Unlawful Sexual Relations

18 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(A)I am the Lord your God. ^3 (B)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(C)you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. ^4 (D)You shall follow my rules^[a] and keep my statutes and walk in them. ^(E)I am the Lord your God. ^5 (F)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; ^(G)if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.

⁶ “None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. ^7 (H)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^8 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. ^9 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. ¹⁰ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. ¹¹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, brought up in your father's family, since she is your sister. ¹² You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; she is your father's relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's relative. ¹⁴ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ^15 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is your brother's nakedness. ¹⁷ You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, and you shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives; it is depravity. ¹⁸ And you shall not take a woman as a ^(M)rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness ^(N)while her sister is still alive.

^19 (O)“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. ^20 (P)And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your children to ^(Q)offer them^[b] to ^(R)Molech, and so ^(S)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ^22 (T)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. ^23 (U)And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is ^(V)perversion.

^24 (W)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(X)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the ^(Y)land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land ^(Z)vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But ^(AA)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(AB)native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. ^30 (AC)So keep my charge never to practice ^(AD)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(AE)I am the Lord your God.”

The Lord Is Holy

19 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, ^(AF)You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ^3 (AG)Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and ^(AH)you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ^4 (AI)Do not turn to idols ^(AJ)or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

^5 (AK)“When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so ^(AL)that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. ⁷ If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is ^(AM)tainted; it will not be accepted, ⁸ and everyone who eats it shall ^(AN)bear his iniquity, because ^(AO)he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

^9 (AP)“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

^11 (AQ)“You shall not steal; ^(AR)you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. ^12 (AS)You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so ^(AT)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

^13 (AU)“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. ^(AV)The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. ^14 (AW)You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall ^(AX)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^15 (AY)“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. ^16 (AZ)You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not ^(BA)stand up against the life^[c] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

^17 (BB)“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but ^(BC)you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you ^(BD)incur sin because of him. ^18 (BE)You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but ^(BF)you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

You Shall Keep My Statutes

^19 (BG)“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. ^(BH)You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

²⁰ “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; ²¹ but ^(BI)he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

²³ “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden.^[d] Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. ²⁴ And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.

^26 (BJ)“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. ^(BK)You shall not interpret omens or ^(BL)tell fortunes. ^27 (BM)You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any ^(BN)cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.

^29 (BO)“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. ^30 (BP)You shall keep my Sabbaths and ^(BQ)reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

^31 (BR)“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

^32 (BS)“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall ^(BT)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^33 (BU)“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ^34 (BV)You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and ^(BW)you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

^35 (BX)“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. ^36 (BY)You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin:^[e] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ And ^(BZ)you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

How Long, O Lord?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

Paul in Ephesus

19 And it happened that while ^(A)Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed ^(B)through the inland^[a] country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, ^(C)“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, ^(D)we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, ^(E)“Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into ^(F)John's baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, ^(G)“John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people ^(H)to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, ^(I)they were baptized in^[b] the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And ^(J)when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and ^(K)they began speaking in tongues and ^(L)prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

⁸ And ^(M)he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them ^(N)about the kingdom of God. ^9 (O)But when some became stubborn and ^(P)continued in unbelief, speaking evil of ^(Q)the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.^{[c] 10} This continued for ^(R)two years, so that ^(S)all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ And ^(T)God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ^12 (U)so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and ^(V)the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish ^(W)exorcists ^(X)undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ^(Y)“I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, ^(Z)“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all^[d] of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and ^(AA)the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, ^(AB)confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord ^(AC)continued to increase and prevail mightily.

A Riot at Ephesus

²¹ Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit ^(AD)to pass through ^(AE)Macedonia and Achaia and ^(AF)go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, ^(AG)I must also see Rome.” ²² And having sent into Macedonia two of ^(AH)his helpers, ^(AI)Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia ^(AJ)for a while.

²³ About that time ^(AK)there arose no little disturbance concerning ^(AL)the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, ^(AM)brought no little business to the craftsmen. ^25 (AN)These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, ^(AO)saying that ^(AP)gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ^(AQ)great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸ When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, ^(AR)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and ^(AS)Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul's ^(AT)companions in travel. ³⁰ But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. ³¹ And even some of the Asiarchs,^[e] who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. ^32 (AU)Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. ³³ Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, ^(AV)motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. ³⁴ But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, ^(AW)“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵ And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from ^(AX)the sky?^{[f] 36} Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. ³⁷ For you have brought ^(AY)these men here who are neither ^(AZ)sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. ³⁸ If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are ^(BA)proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. ³⁹ But if you seek anything further,^[g] it shall be settled in the regular assembly. ⁴⁰ For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” ⁴¹ And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.