The Daily Audio Bible
Various Laws
23 [a]A man whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off may never join the assembly of the Lord.
2 A man born from an illicit union may not join the assembly of the Lord. No descendant of his may join the assembly of the Lord for ten generations.
3 Ammonites or Moabites may not join the assembly of the Lord. Not one descendant of theirs may join the assembly of the Lord for ten generations. 4 They cannot join because they didn’t greet you with food and water on your trip from Egypt. They even hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. Instead, he turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. 6 Never offer them peace or friendship as long as you live.
7 Never consider the Edomites disgusting. They’re your relatives. Never consider the Egyptians disgusting. You once were foreigners living in their country. 8 Their grandchildren may join the assembly of the Lord.
9 When you’re at war and have set up camp to fight your enemies, stay away from anything that will make you unclean.[b] 10 If one of your men becomes unclean from a nocturnal emission, he must go outside the camp and stay there. 11 Toward evening he must wash, and at sunset he may come back to camp.
12 Choose a place outside the camp where you can go ⌞to relieve yourself⌟. 13 You must carry a pointed stick as part of your equipment. When you go outside to squat, dig a hole with it. When you’re done, cover up your excrement. 14 The Lord your God moves around in your camp to protect you and hand your enemies over to you. So your camp must always be holy. This way, the Lord will never see anything offensive among you and turn away from you.
15 If a slave escapes from his master and comes to you, don’t return him to his master. 16 Let him stay with you ⌞and live⌟ among your people wherever he chooses, in any of your cities that seems best to him. Never mistreat him.
17 No Israelite man or woman should ever become a temple prostitute. 18 Never bring gifts or money earned by prostitution into the house of the Lord your God as an offering you vowed to give. These earnings are disgusting to the Lord your God.
19 Never charge another Israelite any interest on money, food, or anything else that is borrowed. 20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not an Israelite. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do once you’ve entered the land and taken possession of it.
21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, don’t avoid keeping it. The Lord your God expects you to keep it. You would be guilty of a sin if you didn’t. 22 If you didn’t make a vow, you would not be guilty. 23 Make sure you do what you said you would do ⌞in your vow⌟. You freely chose to make your vow to the Lord your God.
24 If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you like until you’re full. But never put any in your basket. 25 If you go into your neighbor’s grain field, you may pick grain by hand. But never use a sickle to cut your neighbor’s grain.
Various Laws
24 This is what you must do if a husband writes out a certificate of divorce, gives it to his wife, and makes her leave his house. (He divorced her because he found out something indecent about her and she no longer pleased him.) 2 She might marry another man after she leaves his house. 3 If her second husband doesn’t love her and divorces her, or if he dies, 4 her first husband is not allowed to marry her again. She has become unclean.[c] This would be disgusting in the Lord’s presence. Don’t pollute with sin the land that the Lord your God is giving you as your property.
5 A man who has recently been married will be free from military duty or any other public service. For one year he is free to stay at home and make his new wife happy.
6 Never let a family’s handmill for grinding flour—or even part of a handmill—be taken to guarantee a loan. The family wouldn’t be able to prepare food in order to stay alive.
7 Whoever kidnaps another Israelite must die. The kidnapper must die, whether he treated the other person like a slave or sold him. You must get rid of this evil.
8 Guard against outbreaks of serious skin diseases. Be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical priests instruct you. Make sure you do what I commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on your trip from Egypt.
10 When you make a loan to your neighbor, don’t go into his house to take a security deposit. 11 Wait outside, and the person to whom you’re making the loan will bring the deposit out to you. 12 If the person is poor, don’t keep the coat you took as a deposit overnight. 13 Make sure you bring it back to him at sunset. When he wears his coat to bed ⌞that night⌟, he’ll bless you. You will have done the right thing in the presence of the Lord your God.
14 Don’t withhold pay from hired workers who are poor and needy, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your cities. 15 Pay them each day before sunset because they are poor and need their pay. Otherwise, they will complain to the Lord about you, and you will be condemned for your sin.
16 Parents must never be put to death for the crimes of their children, and children must never be put to death for the crimes of their parents. Each person must be put to death for his own crime.
17 Never deprive foreigners and orphans of justice. And never take widows’ clothes to guarantee a loan. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from slavery. So I’m commanding you to do this.
19 This is what you must do when you’re harvesting wheat in your field. If you forget to bring in one of the bundles of wheat, don’t go back to get it. Leave it there for foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.
20 When you harvest olives from your trees, never knock down all of them. Leave some for foreigners, orphans, and widows.
21 When you pick the grapes in your vineyard, don’t pick all of them. Leave some for foreigners, orphans, and widows. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. So I’m commanding you to do this.
Various Laws
25 This is what you must do whenever ⌞two⌟ people have a disagreement that is brought into court. The judges will hear the case and decide who’s right and who’s wrong. 2 If the person who’s in the wrong deserves to be beaten, the judge will order him to lie down. Then the judge will have him beaten with as many lashes as the crime deserves. 3 Forty lashes may be given, but no more. If an Israelite were given more than that, he would be publicly humiliated.
