Blessings of Obedience

26 ^[a]‘You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you erect an image, a sacred pillar or an obelisk, nor shall you place any figured stone in your land so that you may bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God. ² You shall keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord. ³ If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and [obediently] do them, ⁴ then I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield her produce and the trees of the field bear their fruit. ⁵ And your threshing season will last until grape gathering and the grape gathering [time] will last until planting, and you will eat your bread and be filled and live securely in your land. ⁶ I will also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down and there will be no one to make you afraid. I will also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹ For I will turn toward you [with favor and regard] and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish and confirm My covenant with you.^{(A) 10} You will eat the old supply of [abundant] produce, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new. ¹¹ I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject nor separate itself from you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright [with heads held high as free men].

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not [obediently] do all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul rejects My ordinances, so that you will not [obediently] do all My commandments, and in this way break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to languish also. And you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat what you plant. ¹⁷ I will set My face against you so that ^[b]you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.^{(B) 18} If in spite of all this you still will not listen to Me and be obedient, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break your pride in your power, and I will make your sky like iron [giving no rain and blocking all prayers] and your ground like bronze [hard to plow and yielding no produce].^{(C) 20} Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹ ‘If then, you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times in accordance with your sins. ²² I will let loose the [wild] animals of the field among you, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you so few in number that your roads will lie deserted and desolate.^(D)

²³ ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act ^[c]with hostility against Me, ²⁴ then I also will act with hostility against you, and I will strike you seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will bring a sword on you that will execute vengeance for [breaking] the covenant; and when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence (virulent disease) among you, and you shall be handed over to the enemy.^{(E) 26} When I break your staff of bread [that is, cut off your supply of food], ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration your bread; and you will eat and not be satisfied.^(F)

²⁷ ‘Yet if in spite of this you will not [attentively] listen to Me but act with hostility against me, ²⁸ then I will act with hostility against you in wrath, and I also will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.^{(G) 30} I will destroy your high places [devoted to idolatrous worship], and cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies upon the [crushed] bodies of your idols, and My soul will detest you [with deep and unutterable loathing].^{(H) 31} I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your sweet and soothing aromas [of offerings by fire].^{(I) 32} I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³ I will scatter you among the nations and draw out the sword [of your enemies] after you; your land will become desolate and your cities will become ruins.^(J)

³⁴ ‘Then the land [of Israel] will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest, the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.^{(K) 36} As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them. ³⁷ They shall stumble over one another as if to escape from a sword when no one is chasing them; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies. ³⁸ You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ Those of you who are left will rot away because of their wickedness in the lands of your enemies; also because of the wickedness of their forefathers they will rot away like them.

⁴⁰ ‘If they confess their wickedness and the wickedness of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they have committed against Me—and also in their acting with hostility toward Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—then if their uncircumcised (sin-filled) hearts are humbled and they accept the punishment for their wickedness,^{(L) 42} then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham, and remember the land.^{(M) 43} But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment for their wickedness and make amends because they rejected My ordinances and their soul rejected My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so despise them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.^{(N) 45} But I will, for their sake, [earnestly] remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Valuations

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes a ^[d]special vow [consecrating himself or a member of his family], he shall be valued according to your [established system of] valuation of people belonging to the Lord [that is, the priest accepts from the man making the vow a specified amount of money for the temple treasury in place of the actual person]. ³ If your valuation is of a male between twenty and sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ Or if the person is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ If the person is between five years and twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. ⁶ But if the child is between one month and five years of age, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male and three shekels for the female. ⁷ If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female. ⁸ But if the person is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

⁹ ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ¹⁰ He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; but if he does exchange an animal for an animal, then both the original offering and its substitute shall be holy. ¹¹ If it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall bring the animal before the priest, ¹² and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; it shall be as you, the priest, value it. ¹³ But if he ever wishes to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

