The Nazirite Vow

6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of ^(A)a Nazirite,^{[a] (B)}to separate himself to the Lord, ³ he ^(C)shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. ⁴ All the days of his separation^[b] he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

⁵ “All the days of his vow of separation, no ^(D)razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. ^(E)He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

⁶ “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord ^(F)he shall not go near a dead body. ^7 (G)Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

⁹ “And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then ^(H)he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ^10 (I)On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹¹ and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day ¹² and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old ^(J)for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³ “And this is the law for the Nazirite, ^(K)when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹⁴ and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish ^(L)as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish ^(M)as a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened bread, ^(N)loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their ^(O)grain offering and their ^(P)drink offerings. ¹⁶ And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer ^(Q)his sin offering and his burnt offering, ¹⁷ and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸ And the Nazirite ^(R)shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. ¹⁹ And the priest shall take the ^(S)shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and ^(T)shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, ²⁰ and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ^(U)They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”

The Half-Tribe of Manasseh

²³ The members of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They were very numerous from Bashan to Baal-hermon, ^(A)Senir, and Mount Hermon. ²⁴ These were the heads of their fathers' houses: Epher,^[a] Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty warriors, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses. ²⁵ But they broke faith with the God of their fathers, and ^(B)whored ^(C)after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. ²⁶ So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of ^(D)Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of ^(E)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them ^(F)to Halah, ^(G)Habor, Hara, and ^(H)the river Gozan, to this day.

A Lament over Pharaoh and Egypt

32 ^(A)In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (B)“Son of man, ^(C)raise a lamentation over ^(D)Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:

⁹ “I will trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries that you have not known. ^10 (Q)I will make many peoples appalled at you, and the hair of their kings shall bristle with horror because of you, when ^(R)I brandish my sword before them. ^(S)They shall tremble every moment, every one for his own life, on the day of your downfall.

¹¹ “For thus says the Lord God: ^(T)The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you. ¹² I will cause ^(U)your multitude to fall by the swords of mighty ones, all of them ^(V)most ruthless of nations.

^16 (AB)This is a lamentation that shall be chanted; the daughters of the nations shall chant it; over Egypt, and over ^(AC)all her multitude, shall they chant it, declares the Lord God.”

Lamedh

The Law and the Kingdom of God

^14 (A)The Pharisees, who were ^(B)lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ^(C)ridiculed him. ¹⁵ And he said to them, “You are those who ^(D)justify yourselves before men, but ^(E)God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men ^(F)is an abomination in the sight of God.

^16 (G)“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then ^(H)the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and ^(I)everyone forces his way into it.^{[a] 17} But ^(J)it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

Divorce and Remarriage

^18 (K)“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

By Grace Through Faith

2 ^(A)And you were ^(B)dead in the trespasses and sins ^2 (C)in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following ^(D)the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in ^(E)the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in ^(F)the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body^[a] and the mind, and ^(G)were by nature ^(H)children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.^{[b] 4} But^[c] God, being ^(I)rich in mercy, ^(J)because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even ^(K)when we were dead in our trespasses, ^(L)made us alive together with Christ—^(M)by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and ^(N)seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable ^(O)riches of his grace in ^(P)kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For ^(Q)by grace you have been saved ^(R)through faith. And this is ^(S)not your own doing; ^(T)it is the gift of God, ^9 (U)not a result of works, ^(V)so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For ^(W)we are his workmanship, ^(X)created in Christ Jesus ^(Y)for good works, ^(Z)which God prepared beforehand, ^(AA)that we should walk in them.