13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “^(A)Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the firstborn of every womb among the sons of Israel, among people and animals alike; it belongs to Me.”

³ And Moses said to the people, “^(B)Remember this day in which you departed from Egypt, from the house of ^[a]slavery; for ^(C)by ^[b]a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place. ^(D)And nothing with yeast shall be eaten. ⁴ On this day in the ^(E)month of Abib, you are about to go out from here. ⁵ And it shall be when the Lord ^(F)brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which ^(G)He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, ^(H)that you shall ^[c]perform this rite in this month. ⁶ For ^(I)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. ⁷ Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and ^(J)nothing with yeast shall ^[d]be seen among you, nor shall any dough with yeast ^[e]be seen among you in all your borders. ⁸ And ^(K)you shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹ And ^(L)it shall ^[f]serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder ^[g]on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with ^(M)a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰ Therefore, you shall ^(N)keep this ordinance at its appointed time from ^[h]year to year.

¹¹ “Now when ^(O)the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as ^(P)He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, ^12 (Q)you shall ^[i]devote to the Lord every firstborn of a womb, and every firstborn offspring of an animal that you own; the males belong to the Lord. ¹³ But ^(R)every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and ^(S)every ^[j]firstborn among your sons you shall redeem. ^14 (T)And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ then you shall say to him, ‘^(U)With ^[k]a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of ^[l]slavery. ¹⁵ And it came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the ^(V)Lord put to death every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human firstborns to animal firstborns. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord the males, every firstborn of a womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶ So ^(W)it shall ^[m]serve as a sign on your hand and as ^[n]phylacteries ^[o]on your forehead, for with ^[p]a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”

God Leads the People

¹⁷ Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near; for God said, “^(X)The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ Therefore God led the people around by way of the wilderness to the ^[q]Red Sea; and the sons of Israel went up ^(Y)in battle formation from the land of Egypt. ¹⁹ And Moses took ^(Z)the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will certainly ^[r]take care of you, and you shall carry my bones from here with you.” ²⁰ Then they set out from ^(AA)Succoth and camped in Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. ²¹ And ^(AB)the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, so that they might ^[s]travel by day and by night. ^22 [t]He ^(AC)did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from the presence of the people.

The Unrighteous Manager

16 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was ^[a]reported to him as ^(A)squandering his possessions. ² And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my ^[b]master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to ^[c]dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ And he summoned each one of his ^[d]master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[e]jugs of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[f]kors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ And his ^[g]master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ^(B)this age are more shrewd in relation to their own ^[h]kind than the ^(C)sons of light. ⁹ And I say to you, ^(D)make friends for yourselves by means of the ^[i](E)wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it ^[j]is all gone, ^(F)they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “^(G)The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not ^[k]been faithful in the use of unrighteous ^[l](H)wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you? ¹² And if you have not ^[m]been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ^13 (I)No ^[n]servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^[o](J)wealth.”

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were ^(K)lovers of money, were listening to all these things and ^(L)were ^[p]ridiculing Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are the ones who ^(M)justify yourselves in the sight of people, but ^(N)God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “^(O)The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John came; since that time ^(P)the gospel of the kingdom of God ^[q]has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ^17 (Q)But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ^[r]stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

¹⁸ “^(R)Everyone who ^[s]divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is ^[t]divorced from a husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day. ²⁰ And a poor man named Lazarus ^(S)was laid at his gate, covered with sores, ²¹ and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man’s table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores. ²² Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to ^[u](T)Abraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And in ^(U)Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his ^[v]arms. ²⁴ And he cried out and said, ‘^(V)Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in ^(W)this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that ^(X)during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. ²⁶ And ^[w]besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set, so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any people cross over from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I request of you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—in order that he may ^(Y)warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.’ ²⁹ But Abraham *said, ‘They have ^[x](Z)Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ But he said, ‘No, ^(AA)father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Job Asserts His Integrity

The words of Job are ended.

Introduction

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle of ^(B)Christ Jesus ^(C)by the will of God, and our brother ^(D)Timothy,

To ^(E)the church of God which is at ^(F)Corinth with all the ^[a]saints who are throughout ^(G)Achaia:

^2 (H)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^3 (I)Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and ^(J)God of all comfort, ⁴ who ^(K)comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in ^[b]any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For just ^(L)as the sufferings of Christ are ^[c]ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. ⁶ But if we are afflicted, it is ^(M)for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; ⁷ and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that ^(N)as you are partners in our sufferings, so also you are in our comfort.

⁸ For ^(O)we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our ^(P)affliction which occurred in ^[d](Q)Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. ^9 [e]Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰ who ^(R)rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He ^[f](S)on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, ¹¹ if you also join in ^(T)helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by ^(U)many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Integrity

¹² For our ^[g]proud confidence is this: the testimony of ^(V)our conscience, that in holiness and ^(W)godly sincerity, ^(X)not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. ¹³ For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand ^(Y)until the end; ¹⁴ just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, on ^(Z)the day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ In this confidence I intended at first to ^(AA)come to you, so that you might ^[h]twice receive a ^[i](AB)blessing; ^16 [j]that is, to ^(AC)pass ^[k]your way into ^(AD)Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be ^(AE)helped on my journey to Judea. ¹⁷ Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I decide, do I decide ^(AF)according to the flesh, so that with me there will be ^[l]yes, yes and no, no at the same time? ¹⁸ But as ^(AG)God is faithful, ^(AH)our word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹ For ^(AI)the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and ^(AJ)Silvanus and ^(AK)Timothy—was not yes and no, but has been yes ^(AL)in Him. ²⁰ For ^(AM)as many as the promises of God are, ^(AN)in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is ^(AO)our Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹ Now He who ^(AP)establishes us with you in Christ and ^(AQ)anointed us is God, ²² who also ^(AR)sealed us and ^(AS)gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a ^[m]pledge.

²³ But ^(AT)I call God as witness to my soul, that it was ^(AU)to spare you that I did not come again to ^(AV)Corinth. ²⁴ Not that we ^(AW)domineer over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are ^(AX)standing firm.