Laws on Immoral Relations

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(A)I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do ^[a]what is ^(B)done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do ^[b]what is ^(C)done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ⁴ You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, ^[c]to live in accord with them; ^(D)I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, ^(E)which, if ^[d]a person ^[e]follows them, then he will live by them; I am the Lord.

⁶ ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative ^[f]of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. ^7 (F)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. ^8 (G)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ As for ^(H)the nakedness of your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born in the household or born outside the household, you shall not uncover their nakedness. ¹⁰ The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for ^[g]their nakedness is yours. ¹¹ The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, born to your father, she is your sister; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^12 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative. ^14 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother. You shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ^15 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ^17 (M)You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is an outrageous sin. ¹⁸ And you shall not ^[h]marry a woman in addition to her sister ^[i]as a second wife while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.

¹⁹ ‘^(N)Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her ^(O)menstrual impurity. ²⁰ And ^(P)you shall not have sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children ^(Q)to ^[j]offer them to Molech, nor shall you ^(R)profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. ^22 (S)You shall not sleep with a male as ^[k]one sleeps with a female; it is an abomination. ^23 (T)Also you shall not have sexual intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to ^[l]mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these things ^(U)the nations which I am driving out from you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, ^(V)therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land ^(W)has vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments, and you shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the stranger who resides among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land who were there before you did all these abominations, and the land has become defiled), ²⁸ so that the land will not vomit you out should you defile it, as it has vomited out the nation which was there before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ So you are to keep ^(X)your ^[m]commitment to Me not to practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves with them; ^(Y)I am the Lord your God.’”

Idolatry Forbidden

19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

² “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(Z)You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ Every one of you ^(AA)shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep ^(AB)My Sabbaths; ^(AC)I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to ^(AD)idols or make for yourselves cast metal ^(AE)gods; I am the Lord your God.

⁵ ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, and on the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. ⁷ So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is unclean; it will not be accepted. ⁸ And everyone who eats it will bear the consequences for his guilt, because he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Various Laws

⁹ ‘^(AF)Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ ‘^(AG)You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, ^(AH)nor lie to one another. ¹² And ^(AI)you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to ^(AJ)profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

¹³ ‘^(AK)You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. ^(AL)The wages of a hired worker are not to remain with you all night until morning. ¹⁴ You shall not curse a person who is deaf, nor ^(AM)put a stumbling block before a person who is blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.

¹⁵ ‘^(AN)You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the poor nor give preference to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ You shall not go about as ^(AO)a slanderer among your people; and you are not to ^[n]jeopardize the ^[o](AP)life of your neighbor. I am the Lord.

¹⁷ ‘You ^(AQ)shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you ^(AR)may certainly rebuke your neighbor, but you are not to incur sin because of him. ^18 (AS)You shall not take vengeance, ^(AT)nor hold any grudge against the sons of your people, but ^(AU)you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

¹⁹ ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not cross-breed two kinds of your cattle; ^(AV)you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment of two kinds of material mixed together.

²⁰ ‘^(AW)Now if a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free. ²¹ He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting, ^(AX)a ram as a guilt offering. ²² The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.

²³ ‘Now when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as ^[p]forbidden. For three years it shall be ^[q]forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. ²⁴ And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit, so that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ ‘You shall not eat any meat ^(AY)with the blood. You shall not practice ^(AZ)divination nor soothsaying. ^27 (BA)You shall not round off the ^[r]hairline of your heads, nor trim the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any cuts in your ^[s]body for the ^[t]dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

²⁹ ‘^(BB)Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land does not fall into prostitution, and the land does not become full of outrageous sin. ³⁰ You shall ^(BC)keep My Sabbaths and ^(BD)revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord.

³¹ ‘Do not turn to ^[u](BE)mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

³² ‘^(BF)You shall stand up in the presence of the grayheaded and honor ^[v]elders, and you shall ^[w]fear your God; I am the Lord.