4 Never muzzle an ox when it’s threshing [d] grain.
5 When brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother must marry her and sleep with her. He must do his duty as her brother-in-law. 6 Then the first son she has will carry the dead brother’s name so that his name won’t die out in Israel.
7 But if the man doesn’t want to marry his brother’s widow, she must go to the leaders of the city at the city gate. She must say, “My brother-in-law refuses to let his brother’s name continue in Israel. He doesn’t want to do his duty as my brother-in-law.” 8 Then the leaders of the city must summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying that he doesn’t want to marry her, 9 his brother’s widow must go up to him in the presence of the leaders. She must take off one of his sandals and spit in his face. She must make this formal statement: “This is what happens to a man who refuses to continue his brother’s family line.” 10 Then in Israel his family will be called the Family of the Man Without a Sandal.
11 This is what you must do when two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from the man who is beating him. If she tries to stop the fight by grabbing the other man’s genitals, 12 cut off her hand. Have no pity on her.
13 Never carry two sets of weights, a heavier one and a lighter one. 14 Never have two kinds of measures in your house, a larger one and a smaller one. 15 Use accurate and honest weights and measures. Then you will live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 16 Everyone who uses dishonest weights and measures is disgusting to the Lord.
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you on your trip from Egypt. 18 They attacked you when you were tired and exhausted and killed all those who were lagging behind. They weren’t afraid of God. 19 So when the Lord your God gives you peace from all your enemies around you in the land that he is giving you as your own property, don’t forget to erase every memory of the Amalekites from the earth.
13 “How horrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How horrible it will be for you, Bethsaida! If the miracles worked in your cities had been worked in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed the way they thought and acted. Long ago they would have worn sackcloth and sat in ashes. 14 Judgment day will be better for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to heaven? No, you will go to hell!
16 “The person who hears you hears me, and the person who rejects you rejects me. The person who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
17 The 70 disciples came back very happy. They said, “Lord, even demons obey us when we use the power and authority of your name!”
18 Jesus said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 I have given you the authority to trample snakes and scorpions and to destroy the enemy’s power. Nothing will hurt you. 20 However, don’t be happy that evil spirits obey you. Be happy that your names are written in heaven.”
21 In that hour the Holy Spirit filled Jesus with joy. Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from wise and intelligent people and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, this is what pleased you.
22 “My Father has turned everything over to me. Only the Father knows who the Son is. And no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son is willing to reveal him.”
23 He turned to his disciples in private and said to them, “How blessed you are to see what you’ve seen. 24 I can guarantee that many prophets and kings wanted to see and hear what you’ve seen and heard, but they didn’t.”
A Story about a Good Samaritan
25 Then an expert in Moses’ Teachings stood up to test Jesus. He asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus answered him, “What is written in Moses’ Teachings? What do you read there?”
27 He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ”
28 Jesus told him, “You’re right! Do this, and life will be yours.”
29 But the man wanted to justify his question. So he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
30 Jesus replied, “A man went from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way robbers stripped him, beat him, and left him for dead.
31 “By chance, a priest was traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he went around him and continued on his way. 32 Then a Levite came to that place. When he saw the man, he, too, went around him and continued on his way.
33 “But a Samaritan, as he was traveling along, came across the man. When the Samaritan saw him, he felt sorry for the man, 34 went to him, and cleaned and bandaged his wounds. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day the Samaritan took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than that, I’ll pay you on my return trip.’
36 “Of these three men, who do you think was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by robbers?”
37 The expert said, “The one who was kind enough to help him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and imitate his example!”
For the choir director; al tashcheth; a psalm by Asaph; a song.
75 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks.
You are present, and your miracles confirm that.
2 When I choose the right time,
I will judge fairly.
3 When the earth and everyone who lives on it begin to melt,
I will make its foundations as solid as rock. Selah
4 I said to those who brag, “Don’t brag,”
and to wicked people,
“Don’t raise your weapons.
5 Don’t raise your weapons so proudly
or speak so defiantly.”
6 The ⌞authority⌟ to reward someone does not ⌞come⌟
from the east,
from the west,
or ⌞even⌟ from the wilderness.
7 God alone is the judge.
He punishes one person and rewards another.
8 A cup is in the Lord’s hand.
(Its foaming wine is thoroughly mixed with spices.)
He will empty it,
⌞and⌟ all the wicked people on earth
will have to drink every last drop.
9 But I will speak ⌞about your miracles⌟ forever.
I will make music to praise the God of Jacob.
10 I will destroy all the weapons of wicked people,
but the weapons of righteous people will be raised proudly.
12 A wicked person delights in setting a trap for ⌞other⌟ evil people,
but the roots of righteous people produce ⌞fruit⌟.
13 An evil person is trapped by his own sinful talk,
but a righteous person escapes from trouble.
14 One person enjoys good things as a result of his speaking ability.
Another is paid according to what his hands have accomplished.
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