The Place of Sacrifice

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. ³ If any one of the house of Israel ^(A)kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, ⁴ and ^(B)does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man ^(C)shall be cut off from among his people. ⁵ This is to the end that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice ^(D)in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrifice them ^(E)as sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord. ⁶ And the priest shall ^(F)throw the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat ^(G)for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁷ So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they ^(H)whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.

⁸ “And you shall say to them, Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who ^(I)offers a burnt offering or sacrifice ⁹ and ^(J)does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the Lord, ^(K)that man shall be cut off from his people.

Laws Against Eating Blood

¹⁰ “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them ^(L)eats any blood, I will ^(M)set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. ^11 (N)For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar ^(O)to make atonement for your souls, ^(P)for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. ¹² Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

¹³ “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall ^(Q)pour out its blood and ^(R)cover it with earth. ¹⁴ For the life of every creature^[a] is its ^(S)blood: its blood is its life.^[b] Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. ^15 (T)And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, ^(U)whether he is a native or a sojourner, ^(V)shall wash his clothes and ^(W)bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean. ¹⁶ But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, ^(X)he shall bear his iniquity.”

Unlawful Sexual Relations

18 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(Y)I am the Lord your God. ^3 (Z)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(AA)you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. ^4 (AB)You shall follow my rules^[c] and keep my statutes and walk in them. ^(AC)I am the Lord your God. ^5 (AD)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; ^(AE)if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

⁶ “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. ^7 (AF)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^8 (AG)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. ^9 (AH)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. ¹⁰ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. ¹¹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, brought up in your father's family, since she is your sister. ¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's relative. ¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ^15 (AI)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (AJ)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness. ¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity. ¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a ^(AK)rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness ^(AL)while her sister is still alive.

^19 (AM)“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. ^20 (AN)And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children to ^(AO)offer them^[d] to ^(AP)Molech, and so ^(AQ)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ^22 (AR)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. ^23 (AS)And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is ^(AT)perversion.

^24 (AU)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(AV)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the ^(AW)land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land ^(AX)vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But ^(AY)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(AZ)native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30 (BA)So keep my charge never to practice ^(BB)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(BC)I am the Lord your God.”

My Help and My Deliverer

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The Parable of the Tenants

12 ^(A)And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ^(B)a vineyard ^(C)and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and ^(D)leased it to tenants and ^(E)went into another country. ² When the season came, he sent a servant^[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ^3 (F)And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ^4 (G)Again ^(H)he sent to them another servant, and ^(I)they struck him on the head and ^(J)treated him shamefully. ^5 (K)And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶ He had still one other, ^(L)a beloved son. ^(M)Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ^(N)‘This is the heir. Come, ^(O)let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ And they took him and killed him and ^(P)threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? ^(Q)He will ^(R)come and destroy the tenants and ^(S)give the vineyard to others. ^10 (T)Have you not read ^(U)this Scripture:

¹² And ^(W)they were seeking to arrest him ^(X)but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they ^(Y)left him and went away.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

^13 (Z)And they sent to him some of ^(AA)the Pharisees and some of ^(AB)the Herodians, to ^(AC)trap him in his talk. ¹⁴ And they came and said to him, “Teacher, ^(AD)we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For ^(AE)you are not swayed by appearances,^[c] but truly teach ^(AF)the way of God. Is it lawful to pay ^(AG)taxes to ^(AH)Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” ¹⁵ But, knowing ^(AI)their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why ^(AJ)put me to the test? Bring me ^(AK)a denarius^[d] and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” ¹⁷ Jesus said to them, ^(AL)“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

¹⁸ And ^(AM)Sadducees came to him, ^(AN)who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ^(AO)if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man^[e] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. ²¹ And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. ²² And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because ^(AP)you know neither the Scriptures nor ^(AQ)the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, they neither ^(AR)marry nor ^(AS)are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, ^(AT)have you not read in ^(AU)the book of Moses, in ^(AV)the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ^(AW)‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

The Great Commandment

^28 (AX)And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ^(AY)‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, ^(AZ)the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ^31 (BA)The second is this: ^(BB)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment ^(BC)greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that ^(BD)he is one, and ^(BE)there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all ^(BF)the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, ^(BG)is much more than all ^(BH)whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” ^(BI)And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Christ?

^35 (BJ)And as ^(BK)Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that ^(BL)the Christ is the son of David? ³⁶ David himself, ^(BM)in the Holy Spirit, declared,

³⁷ David himself calls him Lord. So ^(BP)how is he his son?” And the great throng ^(BQ)heard him gladly.

Beware of the Scribes

^38 (BR)And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and have the best seats in the synagogues and ^(BS)the places of honor at feasts, ^40 (BT)who devour widows' houses and ^(BU)for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

The Widow's Offering

^41 (BV)And he sat down opposite ^(BW)the treasury and watched the people ^(BX)putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two ^(BY)small copper coins, which make a penny.^{[f] 43} And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, ^(BZ)this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her ^(CA)poverty has put in everything she had, all ^(CB)she had to live on.”