People Are Sent Outside the Camp

5 The Lord told Moses ^2-3 to say to the people of Israel, “Put out of the camp everyone who has leprosy^[a] or a bodily discharge or who has touched a dead body. Now that I live among my people, their camp must be kept clean.”

⁴ The Israelites obeyed the Lord's instructions.

The Penalty for Committing a Crime

(Leviticus 6.1-7)

^5 (A) The Lord told Moses ⁶ to say to the community of Israel:

If any of you commit a crime against someone, you have sinned against me. ⁷ You must confess your guilt and pay the victim in full for whatever damage has been done, plus a fine of 20 percent. ⁸ If the victim has no relative who can accept this money, it belongs to me and will be paid to the priest. In addition to that payment, you must take a ram for the priest to sacrifice so your sin will be forgiven.

^9-10 When you make a donation to the sacred tent, that money belongs only to the priest, and each priest will keep what is given to him.

A Suspicious Husband

¹¹ The Lord told Moses ^12-14 to say to the people of Israel:

Suppose a man becomes jealous and suspects that his wife has been unfaithful, but he has no proof. ¹⁵ He must take his wife to the priest, together with one kilogram of ground barley as an offering to find out if she is guilty. No olive oil or incense is to be put on that offering.

¹⁶ The priest will lead the woman to my altar and make her stand there. ¹⁷ He will then pour sacred water into a clay jar and stir in some dust from the floor of the sacred tent. ^18-22 Next, he will remove her veil, then hand her the barley offering, and say, “If you have been faithful to your husband, this water won't harm you. But if you have been unfaithful, it will bring down the Lord's curse—you will never be able to give birth to a child, and everyone will curse your name.”

Then the woman will answer, “If I am guilty, let it happen just as you say.”

²³ The priest will write these curses on special paper and wash them off into the bitter water, ²⁴ so that when the woman drinks this water, the curses will enter her body. ²⁵ He will take the barley offering from her and lift it up^[b] in dedication to me, the Lord. Then he will place it on my altar ²⁶ and burn part of it as a sacrifice. After that, the woman must drink the bitter water.

²⁷ If the woman has been unfaithful, the water will immediately make her unable to have children, and she will be a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if she is innocent, her body will not be harmed, and she will still be able to have children.

^29-30 This is the ceremony that must take place at my altar when a husband suspects that his wife has been unfaithful. The priest must tell the woman to stand in my presence and carefully follow these instructions. ³¹ If the husband is wrong, he will not be punished; but if his wife is guilty, she will be punished.

Rules for Nazirites

6 The Lord told Moses ² to say to the people of Israel:

If any of you want to dedicate yourself to me by vowing to become a Nazirite, ^3 (B) you must no longer drink any wine or beer or use any kind of vinegar. Don't drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins— ⁴ not even the seeds or skins.

⁵ The hair of a Nazirite is sacred to me, and as long as you are a Nazirite, you must never cut your hair.

⁶ During the time that you are a Nazirite, you must never go close to a dead body, ^7-8 not even that of your father, mother, brother, or sister. That would make you unclean. Your hair is the sign that you are dedicated to me, so remain holy.

⁹ If someone suddenly dies near you, your hair is no longer sacred, and you must shave it seven days later during the ceremony to make you clean. ¹⁰ Then on the next day, bring two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the sacred tent. ¹¹ He will offer one of the birds as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a sacrifice to please me.^[c] You will then be forgiven for being too near a dead body, and your hair will again become sacred. ¹² But the dead body made you unacceptable, so you must make another vow to become a Nazirite and be dedicated once more. Finally, a year-old ram must be offered as the sacrifice to make things right.

^13 (C) When you have completed your promised time of being a Nazirite, go to the sacred tent ¹⁴ and offer three animals that have nothing wrong with them: a year-old ram as a sacrifice to please me, a year-old female lamb as a sacrifice for sin, and a full-grown ram as a sacrifice to ask my blessing.^{[d] 15} Wine offerings and grain sacrifices must also be brought with these animals. Finally, you are to bring a basket of bread made with your finest flour and olive oil, but without yeast. Also bring some thin wafers brushed with oil.

¹⁶ The priest will take these gifts to my altar and offer them, so that I will be pleased and will forgive you. ¹⁷ Then he will sacrifice the ram and offer the wine, grain, and bread.

¹⁸ After that, you will stand at the entrance to the sacred tent, shave your head, and put the hair in the fire where the priest has offered the sacrifice to ask my blessing.

¹⁹ Once the meat from the ram's shoulder has been boiled, the priest will take it, along with one loaf of bread and one wafer brushed with oil, and give them to you. ²⁰ You will hand them back to the priest, who will lift them up^[e] in dedication to me. Then he can eat the meat from the ram's shoulder, its choice ribs, and its hind leg, because this is his share of the sacrifice. After this, you will no longer be a Nazirite, and you will be free to drink wine.

²¹ These are the requirements for Nazirites. However, if you can afford to offer more, you must do so.

The Blessing for the People

²² The Lord told Moses, ²³ “When Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel, they must say:

²⁷ Then the Lord said, “If Aaron and his sons ask me to bless the Israelites, I will give them my blessing.”

A Story about a Farmer

(Matthew 13.1-9; Luke 8.4-8)

4 ^(A) The next time Jesus taught beside Lake Galilee, a big crowd gathered. It was so large that he had to sit in a boat out on the lake, while the people stood on the shore. ² He used stories to teach them many things, and this is part of what he taught:

³ Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. ⁴ While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. ⁵ Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn't very deep. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have deep roots. ⁷ Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain. ⁸ But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants grew and produced 30 or 60 or even 100 times as much as was scattered.

⁹ Then Jesus said, “If you have ears, pay attention.”

Why Jesus Used Stories

(Matthew 13.10-17; Luke 8.9,10)

¹⁰ When Jesus was alone with the twelve apostles and some others, they asked him about these stories. ¹¹ He answered:

I have explained the secret about God's kingdom to you, but for others I can use only stories. ^12 (B) The reason is,

Jesus Explains the Story about the Farmer

(Matthew 13.18-23; Luke 8.11-15)

¹³ Jesus then told them:

If you don't understand this story, you won't understand any others. ¹⁴ What the farmer is spreading is really the message about the kingdom. ¹⁵ The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message. But Satan soon comes and snatches it away from them. ¹⁶ The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it at once. ¹⁷ But they don't have roots, and they don't last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.

¹⁸ The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. ¹⁹ But they start worrying about the needs of this life. They are fooled by the desire to get rich and to have all kinds of other things. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything. ²⁰ The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and welcome the message. They produce 30 or 60 or even 100 times as much as was planted.