My Refuge and My Fortress

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

26 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ^2 (A)you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall ^(B)go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³ And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ^(C)that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵ “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A ^(D)wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, ^(E)few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶ And ^(F)the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷ Then ^(G)we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸ And ^(H)the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(I)with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,^[a] with signs and wonders. ⁹ And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, ^(J)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹ And ^(K)you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

⁸ But what does it say? ^(A)“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹ because, if ^(B)you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and ^(C)believe in your heart ^(D)that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, ^(E)“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ^12 (F)For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; ^(G)for the same Lord is Lord of all, ^(H)bestowing his riches on all who call on him. ¹³ For ^(I)“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

10 After this the Lord appointed ^(A)seventy-two^[a] others and ^(B)sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. ^2 (C)And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ^(D)Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. ³ Go your way; ^(E)behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. ^4 (F)Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and ^(G)greet no one on the road. ⁵ Whatever house you enter, first say, ^(H)‘Peace be to this house!’ ⁶ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, ^(I)it will return to you. ⁷ And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for ^(J)the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. ⁸ Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. ⁹ Heal the sick in it and say to them, ^(K)‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ^11 (L)‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that ^(M)the kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹² I tell you, ^(N)it will be more bearable on ^(O)that day for Sodom than for that town.

Woe to Unrepentant Cities

^13 (P)“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in ^(Q)Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ^14 (R)But it will be more bearable in the judgment for ^(S)Tyre and Sidon than for you. ¹⁵ And you, Capernaum, ^(T)will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to ^(U)Hades.

^16 (V)“The one who hears you hears me, and ^(W)the one who rejects you rejects me, and ^(X)the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”