The Passover Reviewed

16 “Observe the month^[a] of Abib by keeping the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.^{(A) 2} You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name.^{(B) 3} You must not eat with it anything leavened. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it—the bread of affliction—because you came out of the land of Egypt in great haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt.^{(C) 4} No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat of what you slaughter on the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.^{(D) 5} You are not permitted to offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you. ⁶ But at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name, only there shall you offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, the time of day when you departed from Egypt.^{(E) 7} You shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose; the next morning you may go back to your tents.^{(F) 8} For six days you shall continue to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly for the Lord your God, when you shall do no work.^(G)

The Festival of Weeks Reviewed

⁹ “You shall count seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.^{(H) 10} Then you shall keep the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God, contributing a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the Lord your God. ¹¹ Rejoice before the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.^{(I) 12} Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and diligently observe these statutes.^(J)

The Festival of Booths Reviewed

¹³ “You shall keep the Festival of Booths^[b] for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress.^{(K) 14} Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns.^{(L) 15} Seven days you shall keep the festival to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, for the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, and you shall surely celebrate.^(M)

¹⁶ “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Booths.^[c] They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed;^{(N) 17} all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

Municipal Judges and Officers

¹⁸ “You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes, in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall render just decisions for the people.^{(O) 19} You must not distort justice; you must not show partiality; and you must not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.^{(P) 20} Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

²⁵ Then after completing their mission Barnabas and Saul returned to^[a] Jerusalem and brought with them John, whose other name was Mark.^(A)

Barnabas and Saul Commissioned

13 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a childhood friend of Herod the ruler,^[b] and Saul.^{(B) 2} While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”^{(C) 3} Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.^(D)

The Apostles Preach in Cyprus

⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.^{(E) 5} When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. And they had John also to assist them.^{(F) 6} When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.^{(G) 7} He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.^{(H) 8} But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.^{(I) 9} But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him^{(J) 10} and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?^{(K) 11} And now listen—the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he fumbled about for someone to lead him by the hand.^{(L) 12} When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,^{(A) 9} where you shall consult with the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case.^{(B) 10} Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. ¹¹ You must carry out the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you; do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left.^{(C) 12} As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ All the people will hear and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.^(D)

Limitations of Royal Authority

¹⁴ “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’^{(E) 15} you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.^{(F) 16} Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You must never return that way again.’^{(G) 17} And he must not acquire many wives for himself or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.^{(H) 18} When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.^{(I) 19} It shall remain with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes,^{(J) 20} neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.^(K)

Paul and Barnabas in Antioch of Pisidia

¹³ Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem,^{(A) 14} but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.^{(B) 15} After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers,^[a] if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.” ¹⁶ So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:

“Fellow Israelites^[b] and others who fear God, listen. ¹⁷ The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.^{(C) 18} For about forty years he put up with^[c] them in the wilderness.^{(D) 19} After he had destroyed seven peoples in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance^{(E) 20} for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.^{(F) 21} Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.^{(G) 22} When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’^{(H) 23} Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised;^{(I) 24} before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.^{(J) 25} And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of the sandals^[d] on his feet.’^(K)

²⁶ “Brothers and sisters,^[e] you descendants of Abraham’s family and others who fear God, to us^[f] the message of this salvation has been sent. ²⁷ Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him.^{(L) 28} Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed.^{(M) 29} When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.^{(N) 30} But God raised him from the dead,^{(O) 31} and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people.^{(P) 32} And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors^{(Q) 33} he has fulfilled for us, their children,^[g] by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,

³⁴ “As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,

³⁵ “Therefore he has also said in another psalm,

³⁶ “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,^[h] was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption,^{(U) 37} but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. ³⁸ Let it be known to you therefore, brothers and sisters,^[i] that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you;^{(V) 39} by this Jesus^[j] everyone who believes is set free from all those sins^[k] from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.^{(W) 40} Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:^(X)

⁴² As Paul and Barnabas^[l] were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next Sabbath. ⁴³ When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.^(Y)