⁵ “You must bake twelve flat loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts^[a] of flour for each loaf.

³⁰ Place the Bread of the Presence on the table to remain before me at all times.

²³ And he arranged the Bread of the Presence on the table before the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded him.

³¹ He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel,^[a]

⁴ “We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.”

⁵ “Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!”

Greetings from James

1 This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad.

Greetings!

⁷ In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope!

⁴ He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat.