²⁰ “^(A)He who sacrifices to ^[a]any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be ^[b]utterly destroyed.

²¹ “^(B)You shall not oppress a stranger nor torment him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ^22 (C)You shall not oppress any widow or orphan. ²³ If you oppress him at all, and ^(D)if he does cry out to Me, ^(E)I will assuredly hear his cry; ²⁴ and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, ^(F)and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

²⁵ “^(G)If you lend money to My people, to the poor ^[c]among you, you are not to ^[d]act as a creditor to him; you shall not ^[e]charge him ^(H)interest. ²⁶ If you ever seize your neighbor’s cloak ^(I)as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, ²⁷ for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his ^[f]body. What else is he to sleep in? And it will come about that ^(J)when he cries out to Me, I will listen to him, for ^(K)I am gracious.

²⁸ “You shall not ^[g](L)curse God, ^(M)nor curse a ruler of your people.

²⁹ “^(N)You shall not hold back the offering from your entire harvest and your ^[h]wine. ^(O)The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me. ^30 (P)You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother for seven days; ^(Q)on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.

³¹ “^(R)You shall be holy people to Me, therefore ^(S)you shall not eat any flesh torn to pieces in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.

Various Laws

23 “^(T)You shall not give a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked person to be a ^(U)malicious witness. ² You shall not follow ^[i]the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you ^[j]testify in a dispute so as to join together with ^[k]a crowd in order to ^(V)pervert justice; ^3 (W)nor shall you ^[l]show favor to a poor person in his dispute.

⁴ “^(X)If you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you must return it to him. ^5 (Y)If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall not leave it helpless for ^[m]its owner; you must arrange the load with him.

⁶ “^(Z)You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. ^7 (AA)Keep far from a false charge, and ^(AB)do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for ^(AC)I will not acquit the guilty.

⁸ “^(AD)You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ^[n]subverts the cause of the just.

⁹ “^(AE)You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the ^[o]feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Sabbath and the Land

¹⁰ “Now ^(AF)you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, ¹¹ but in the seventh year you shall let it ^[p]rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹² “^(AG)For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves. ¹³ Now ^(AH)concerning everything which I have said to you, be careful; and ^(AI)do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ^[q]from your mouth.

Three National Feasts

¹⁴ “^(AJ)Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. ¹⁵ You shall keep ^(AK)the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^(AL)month of Abib, for in ^[r]that month you came out of Egypt. And ^[s](AM)no one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ¹⁶ Also you shall keep ^(AN)the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year ^(AO)when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. ^17 (AP)Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord ^[t]God.

Words to the Jews

^41 (A)So then the Jews were complaining about Him because He said, “I am the bread that ^(B)came down out of heaven.” ⁴² And they were saying, “^(C)Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother ^(D)we know? How does He now say, ‘^(E)I have come down out of heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop complaining among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me ^(F)draws him; and I will ^(G)raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written ^(H)in the Prophets: ‘^(I)And they shall all be ^(J)taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. ^46 (K)Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes ^(L)has eternal life. ^48 (M)I am the bread of life. ^49 (N)Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that ^(O)comes down out of heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and ^(P)not die. ^51 (Q)I am the living bread that ^(R)came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, ^(S)he will live forever; and the bread which I will give ^(T)for the life of the world also is ^(U)My flesh.”

^52 (V)Then the Jews ^(W)began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of ^(X)the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will ^(Y)raise him up on the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood ^(Z)remains in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ Just as the ^(AA)living Father ^(AB)sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that ^(AC)came down out of heaven, not as ^(AD)the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread ^(AE)will live forever.”

Words to the Disciples

⁵⁹ These things He said ^(AF)in the synagogue as He taught ^(AG)in Capernaum.

⁶⁰ So then many of His ^(AH)disciples, when they heard this, said, “^(AI)This statement is very ^[a]unpleasant; who can listen to it?” ⁶¹ But Jesus, ^(AJ)aware that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, “Is this ^[b](AK)offensive to you? ⁶² What then if you see ^(AL)the Son of Man ^(AM)ascending to where He was before? ^63 (AN)It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; ^(AO)the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are ^(AP)some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus ^(AQ)knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and ^(AR)who it was who would ^[c]betray Him. ⁶⁵ And He was saying, “For this reason I have ^(AS)told you that no one can come to Me unless ^(AT)it has been granted him from the Father.”

