Deuteronomy 23

English Standard Version

Those Excluded from the Assembly

23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.

²^(A)“No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.

³^(B)“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, ⁴^(C)because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they ^(D)hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^(E)Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned ^(F)the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. ⁶You ^(G)shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.

⁷“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for ^(H)he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because ^(I)you were a sojourner in his land. ⁸Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹“When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.

¹⁰“If any man among you becomes ^(J)unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, ¹¹but when evening comes, he shall ^(K)bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.

¹²“You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. ¹³And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. ¹⁴Because ^(L)the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

¹⁵^(M)“You shall not give up to his master a slave^[a] who has escaped from his master to you. ¹⁶He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your towns, wherever it suits him. You shall not wrong him.

¹⁷“None of the ^(N)daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none ^(O)of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. ¹⁸You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog^[b] into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁹^(P)“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, ^(Q)interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. ²⁰^(R)You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, ^(S)that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

²¹^(T)“If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²²But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.

²⁴“If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, as many as you wish, but you shall not put any in your bag. ²⁵If you go into your neighbor's standing grain, ^(U)you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

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Footnotes

Deuteronomy 23:15 Or servant; the Hebrew term ‘ebed designates a range of social and economic roles (see Preface)
Deuteronomy 23:18 Or male prostitute

Nehemiah 7:17-35

English Standard Version

¹⁷The sons of Azgad, 2,322. ¹⁸The sons of Adonikam, 667. ¹⁹The sons of Bigvai, 2,067. ²⁰The sons of Adin, 655. ²¹The sons of Ater, namely of Hezekiah, 98. ²²The sons of Hashum, 328. ²³The sons of ^(A)Bezai, 324. ²⁴The sons of Hariph, 112. ²⁵The sons of ^(B)Gibeon, 95. ²⁶The men of Bethlehem and Netophah, 188. ²⁷The men of Anathoth, 128. ²⁸The men ^(C)of Beth-azmaveth, 42. ²⁹The men of ^(D)Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743. ³⁰The men of Ramah and Geba, 621. ³¹The men of Michmas, 122. ³²The men of Bethel and Ai, 123. ³³The men of the other Nebo, 52. ³⁴The sons of ^(E)the other Elam, 1,254. ³⁵The sons of Harim, 320.

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Zephaniah 3

English Standard Version

Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations

3 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    ^(A)the oppressing city!
²She listens to no voice;
    ^(B)she accepts no correction.
^(C)She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

³^(D)Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
her judges are ^(E)evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.
⁴^(F)Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
^(G)her priests ^(H)profane what is holy;
    they do violence to the law.
⁵The Lord within her ^(I)is righteous;
    he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
    each dawn he does not fail;
    but ^(J)the unjust knows no shame.

⁶^(K)“I have cut off nations;
    their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
    ^(L)so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
    without a man, without an inhabitant.
⁷^(M)I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
    ^(N)you will accept correction.
Then your^[a] dwelling would not be cut off
    according to all that I have appointed against you.’^[b]
But ^(O)all the more they were eager
    to make all their deeds corrupt.

⁸“Therefore ^(P)wait for me,” declares the Lord,
    “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is ^(Q)to gather nations,
    to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
    all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
    ^(R)all the earth shall be consumed.

The Conversion of the Nations

⁹“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
    to ^(S)a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
    and serve him with one accord.
¹⁰^(T)From beyond the rivers ^(U)of Cush
    my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
    shall bring my offering.

¹¹^(V)“On that day ^(W)you shall not be put to shame
    because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then ^(X)I will remove from your midst
    your proudly exultant ones,
and ^(Y)you shall no longer be haughty
    in my holy mountain.
¹²But I will leave in your midst
    a people ^(Z)humble and lowly.
^(AA)They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
¹³    ^(AB)those who are left in Israel;
they ^(AC)shall do no injustice
    and speak no lies,
^(AD)nor shall there be found in their mouth
    a deceitful tongue.
^(AE)For they shall graze and lie down,
    and none shall make them afraid.”

Israel's Joy and Restoration

¹⁴^(AF)Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
    shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
    O daughter of Jerusalem!
¹⁵The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
    he has cleared away your enemies.
^(AG)The King of Israel, ^(AH)the Lord, is in your midst;
    you shall never again fear evil.
¹⁶^(AI)On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
    ^(AJ)let not your hands grow weak.
¹⁷^(AK)The Lord your God is in your midst,
    ^(AL)a mighty one who will save;
^(AM)he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
¹⁸I will gather those of you who mourn ^(AN)for the festival,
    so that you will no longer suffer reproach.^[c]
¹⁹Behold, at that time ^(AO)I will deal
    with all your oppressors.
And ^(AP)I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change ^(AQ)their shame into ^(AR)praise
    and renown in all the earth.
²⁰^(AS)At that time I will bring you in,
    at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
    among all the peoples of the earth,
^(AT)when I restore your fortunes
    before your eyes,” says the Lord.

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Footnotes

Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
Zephaniah 3:7 Hebrew her
Zephaniah 3:18 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

English Standard Version

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and ^(A)a time for every matter under heaven:

²a time to be born, and a time to ^(B)die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴a time to ^(C)weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to ^(D)dance;
⁵a time to ^(E)cast away stones, and a time to ^(F)gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to ^(G)refrain from embracing;
⁶a time to seek, and a time to ^(H)lose;
a time to keep, and a time to ^(I)cast away;
⁷a time to ^(J)tear, and a time to sew;
a time to ^(K)keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸a time to love, and a time to ^(L)hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

The God-Given Task

⁹What ^(M)gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰I have seen ^(N)the business that ^(O)God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹He has ^(P)made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot ^(Q)find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹²I perceived that there is ^(R)nothing better for them than to be joyful and to ^(S)do good as long as they live; ¹³also ^(T)that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is ^(U)God's gift to man.

¹⁴I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; ^(V)nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. ¹⁵That which is, ^(W)already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God ^(X)seeks what has been driven away.^[a]

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Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 3:15 Hebrew what has been pursued

John 14:22-31

English Standard Version

²²^(A)Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it ^(B)that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” ²³Jesus answered him, ^(C)“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and ^(D)we will come to him and ^(E)make our home with him. ²⁴Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And ^(F)the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

²⁵“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the ^(G)Helper, the Holy Spirit, ^(H)whom the Father will send in my name, ^(I)he will teach you all things and ^(J)bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. ²⁷^(K)Peace I leave with you; ^(L)my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. ^(M)Let not your hearts be troubled, neither ^(N)let them be afraid. ²⁸^(O)You heard me say to you, ^(P)‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I ^(Q)am going to the Father, for ^(R)the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And ^(S)now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. ³⁰I will no longer talk much with you, for ^(T)the ruler of this world is coming. ^(U)He has no claim on me, ³¹but I do ^(V)as the Father has commanded me, ^(W)so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.