Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^(A)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(B)a carved image or ^(C)a memorial stone, nor shall you place a ^(D)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[a]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ^2 (E)You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ^3 (F)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴ then ^(G)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ^5 (H)Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your ^[b]food to the full and ^(I)live securely in your land. ^6 (J)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(K)you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. ^(L)I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and ^(M)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; ^8 (N)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹ So I will turn toward you and ^(O)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(P)confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰ And ^(Q)you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. ^11 (R)Moreover, I will make My ^[c]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[d]reject you. ^12 (S)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ^13 (T)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(U)I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘^(V)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(W)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(X)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[e]summon a ^(Y)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(Z)soul languish; also, ^(AA)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and ^(AB)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(AC)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸ If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(AD)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(AE)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (AF)Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘Yet if you ^[f](AG)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(AH)seven times according to your sins. ^22 (AI)I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that ^(AJ)your roads become deserted.

²³ ‘^(AK)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me, ²⁴ then I in turn will ^(AL)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(AM)seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(AN)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(AO)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ^26 (AP)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[g]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(AQ)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸ then ^(AR)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(AS)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I then ^(AT)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(AU)incense altars, and ^[h]pile your ^[i]remains on the ^[j]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹ I will turn your cities into ^(AV)ruins as well and make your ^(AW)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(AX)smell your soothing aromas. ³² And I will make ^(AY)the land desolate ^(AZ)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³ You, however, I ^(BA)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴ ‘^(BB)Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(BC)despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[k]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (BD)They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ Instead, ^(BE)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ^39 (BF)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰ ‘But ^(BG)if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(BH)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(BI)they then make amends for their wrongdoing, ⁴² then I will remember ^(BJ)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(BK)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(BL)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ^43 (BM)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, ^[l]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(BN)soul loathed My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(BO)loathe them as ^(BP)to destroy them, ^(BQ)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will remember for them the ^(BR)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(BS)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

^46 (BT)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[m]through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Assessments

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(A)When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the Lord. ³ If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by ^(B)the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ Or if ^[a]the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁶ But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be ^(C)five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷ If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁸ But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; ^(D)according to ^[b]the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹ ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that ^[c]one can present as an offering to the Lord, any such animal that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ^10 (E)He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. ¹¹ If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which ^[d]one does not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. ¹² And the priest shall assess it ^[e]as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be. ¹³ But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.

¹⁴ ‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall assess it ^[f]as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand. ¹⁵ Yet if the one who consecrates it should want to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶ ‘Again, if someone consecrates to the Lord part of the field of his own property, then your assessment shall be ^[g]proportionate to the seed needed for it: a ^[h]homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your assessment it shall stand. ¹⁸ If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for ^[i]him ^[j]proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your assessment. ¹⁹ If the one who consecrates it should ever want to redeem the field, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may belong to him. ²⁰ Yet if he does not redeem the field, ^[k]but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed; ²¹ and when it ^[l]reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field banned from secular use; ^(F)it shall be for the priest as his property. ²² Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property, ²³ then the priest shall calculate for ^[m]him the amount of your assessment up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your assessment as holy to the Lord. ²⁴ In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. ²⁵ Every assessment of yours, moreover, shall be by ^(G)the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶ ‘^(H)However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no one may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷ But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ^[n]redeem it according to your assessment and add to it a fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸ ‘Nevertheless, ^(I)[o]anything which someone sets apart to the Lord for ^[p]destruction out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the field of his own property, shall not be sold nor redeemed. Anything set apart for destruction is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹ No ^[q]one who may have been ^[r]set apart among mankind shall be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰ ‘Now ^(J)all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If, therefore, someone should ever want to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it a fifth of it. ³² For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever ^(K)passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. ^33 (L)He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; yet if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

^34 (M)These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai.

One Sacrifice of Christ Is Sufficient

10 For the Law, since it has only ^(A)a shadow of ^(B)the good things to come and not the ^[a]form of those things itself, ^[b]can ^(C)never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually every year, ^(D)make those who approach perfect. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had ^(E)consciousness of sins? ³ But ^(F)in ^[c]those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is ^(G)impossible for the ^(H)blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, ^(I)when He comes into the world, He says,

⁸ After saying above, “^(O)Sacrifices and offerings and ^(P)whole burnt offerings and offerings ^(Q)for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹ then He ^[d]said, “^(R)Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰ By ^[e]this will, we have been ^(S)sanctified through ^(T)the offering of ^(U)the body of Jesus Christ ^(V)once for all time.

¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and ^(W)offering time after time the same sacrifices, which ^(X)can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice ^(Y)for ^[f]sins ^(Z)for all time, ^(AA)sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward ^(AB)until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has ^(AC)perfected ^(AD)for all time those who are ^[g]sanctified. ¹⁵ And ^(AE)the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

He then says,

¹⁸ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required.

A New and Living Way

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we ^(AH)have confidence to ^(AI)enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by ^(AJ)a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through ^(AK)the veil, that is, through His flesh, ²¹ and since we have ^(AL)a great priest ^(AM)over the house of God, ²² let’s ^(AN)approach God with a ^[h]sincere heart in ^(AO)full assurance of faith, having our hearts ^(AP)sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies ^(AQ)washed with pure water. ²³ Let’s hold firmly to the ^(AR)confession of our ^(AS)hope without wavering, for ^(AT)He who promised is faithful; ²⁴ and let’s consider how ^(AU)to ^[i]encourage one another in love and ^(AV)good deeds, ²⁵ not abandoning our own ^(AW)meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but ^(AX)encouraging one another; and all the more as you see ^(AY)the day drawing near.

Christ or Judgment

²⁶ For if we go on ^(AZ)sinning willfully after receiving ^(BA)the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a terrifying expectation of ^(BB)judgment and ^(BC)the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. ^28 (BD)Anyone who has ignored the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ^29 (BE)How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve ^(BF)who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean ^(BG)the blood of the covenant ^(BH)by which he was sanctified, and has ^(BI)insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know Him who said, “^(BJ)Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “^(BK)The Lord will judge His people.” ³¹ It is a ^(BL)terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the ^(BM)living God.

³² But remember ^(BN)the former days, ^[j]when, after being ^(BO)enlightened, you endured a great ^(BP)conflict of sufferings, ³³ partly by being ^(BQ)made a public spectacle through insults and distress, and partly by becoming ^[k](BR)companions with those who were so treated. ³⁴ For you ^(BS)showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted ^(BT)joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves ^(BU)a better and lasting possession. ³⁵ Therefore, do not throw away your ^(BV)confidence, which has a great ^(BW)reward. ³⁶ For you have need of ^(BX)endurance, so that when you have ^(BY)done the will of God, you may ^(BZ)receive ^[l]what was promised.

³⁹ But ^[m]we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith for the safekeeping of the soul.