¹⁴ ‘If a man consecrates his house as sacred to the Lord, the priest shall appraise it as either good or bad; as the priest appraises it, so shall it stand. ¹⁵ If the one who consecrates his house should wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶ ‘And if a man consecrates to the Lord part of a field of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it; a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, it shall stand according to your valuation. ¹⁸ But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price for him in proportion to the years that remain until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation. ¹⁹ If the one who consecrates the field should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of the appraisal price to it, so that it may return to him. ²⁰ If he does not redeem the field, but has sold it to another man, it may no longer be redeemed. ²¹ When the field reverts in the Jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field set apart (devoted); the priest shall possess it as his property. ²² Or if a man consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not part of the field of his [ancestral] property, ²³ then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and the man shall give that [amount] on that day as a holy thing to the Lord. ²⁴ In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was purchased, to whom the land belonged [as his ancestral inheritance]. ²⁵ Every valuation of yours shall be in accordance with the sanctuary shekel; twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

²⁶ ‘However, the firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may consecrate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is [already] the Lord’s. ²⁷ If it is among the unclean animals, the owner may redeem it in accordance with your valuation, and add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold in accordance with your valuation.

²⁸ ‘But nothing that a man ^[e]sets apart [that is, devotes as an offering] to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or of animal or of the fields of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction (banned, cursed) is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹ No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed [from death], he shall most certainly be put to death.

³⁰ ‘And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.^{(O) 31} If a man wishes to redeem any part of his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it. ³² For every tithe of the herd or flock, whatever ^[f]passes under the [shepherd’s] staff, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.^{(P) 33} The man is not to be concerned whether the animal is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it. But if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy; it shall not be redeemed.’”

³⁴ These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai for the children of Israel.^(Q)

The Paralytic Healed

2 Jesus returned to Capernaum, and a few days later the news went out that He was at home.^{(A) 2} So many people gathered together that there was no longer room [for them], not even near the door; and Jesus was discussing with them the word [of God]. ³ Then they came, bringing to Him a paralyzed man, who was being carried by four men.^{(B) 4} When they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd, they ^[a]removed the roof above Jesus; and when they had dug out an opening, they let down the mat on which the paralyzed man was lying. ⁵ When Jesus saw their [active] faith [springing from confidence in Him], He said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ But some of the ^[b]scribes were sitting there debating in their hearts [the implication of what He had said], ⁷ “Why does this man talk that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins [remove guilt, nullify sin’s penalty, and assign righteousness] except God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus, being fully aware [of their hostility] and knowing in His spirit that they were thinking this, said to them, “Why are you debating and arguing about these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the ^[c]Son of Man has the authority and power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralyzed man, ¹¹ “I say to you, get up, pick up your mat and go home.” ¹² And he got up and immediately picked up the mat and went out before them all, so that they all were astonished and they glorified and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³ Jesus went out again along the [Galilean] seashore; and all the people were coming to Him, and He was teaching them.

Levi (Matthew) Called

¹⁴ As He was passing by, He saw Levi (Matthew) the son of Alphaeus sitting in the ^[d]tax collector’s booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me [as My disciple, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk].” And he got up and followed Him [becoming His disciple, believing and trusting in Him and following His example].^(C)

¹⁵ And it happened that Jesus was ^[e]reclining at the table in Levi’s house, and many tax collectors and sinners [including non-observant Jews] were eating with Him and His disciples; for there were many of them and they were ^[f]following Him. ¹⁶ When the scribes [belonging to the sect] of the ^[g]Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with the sinners [including non-observant Jews] and tax collectors, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat and drink with ^[h]tax collectors and sinners?” ¹⁷ When Jesus heard this, He said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but [only] those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners [who recognize their sin and humbly seek forgiveness].”

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting [as a ritual]; and they came and asked Jesus, “Why are John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting, but Your disciples are not doing so?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered, “The attendants of the bridegroom ^[i]cannot fast while the bridegroom is [still] with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom is [forcefully] ^[j]taken away from them, and they will fast at that time.

²¹ “No one sews a patch of unshrunk (new) cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. ²² No one puts new wine into old ^[k]wineskins; otherwise the [fermenting] wine will [expand and] burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the wineskins. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Question of the Sabbath

²³ One Sabbath He was walking along [with His disciples] through the grainfields, and as they went along, His disciples began picking the heads of grain.^{(D) 24} The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what ^[l]is unlawful on the Sabbath?” ²⁵ Jesus said to them, “Have you never read [in the Scriptures] what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and his companions;^{(E) 26} how he went into the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the sacred bread, which is not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and how he also gave it to the men who were with him?”^{(F) 27} Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.^{(G) 28} So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath [and He has authority over it].”