The Place of Sacrifice

17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel and say to them, This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. ³ If any one of the house of Israel ^(A)kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, ⁴ and ^(B)does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to the Lord in front of the tabernacle of the Lord, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood, and that man ^(C)shall be cut off from among his people. ⁵ This is to the end that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice ^(D)in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord, to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and sacrifice them ^(E)as sacrifices of peace offerings to the Lord. ⁶ And the priest shall ^(F)throw the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and burn the fat ^(G)for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ⁷ So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they ^(H)whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.

⁸ “And you shall say to them, Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who ^(I)offers a burnt offering or sacrifice ⁹ and ^(J)does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to the Lord, ^(K)that man shall be cut off from his people.

Laws Against Eating Blood

¹⁰ “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them ^(L)eats any blood, I will ^(M)set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. ^11 (N)For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar ^(O)to make atonement for your souls, ^(P)for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. ¹² Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

¹³ “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall ^(Q)pour out its blood and ^(R)cover it with earth. ¹⁴ For the life of every creature^[a] is its ^(S)blood: its blood is its life.^[b] Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off. ^15 (T)And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, ^(U)whether he is a native or a sojourner, ^(V)shall wash his clothes and ^(W)bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean. ¹⁶ But if he does not wash them or bathe his flesh, ^(X)he shall bear his iniquity.”

Unlawful Sexual Relations

18 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, ^(Y)I am the Lord your God. ^3 (Z)You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and ^(AA)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 (AB)You shall follow my rules^[c] and keep my statutes and walk in them. ^(AC)I am the Lord your God. ^5 (AD)You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; ^(AE)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 (AF)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 (AG)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. ^9 (AH)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 (AI)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (AJ)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 ^(AK)rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness ^(AL)while her sister is still alive.

^19 (AM)“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. ^20 (AN)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 ^(AO)offer them^[d] to ^(AP)Molech, and so ^(AQ)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. ^22 (AR)You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. ^23 (AS)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 ^(AT)perversion.

^24 (AU)“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, ^(AV)for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, ²⁵ and the ^(AW)land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land ^(AX)vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But ^(AY)you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the ^(AZ)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 (BA)So keep my charge never to practice ^(BB)any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: ^(BC)I am the Lord your God.”

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of ^(A)Ascents.

Greeting

^1 (A)The elder to the elect lady and her children, ^(B)whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who ^(C)know ^(D)the truth, ^2 (E)because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

^3 (F)Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.

Walking in Truth and Love

^4 (G)I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. ⁵ And now I ask you, dear lady—^(H)not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—^(I)that we love one another. ⁶ And ^(J)this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just ^(K)as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. ⁷ For ^(L)many deceivers ^(M)have gone out into the world, ^(N)those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch yourselves, ^(O)so that you may not lose what we^[a] have worked for, but ^(P)may win a full reward. ⁹ Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, ^(Q)does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching ^(R)has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, ^(S)do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, ¹¹ for whoever greets him ^(T)takes part in his wicked works.

Final Greetings

^12 (U)Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. ^(V)Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, ^(W)so that our joy may be complete.

¹³ The children of your elect sister greet you.

Greeting

^1 (A)The elder to the beloved Gaius, ^(B)whom I love in truth.

² Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. ³ For ^(C)I rejoiced greatly when the brothers^[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. ⁴ I have no greater joy than to hear that ^(D)my children are walking in the truth.

Support and Opposition

⁵ Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for ^(E)these brothers, ^(F)strangers as they are, ⁶ who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner ^(G)worthy of God. ⁷ For they have gone out for the sake of ^(H)the name, ^(I)accepting nothing from the Gentiles. ⁸ Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

⁹ I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

¹¹ Beloved, ^(J)do not imitate evil but imitate good. ^(K)Whoever does good is from God; ^(L)whoever does evil has not seen God. ¹² Demetrius ^(M)has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and ^(N)you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

^13 (O)I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. ¹⁴ I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

¹⁵ Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, ^(P)each by name.

Greeting

¹ Jude, a servant^[a] of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

^(A)To those who are called, ^(B)beloved in God the Father and ^(C)kept for^[b] Jesus Christ:

² May ^(D)mercy, ^(E)peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

³ Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our ^(F)common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you ^(G)to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. ⁴ For ^(H)certain people ^(I)have crept in unnoticed ^(J)who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert ^(K)the grace of our God into sensuality and ^(L)deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ Now I want ^(M)to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that ^(N)Jesus, who saved^[c] a people out of the land of Egypt, ^(O)afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And ^(P)the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— ⁷ just as ^(Q)Sodom and Gomorrah and ^(R)the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and ^(S)pursued unnatural desire,^[d] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and ^(T)blaspheme the glorious ones. ⁹ But when ^(U)the archangel ^(V)Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing ^(W)about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ^(X)“The Lord rebuke you.” ^10 (Y)But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. ¹¹ Woe to them! For they walked in ^(Z)the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain ^(AA)to Balaam's error and ^(AB)perished in Korah's rebellion. ¹² These are hidden reefs^{[e] (AC)}at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, ^(AD)shepherds feeding themselves; ^(AE)waterless clouds, ^(AF)swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, ^(AG)uprooted; ^13 (AH)wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of ^(AI)their own shame; ^(AJ)wandering stars, ^(AK)for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ It was also about these that Enoch, ^(AL)the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ^(AM)“Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ^15 (AN)to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have ^(AO)committed in such an ungodly way, and of all ^(AP)the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶ These are grumblers, malcontents, ^(AQ)following their own sinful desires; ^(AR)they are loud-mouthed boasters, ^(AS)showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But you must ^(AT)remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ They^[f] said to you, ^(AU)“In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” ¹⁹ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, ^(AV)devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰ But you, beloved, ^(AW)building yourselves up in your most holy faith and ^(AX)praying in the Holy Spirit, ^21 (AY)keep yourselves in the love of God, ^(AZ)waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ²² And have mercy on those who doubt; ²³ save others by ^(BA)snatching them out of ^(BB)the fire; to others show mercy ^(BC)with fear, hating even ^(BD)the garment^[g] stained by the flesh.

Doxology

^24 (BE)Now to him who is able ^(BF)to keep you from stumbling and ^(BG)to present you ^(BH)blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to ^(BI)the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, ^(BJ)be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time^[h] and now and forever. Amen.