³³ ‘^(BG)When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not ^[x]do him wrong. ³⁴ The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and ^(BH)you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

³⁵ ‘^(BI)You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or volume. ³⁶ You shall have ^(BJ)accurate balances, accurate weights, an accurate ^[y]ephah, and an accurate ^[z]hin; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. ³⁷ So you shall keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them; I am the Lord.’”

Prayer for Help in Trouble.

For the music director. A Psalm of David.

Paul in Ephesus

19 Now it happened that while ^(A)Apollos was in ^(B)Corinth, Paul passed through the ^(C)upper country and came to ^(D)Ephesus, and found some disciples. ² He said to them, “^(E)Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “On the contrary, ^(F)we have not even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “^(G)Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ Paul said, “^(H)John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people ^(I)to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵ When they heard this, they were ^(J)baptized ^[a]in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had ^(K)laid hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began ^(L)speaking with tongues and ^(M)prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

⁸ And he entered ^(N)the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, having discussions and persuading them ^(O)about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when ^(P)some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of ^[b](Q)the Way before the ^[c]people, he withdrew from them and took ^(R)the disciples away with him, and had discussions daily in the school of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This took place for ^(S)two years, so that all who lived in ^[d](T)Asia heard ^(U)the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Miracles at Ephesus

¹¹ God was performing ^(V)extraordinary ^[e]miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12 (W)so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and ^(X)the evil spirits went out. ¹³ But also some of the Jewish ^(Y)exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to ^[f]use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!” ¹⁴ Now there were seven sons of ^[g]Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit responded and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ This became known to all who lived in ^(Z)Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. ¹⁸ Also many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. ¹⁹ And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they added up the prices of ^[h]the books and found it to be fifty thousand ^[i](AA)pieces of silver. ²⁰ So ^[j](AB)the word of the Lord ^(AC)was growing and prevailing mightily.

²¹ Now after these things were finished, Paul resolved in ^[k]the Spirit to ^(AD)go to Jerusalem ^(AE)after he had passed through ^(AF)Macedonia and ^(AG)Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, ^(AH)I must also see Rome.” ²² And after he sent into ^(AI)Macedonia two of ^(AJ)those who assisted him, ^(AK)Timothy and ^(AL)Erastus, he himself stayed in ^[l](AM)Asia for a while.

²³ About that time ^[m]a major disturbance occurred in regard to ^[n](AN)the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of ^[o]Artemis, ^(AO)was bringing ^[p]considerable ^[q]business to the craftsmen; ²⁵ he gathered these men together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity ^[r]depends upon this business. ²⁶ You see and hear that not only in ^(AP)Ephesus, but in almost all of ^[s](AQ)Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that ^[t](AR)gods made by hands are not gods at all. ²⁷ Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess ^[u]Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of ^[v](AS)Asia and ^(AT)the ^[w]world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.”

²⁸ When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began shouting, saying, “Great is ^[x]Artemis of the ^(AU)Ephesians!” ²⁹ The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging along ^(AV)Gaius and ^(AW)Aristarchus, Paul’s ^(AX)Macedonian traveling ^(AY)companions. ³⁰ And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, ^(AZ)the disciples would not let him. ³¹ Also some of the ^[y]Asiarchs who were friends of his sent word to him and repeatedly urged him not to ^[z]venture into the theater. ^32 (BA)So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the ^[aa]assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know ^[ab]for what reason they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd ^[ac]concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having ^(BB)motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is ^[ad]Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵ After quieting the crowd, the town clerk *said, “Men of ^(BC)Ephesus, what person is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great ^[ae]Artemis and of the image which fell down from ^[af]the sky? ³⁶ So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who are neither ^(BD)temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session and ^[ag](BE)proconsuls are available; have them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the ^[ah]lawful ^[ai]assembly. ⁴⁰ For indeed, we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real reason for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹ After saying this he dismissed the ^[aj]assembly.