

13 Moses: ^1-2 Suppose someone who claims to be a prophet, or to have inspired dreams, stands up and tells all of you that some unusual, significant sign or wonder is going to happen, and also says, “I’m here to let you know about some other gods you should be worshiping.” What if the thing that person has predicted actually happens? ³ Don’t listen to what that prophet or dreamer says! The Eternal your God is testing you to see whether you really do love Him completely, with your whole heart and soul. ⁴ Remain loyal to Him! Fear Him and obey His commands. Listen to His voice. Worship Him alone. Be fervently devoted to Him. ⁵ But as for that prophet or dreamer, put him to death! He’s tried to turn you away from the Eternal your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and liberated you from slavery. He’s tried to entice you off the path God commanded you to follow. Expel the evil from your community.

^6-7 What if someone close to you whispers secretly, “Let’s go worship other gods”? It doesn’t matter if it’s your brother or half-brother, your own son or daughter, your beloved wife or closest friend. Whether they’re gods of the people who live around you or gods of people who live far away—the gods of anyone on the face of the earth! You’ve never worshiped any of these gods before, and neither did your ancestors, because you’re in a covenant relationship with the Eternal. ^8-10 So don’t listen to this person. Don’t agree to go worship other gods with him or her. Anyone who entices you like this must be executed! Don’t feel sorry for him, or have mercy on him, or try to hide what he’s done. Stone him to death because he tried to entice you away from the Eternal, your True God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and rescued you from slavery. As the witness to what he said, and as the person he tried to corrupt, you must throw the first deadly stone, and then everyone else will join in. ¹¹ All the rest of the Israelites will hear about this and be afraid, and none of them will dare to do such an evil thing again in your land.

Moses: ¹² You may hear a report in one of the cities the Eternal your God is giving you to live in: ¹³ “Some wicked people have abandoned our faith, and they’ve convinced everyone else in their own city to worship other gods we’ve never had anything to do with!” ¹⁴ If you ever hear a report like this, conduct a careful, thorough investigation. If you establish conclusively that the report is true, that such a horrible thing has been done within your nation, ¹⁵ then bring your swords and execute everyone who lives in that city! Destroy it completely with everything in it—even the livestock. ¹⁶ Pile all the city’s goods in the middle of the public square, and then burn down the whole city and everything in it. This will be a burnt offering showing your complete loyalty to the Eternal your God. That city must never be rebuilt; let it remain a ruin forever. ¹⁷ Don’t take any of the goods for yourself because they have been banned; destroy everything. Then the Eternal will stop being so furiously angry. He’ll show you mercy and compassion; and you’ll have many descendants, just as He promised your ancestors, ¹⁸ if you’ll listen to the voice of the Eternal, your True God, obey all the commands I’m giving you today, and do what He decides is right.

14 Moses: You’re the children of the Eternal, your True God, so don’t cut yourselves or shave off the front of your hair to honor those who die. ² Remember you are people who have been set apart for Him; He has chosen you to be His own possession out of all the peoples on the earth.

³ Don’t eat anything that’s forbidden. ⁴ Here are some examples of land animals you can eat: oxen from your herds; sheep and goats from your flocks; ⁵ deer, gazelles, roebucks, wild goats, ibexes, antelopes, and mountain sheep, all from the wild. ⁶ The rule is, you can eat any of the animals that has a divided hoof (that is, a hoof separated into two sections) and chews cud. ⁷ You can’t eat an animal just because it chews cud or just because it has a divided hoof; both things have to be true. So, for example, the camel, the rabbit, and the rock badger are impure and can’t be eaten because even though they chew cud, they don’t have a divided hoof. ⁸ The pig is also unclean and can’t be eaten because even though it has a divided hoof, it doesn’t chew cud. Don’t eat the meat of any ritually unclean animals. Don’t even touch their carcasses when they die.

⁹ You can eat anything that lives in the water if it has fins and scales, ¹⁰ but if it doesn’t have fins and scales, then don’t eat it; it’s unclean to you.

¹¹ You can eat any clean bird. ^12-18 But here are some examples of birds you shouldn’t eat: birds that hunt and kill, such as the eagle, the falcon, and all kinds of hawks; birds that eat dead flesh, such as the red kite and any other kind of kite, the vulture, the buzzard, and any kind of raven; things that fly around in the night instead of during the day, such as the horned owl, screech owl, little owl, great owl, white owl, and the bat; birds that feed in the water, such as the seagull, pelican, carrion vulture, cormorant, stork, and every kind of heron; and birds that dig in the ground for their food, such as the hoopoe. ¹⁹ And don’t eat anything that flies in swarms, such as insects, because they are unclean. ²⁰ But you can eat anything that flies if it is ritually clean.

²¹ Don’t eat any meat from an animal you find dead of natural causes because its blood remains in the meat. You may give it to the foreigners in your city, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreign merchant. But don’t eat it yourself; you are people who have been set apart for the Eternal your God. Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Moses: ²² Every year, when the seeds you’ve sown in your fields have grown into crops, make sure you set aside a tenth of the produce. ²³ Bring this tenth of the grain, oil, and new wine from that year’s crop, as well as all firstborn animals from your herds and flocks, to the place the Eternal your God will choose as a place for His name, and have a feast there in His presence. If you do this each year, you’ll learn to fear the Eternal your God always. ²⁴ If the place where He chooses to put His name is far from where you live, and the distance is too great for you to carry a tenth of that year’s produce there—particularly if He has blessed you— ²⁵ then sell everything you would have carried and bring the money yourself to the place the Eternal your God will choose. ²⁶ When you get there, you can still have a celebration. Use some of the money to buy whatever you crave: cattle or sheep, wine or strong drink, or any other special thing you’d really like. You and your household can have a feast in His presence. ²⁷ Be sure to invite any Levites who live in your city. Be especially generous to them because they won’t have any territory and property of their own to pass down to their children as you do.

