Laws for Purification

19 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ² “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, ^(A)and on which a yoke has never come. ³ And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and ^(B)it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and ^(C)sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. ^(D)Its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶ And the priest shall take ^(E)cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷ Then the priest ^(F)shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. ^8 (G)The one who burns the heifer ^(H)shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹ And a man who is clean shall gather up ^(I)the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a ^(J)clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for ^(K)impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰ And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^(L)shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

^11 (M)“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. ¹² He ^(N)shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. ¹³ Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ^(O)defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, ^(P)and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ “This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵ And every ^(Q)open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ^16 (R)Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a ^(S)grave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷ For the unclean they shall take ^(T)some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh^[a] water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸ Then a clean person shall take ^(U)hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. ¹⁹ And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean ^(V)on the third day and on the seventh day. ^(W)Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall ^(X)wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰ “If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, ^(Y)that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean. ²¹ And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ²² And ^(Z)whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

David Organizes the Levites

23 ^(A)When David was old and full of days, ^(B)he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

² David^[a] assembled all the leaders of Israel and the priests and the Levites. ³ The Levites, ^(C)thirty years old and upward, were numbered, and ^(D)the total was ^(E)38,000 men. ⁴ “Twenty-four thousand of these,” David said,^{[b] (F)}“shall have charge of the work in the house of the Lord, 6,000 shall be ^(G)officers and judges, ⁵ 4,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 shall offer praises to the Lord with the instruments ^(H)that I have made for praise.” ^6 (I)And David organized them in divisions ^(J)corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

^7 (K)The sons of Gershon^[c] were Ladan and Shimei. ⁸ The sons of Ladan: ^(L)Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three. ⁹ The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers' houses of Ladan. ¹⁰ And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. ¹¹ Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, therefore they became counted as a single father's house.

^12 (M)The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. ^13 (N)The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. ^(O)Aaron was set apart to dedicate the most holy things, that he and his sons forever should ^(P)make offerings before the Lord and ^(Q)minister to him and ^(R)pronounce blessings in his name forever. ¹⁴ But the sons of Moses the ^(S)man of God were named among the ^(T)tribe of Levi. ¹⁵ The ^(U)sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. ¹⁶ The sons of Gershom: ^(V)Shebuel the chief. ¹⁷ The sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the chief. Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. ¹⁸ The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief. ¹⁹ The ^(W)sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. ^20 (X)The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief and Isshiah the second.

^21 (Y)The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and ^(Z)Kish. ²² Eleazar died ^(AA)having no sons, but only daughters; their ^(AB)kinsmen, the sons of Kish, married them. ^23 (AC)The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

^24 (AD)These were the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses, the heads of fathers' houses ^(AE)as they were listed according to the number of the names of the individuals from ^(AF)twenty years old and upward who were to do the work for the service of the house of the Lord. ²⁵ For David said, “The Lord, the God of Israel, ^(AG)has given rest to his people, and he dwells in Jerusalem forever. ²⁶ And so the Levites no longer need ^(AH)to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service.” ²⁷ For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered from ^(AI)twenty years old and upward. ²⁸ For their duty was to assist the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, having the care of the courts and the chambers, the cleansing of all that is holy, and any work for the service of the house of God. ²⁹ Their duty was also to assist with the ^(AJ)showbread, the ^(AK)flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the ^(AL)baked offering, the ^(AM)offering mixed with oil, and all ^(AN)measures of quantity or size. ³⁰ And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening, ³¹ and whenever burnt offerings were offered to the Lord ^(AO)on Sabbaths, ^(AP)new moons, and feast days, ^(AQ)according to the number required of them, regularly before the Lord. ³² Thus ^(AR)they were to keep charge of the tent of meeting and the sanctuary, and to attend the sons of Aaron, their brothers, for the ^(AS)service of the house of the Lord.

^9 (A)“When the people of the land ^(B)come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. ¹⁰ When they enter, ^(C)the prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

¹¹ “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, ^(D)the grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs ^(E)as much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. ¹² When the prince provides ^(F)a freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, ^(G)the gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings ^(H)as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

^13 (I)“You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. ¹⁴ And ^(J)you shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. ¹⁵ Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for ^(K)a regular burnt offering.

¹⁶ “Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. ¹⁷ But if he makes a gift ^(L)out of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to ^(M)the year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. ^18 (N)The prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, ^(O)thrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be ^(P)scattered from his property.”

Boiling Places for Offerings

¹⁹ Then he brought me through the entrance, which was ^(Q)at the side of the gate, to the north row of ^(R)the holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. ²⁰ And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests ^(S)shall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where ^(T)they shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so ^(U)transmit holiness to the people.”

²¹ Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court— ²² in the four corners of the court were small^[a] courts, forty cubits^[b] long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. ²³ On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. ²⁴ Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who ^(V)minister at the temple ^(W)shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

Put Not Your Trust in Princes

Peter Denies Jesus

^54 (A)Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, ^(B)and Peter was following at a distance. ^55 (C)And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of ^(D)the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. ⁵⁶ Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” ⁵⁷ But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” ⁵⁸ And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” ⁵⁹ And after an interval of about an hour still another ^(E)insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” ⁶⁰ But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹ And the Lord turned and ^(F)looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, ^(G)“Before the rooster crows today, you will ^(H)deny me three times.” ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

Final Greetings

⁷ Tychicus will tell you ^(A)all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant^[a] in the Lord. ⁸ I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, ⁹ and with him ^(B)Onesimus, our faithful and ^(C)beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

^10 (D)Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark ^(E)the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—^(F)if he comes to you, welcome him), ¹¹ and Jesus who is called ^(G)Justus. ^(H)These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and ^(I)they have been a comfort to me. ^12 (J)Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always ^(K)struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand ^(L)mature and fully assured in all the will of God. ¹³ For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. ^14 (M)Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does ^(N)Demas. ¹⁵ Give my greetings to the brothers^[b] at Laodicea, and to Nympha and ^(O)the church in her house. ¹⁶ And when ^(P)this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. ¹⁷ And say to ^(Q)Archippus, “See that you fulfill ^(R)the ministry that you have received in the Lord.”

¹⁸ I, Paul, ^(S)write this greeting with my own hand. ^(T)Remember ^(U)my chains. ^(V)Grace be with you.