^36 [a] Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁷ “Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy. ³⁸ As for the censers of ^(A)these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. ^(B)Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.” ³⁹ So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar, ⁴⁰ to be a reminder to the people of Israel, so ^(C)that no outsider, who is not of the descendants of Aaron, should draw near to burn incense before the Lord, lest he become like Korah and his company—as the Lord said to him through Moses.

⁴¹ But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel ^(D)grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” ⁴² And when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting. And behold, ^(E)the cloud covered it, and ^(F)the glory of the Lord appeared. ⁴³ And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, ⁴⁴ and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^45 (G)“Get away from the midst of this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.” ^(H)And they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶ And Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, and put fire on it from off the altar and lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for ^(I)wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.” ⁴⁷ So Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the midst of the assembly. And behold, the plague had already begun among the people. And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. ⁴⁸ And he stood between the dead and the living, and ^(J)the plague was stopped. ⁴⁹ Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, ^(K)besides those who died in the affair of Korah. ⁵⁰ And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting, when the plague was stopped.

The Promise Realized Through Faith

¹³ For ^(A)the promise to Abraham and his offspring ^(B)that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ^14 (C)For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For ^(D)the law brings wrath, but ^(E)where there is no law ^(F)there is no transgression.

¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, ^(G)in order that the promise may rest on grace and ^(H)be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, ^(I)who is the father of us all, ¹⁷ as it is written, ^(J)“I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, ^(K)who gives life to the dead and calls into existence ^(L)the things that do not exist. ¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ^(M)“So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was ^(N)as good as dead (^(O)since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered ^(P)the barrenness^[a] of Sarah's womb. ²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that ^(Q)God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³ But ^(R)the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us ^(S)who believe in ^(T)him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ^25 (U)who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised ^(V)for our justification.

Laborers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius^[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶ And ^(A)about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸ And ^(B)when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his ^(C)foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and ^(D)the scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he replied to one of them, ^(E)‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take ^(F)what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ^15 (G)Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or ^(H)do you begrudge my generosity?’^{[b] 16} So ^(I)the last will be first, and the first last.”