^28-29 But at the end of every third year, keep a tenth of the year’s produce in your own town instead and give it to the needy people there: the Levites—whose tribe won’t have any territory and property of its own to pass down—the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows. Let them come and take as much as they want to eat for as long as these supplies last. If you do this, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do.

15 Moses: At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. ² This is how it will work: anyone who has made a loan to someone else will just let the debtor keep whatever he’s borrowed. That is, if the loan was made to a fellow citizen, to another Israelite, the lender won’t demand repayment because it has been announced that the Eternal is canceling all the debts of His servants. ³ If you’ve made a loan to a foreigner, you can still demand repayment, but let your fellow Israelites keep whatever they’ve borrowed from you. ^4-5 However, ideally, there shouldn’t be any poor people among you. If you listen attentively to the voice of the Eternal your God and carefully obey all the commands I’m giving you today, then the Eternal will bless you with great prosperity in the land He’s giving you to live in and pass down within your family. ⁶ Because the Eternal your God will bless you as He promised, you will lend to many nations, but you won’t borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they won’t rule over you.

⁷ If, in one of the towns in the land the Eternal your God is giving you, a fellow Israelite does become poor, don’t ignore him and limit your generosity just because the debt will be forgiven. ⁸ Open your hand willingly, and generously lend as much as is needed at the time. ⁹ Don’t think like this: “It’s almost the seventh year when debts are canceled. If I lend anything to this other person now, I’ll never get it back!” If you think this way, you’ll be hostile toward your neighbors and you won’t give them anything. They’ll cry out to the Eternal against you, and He’ll consider what you’ve done a sin. ¹⁰ So give generously to the person in need. Don’t feel badly about this when you’re doing it; because of your generosity, the Eternal your God will bless you in everything you do, in every project you begin. ¹¹ Unfortunately, there will always be poor people throughout the country. That’s why I’m giving you this command: give generously to your fellow Israelite, to the poor and needy in the land.

¹² If a fellow Israelite, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you as a slave, only make that person serve you for six years. In the seventh year, set him free from your service. ¹³ And don’t send him away destitute! ¹⁴ Provide generously: give sheep and goats, grain and wine. Give some of what the Eternal your God has blessed you with. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and He liberated you from another master so you could serve Him. That’s why I’m commanding you today to do this. ^16-18 Don’t feel you’ve been cheated when you set your slave free. It would have cost you twice as much to hire someone to do the same work over those six years, and He will bless you in everything you do because of your generosity. But perhaps your slave will say to you at the end of the six years, “I don’t want to be set free! I love you and your whole family. It’s really good for me to be here with you.” You can accept a slave like this into lifetime service. Perform a special ceremony to mark his new status. Have the slave stand right next to the door of your house, take an awl, and drive it through the slave’s ear lobe into the door. Then pull it out. This will make marks in the ear lobe and in the door that will symbolize the slave. Either a male or a female slave can enter lifetime service this way with this physical mark.

¹⁹ If the firstborn of any animal in your herd or flock is a male, set it apart or consecrate it for the Eternal your God. Don’t put the firstborn of any ox to work, and don’t shear your firstborn sheep. These animals already belong to the Eternal One, so their labor and products belong to Him too. ²⁰ Bring them every year to the place the Eternal will choose, and make them part of the feast you and your household eat in the presence of the Eternal your God. ²¹ But if the firstborn has some defect such as lameness or blindness—any serious problem—don’t offer it as a sacrifice to Him. ²² Instead eat it as a regular meal in your own city. This is not a sacred meal, so people don’t need to be ritually pure to eat it. It will be like eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But don’t eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

Scribe: Tell me, Teacher. What is the most important thing that God commands in the law?

Jesus: ²⁹ The most important commandment is this: “Hear, O Israel, the Eternal One is our God, and the Eternal One is the only God. ³⁰ You should love the Eternal, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”^{[a] 31} The second great commandment is this: “Love others in the same way you love yourself.”^[b] There are no commandments more important than these.

Scribe: ³² Teacher, You have spoken the truth. For there is one God and only one God, ³³ and to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves are more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice we could ever give.

Jesus: Well said; if you understand that, then the kingdom of God is closer than you think.

Jesus: Why do the scribes say that the Anointed One is the son of David? ³⁶ In the psalms, David himself was led by the Holy Spirit to sing,

³⁷ If David calls Him “Master,” how can He be his son?

Jesus: ³⁸ Watch out for the scribes who act so religious—who like to be seen in pious clothes and to be spoken to respectfully in the marketplace, ³⁹ who take the best seats in the synagogues and the place of honor at every dinner, ⁴⁰ who spend widows’ inheritances and pray long prayers to impress others. These are the kind of people who will be condemned above all others.

Jesus (calling His disciples together): ⁴³ Truly this widow has given a greater gift than any other contribution. ⁴⁴ All the others gave a little out of their great abundance, but this poor woman has given God everything she has.