²³ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, ^(A)You shall eat no fat, of ox or sheep or goat. ²⁴ The fat of an animal ^(B)that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it. ²⁵ For every person who eats of the fat of an animal of which a food offering may be made to the Lord shall be cut off from his people. ²⁶ Moreover, ^(C)you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places. ²⁷ Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

²⁸ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁹ “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, ^(D)Whoever offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offerings. ^30 (E)His own hands shall bring the Lord's food offerings. He shall bring the fat with ^(F)the breast, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. ^31 (G)The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but ^(H)the breast shall be for Aaron and his sons. ³² And ^(I)the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a contribution from the sacrifice of your peace offerings. ³³ Whoever among the sons of Aaron offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right thigh for a portion. ³⁴ For the breast that is ^(J)waved and the thigh that is ^(K)contributed I have taken from the people of Israel, out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and ^(L)have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons, as a perpetual due from the people of Israel. ³⁵ This is the portion of Aaron and of his sons from the Lord's food offerings, from the day they were presented to serve as priests of the Lord. ³⁶ The Lord commanded this to be given them by the people of Israel, ^(M)from the day that he anointed them. It is a perpetual due throughout their generations.”

³⁷ This is the law ^(N)of the burnt offering, of the grain offering, of the sin offering, ^(O)of the guilt offering, ^(P)of the ordination offering, and ^(Q)of the peace offering, ³⁸ which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the people of Israel ^(R)to bring their offerings to the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.

The Widow of Zarephath

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him, ⁹ “Arise, go to ^(A)Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” ¹⁰ So he arose and went to ^(B)Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there ^(C)gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” ¹¹ And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² And she said, ^(D)“As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” ¹³ And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” ¹⁵ And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Elijah Raises the Widow's Son

¹⁷ After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ And she said to Elijah, ^(E)“What have you against me, O ^(F)man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” ¹⁹ And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰ And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” ^21 (G)Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life^[a] come into him again.” ²² And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and ^(H)he revived. ²³ And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” ²⁴ And the woman said to Elijah, ^(I)“Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of ^(A)Tiberius Caesar, ^(B)Pontius Pilate ^(C)being governor of Judea, and ^(D)Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ² during ^(E)the high priesthood of Annas and ^(F)Caiaphas, ^(G)the word of God came to ^(H)John the son of Zechariah in ^(I)the wilderness. ³ And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming ^(J)a baptism of repentance ^(K)for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴ As it is written in ^(L)the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

⁷ He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ^(T)“You brood of ^(U)vipers! Who warned you to flee from ^(V)the wrath to come?

Warning Against Idolatry

10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,^[a] that our fathers were all under ^(A)the cloud, and all ^(B)passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and ^(C)all ate the same ^(D)spiritual food, ⁴ and ^(E)all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for ^(F)they were overthrown^[b] in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as ^(G)they did. ^7 (H)Do not be idolaters ^(I)as some of them were; as it is written, ^(J)“The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ^8 (K)We must not indulge in sexual immorality ^(L)as some of them did, and ^(M)twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. ⁹ We must not put Christ^[c] to the test, ^(N)as some of them did and ^(O)were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, ^(P)as some of them did and ^(Q)were destroyed by ^(R)the Destroyer.