Peter’s Confession of Faith

⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His ^(AU)disciples ^(AV)left, and would no longer walk with Him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to ^(AW)the twelve, “You do not want to leave also, do you?” ^68 (AX)Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have ^(AY)words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ And we have already believed and have come to know that You are ^(AZ)the Holy One of God.” ⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, “^(BA)Did I Myself not choose you, ^(BB)the twelve? And yet one of you is ^(BC)a devil.” ⁷¹ Now He meant Judas ^(BD)the son of Simon Iscariot; for he, ^(BE)one of ^(BF)the twelve, ^[d]was going to betray Him.

¹⁸ “^(A)You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; ^(B)nor is the fat of My ^[a]feast to remain overnight until morning.

¹⁹ “You shall bring ^(C)the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.

“^(D)You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Conquest of the Land

²⁰ “Behold, I am going to send ^(E)an angel before you to guard you along the way and ^(F)to bring you into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Be attentive to him and obey his voice; ^(G)do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your rebellion, since ^(H)My name is in him. ²² But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then ^(I)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. ^23 (J)For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will completely destroy them. ^24 (K)You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; ^(L)but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^(M)memorial stones in pieces. ^25 (N)And you shall serve the Lord your God, ^[b]and He will bless your bread and your water; and ^(O)I will remove sickness from your midst. ²⁶ There will be no one miscarrying or ^(P)unable to have children in your land; ^(Q)I will fulfill the number of your days. ²⁷ I will ^(R)send My terror ahead of you, and ^(S)throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will ^(T)make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And I will send ^(U)hornets ahead of you so that they will ^(V)drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you. ^29 (W)I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you. ³⁰ I will drive them out from you ^(X)little by little, until you become fruitful and take possession of the land. ^31 (Y)I will set your boundary from the ^[c]Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; ^(Z)for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will ^(AA)drive them out from you. ^32 (AB)You shall ^[d]make no covenant with them ^(AC)or with their gods. ^33 (AD)They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, ^(AE)it is certain to be a snare to you.”

The Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, ^(A)be strong in the Lord and in ^(B)the strength of His might. ^11 (C)Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the ^(D)schemes of the devil. ¹² For our ^(E)struggle is not against ^[a](F)flesh and blood, but ^(G)against the rulers, against the powers, against the ^(H)world forces of this ^(I)darkness, against the ^(J)spiritual forces of wickedness in ^(K)the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up ^(L)the full armor of God, so that you will be able to ^(M)resist on ^(N)the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴ Stand firm therefore, ^(O)having belted your waist with truth, and having ^(P)put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having ^(Q)strapped on your feet the preparation of the gospel of peace; ^16 [b]in addition to all, taking up the ^(R)shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the ^(S)flaming arrows of ^(T)the evil one. ¹⁷ And take ^(U)the helmet of salvation and the ^(V)sword of the Spirit, which is ^(W)the word of God.

^18 [c]With every ^(X)prayer and request, ^[d](Y)pray at all times ^(Z)in the Spirit, and with this in view, ^[e](AA)be alert with all ^(AB)perseverance and every ^(AC)request for all the ^[f]saints, ¹⁹ and ^(AD)pray in my behalf, that speech may be given to me ^(AE)in the opening of my mouth, to make known with ^(AF)boldness ^(AG)the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ^(AH)ambassador ^(AI)in ^[g]chains; that ^[h]in proclaiming it I may speak ^(AJ)boldly, ^(AK)as I ought to speak.

^21 (AL)Now, so that you also may know about my circumstances as to ^[i]what I am doing, ^(AM)Tychicus, ^(AN)the beloved brother and faithful ^[j]servant in the Lord, will make everything known to you. ^22 [k](AO)I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know ^[l]about us, and that he may ^(AP)comfort your hearts.

^23 (AQ)Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and ^(AR)love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ ^[m]with incorruptible love.