The Sacred Portion of the Land

45 “When you divide the land by lot as an inheritance,^(A) you must set aside a donation to the Lord, a holy portion of the land,^(B) 8⅓ miles^[a] long and 6⅔ miles^[b] wide. This entire tract of land will be holy. ² In this area there will be a square section^[c] for the sanctuary, 875 by 875 feet,^[d](C) with 87½ feet^[e] of open space all around it. ³ From this holy portion,^[f] you will measure off an area 8⅓ miles^[g] long and 3⅓ miles^[h] wide, in which the sanctuary, the most holy place,^(D) will stand.^{[i] 4} It will be a holy area of the land to be used by the priests who minister in the sanctuary, who draw near to serve the Lord.^(E) It will be a place for their houses, as well as a holy area for the sanctuary. ⁵ There will be another area 8⅓ miles^[j] long and 3⅓ miles^[k] wide for the Levites who minister in the temple;^(F) it will be their possession for towns to live in.^[l]

⁶ “As the property of the city, you must set aside an area 1⅔ of a mile^[m] wide and 8⅓ miles^[n] long, adjacent to the holy donation of land.^(G) It will be for the whole house of Israel. ⁷ And the prince will have the area on each side of the holy donation of land and the city’s property, adjacent to the holy donation and the city’s property, stretching to the west on the west side and to the east on the east side.^(H) Its length will correspond to one of the tribal portions from the western boundary to the eastern boundary. ⁸ This will be his land as a possession in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress My people^(I) but give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹ “This is what the Lord God says: You have gone too far,^[o](J) princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression and do what is just and right.^(K) Put an end to your evictions of My people.” This is the declaration of the Lord God. ¹⁰ “You must have honest scales, an honest dry measure,^[p] and an honest liquid measure.^{[q](L) 11} The dry measure^[r] and the liquid measure^[s] will be uniform, with the liquid measure containing 5½ gallons^[t] and the dry measure holding half a bushel.^[u] Their measurement will be a tenth of the standard larger capacity measure.^{[v] 12} The shekel will weigh 20 gerahs.^(M) Your mina will equal 60 shekels.

The People’s Contribution to the Sacrifices

¹³ “This is the contribution you are to offer: Three quarts^[w] from five bushels^[x] of wheat and^[y] three quarts from five bushels of barley. ¹⁴ The quota of oil in liquid measures^[z] will be one percent of every^[aa] cor. The cor equals 10 liquid measures or one standard larger capacity measure,^[ab] since 10 liquid measures equal one standard larger capacity measure. ¹⁵ And the quota from the flock is one animal out of every 200 from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These are for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings, to make atonement for the people.”^(N) This is the declaration of the Lord God. ¹⁶ “All the people of the land must take part in this contribution for the prince in Israel. ¹⁷ Then the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths—for all the appointed times of the house of Israel—will be the prince’s responsibility. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and fellowship offerings to make atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.

¹⁸ “This is what the Lord God says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you are to take a young, unblemished bull and purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ The priest must take some of the blood from the sin offering and apply it to the temple doorposts, the four corners of the altar’s ledge, and the doorposts of the gate to the inner court.^{(O) 20} You must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for everyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance.^(P) In this way you will make atonement for the temple.

²¹ “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to celebrate the Passover, a festival of seven days during which unleavened bread will be eaten.^{(Q) 22} On that day the prince will provide a bull as a sin offering on behalf of himself and all the people of the land. ²³ During the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven bulls and seven rams without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord on each of the seven days, along with a male goat each day for a sin offering. ²⁴ He will also provide a grain offering of half a bushel^[ac] per bull and half a bushel per ram, along with a gallon^[ad] of oil for every half bushel. ²⁵ At the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,^[ae](R) he will provide the same things for seven days—the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.

Stephen’s Sermon

7 “Is this true?”^[a] the high priest asked.

² “Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,^{(A) 3} and said to him:

⁴ “Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in.^{(C) 5} He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him,^(D) even though he was childless. ⁶ God spoke in this way:

⁸ Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised^(F) him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs.^(G)

The Patriarchs in Egypt

⁹ “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him^{(H) 10} and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.^{(I) 11} Then a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan,^(J) and our ancestors could find no food. ¹² When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first time. ¹³ The second time, Joseph was revealed to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Joseph then invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, 75 people in all,^{(K) 15} and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,^{(L) 16} were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(M)

Moses, a Rejected Savior

¹⁷ “As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt^{(N) 18} until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.^{[d] 19} He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive.^{[e](O) 20} At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months, ²¹ and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.^{(P) 22} So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.^(Q)

²³ “As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided^[f] to visit his brothers, the Israelites. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’^(R)

²⁷ “But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him^[g] away, saying:

²⁹ “At this disclosure, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.^{(T) 30} After 40 years had passed, an angel^[i] appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: ³² I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.^(U)[j] So Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him:

³⁵ “This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?^[l]—this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.^{(W) 36} This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,^(X) at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 40 years.^(Y)

Israel’s Rebellion against God

³⁷ “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God^[m] will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers.^{(Z)[n] 38} He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors.^(AA) He received living oracles to give to us.^{(AB) 39} Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.^{(AC) 40} They told Aaron:

⁴¹ They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.^{(AE) 42} Then God turned away^(AF) and gave them up to worship^(AG) the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

God’s Real Tabernacle

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{(AI) 45} Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers,^(AJ) until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God^[s] of Jacob.^{(AK) 47} But it was Solomon who built Him a house.^{(AL) 48} However, the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:^(AM)

Resisting the Holy Spirit

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked^(AO) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^(AP) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?^(AQ) They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers^(AR) you have now become. ⁵³ You received the law under the direction of angels^(AS) and yet have not kept it.”

The First Christian Martyr

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts^[u] and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with^[v] Jesus standing at the right hand of God,^(AT) and he said, ⁵⁶ “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”^(AU)

⁵⁷ Then they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. ⁵⁸ They threw him out of the city and began to stone^(AV) him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.^{(AW) 59} They were stoning Stephen as he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”^{(AX) 60} Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,^(AY) “Lord, do not charge them with this sin!” And saying this, he fell asleep.^(AZ)