Laws on Immoral Relations

18 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(A)I am the Lord your God. ³ You shall not do ^[a]what is ^(B)done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do ^[b]what is ^(C)done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes. ⁴ You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, ^[c]to live in accord with them; ^(D)I am the Lord your God. ⁵ So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, ^(E)by which a man may live if he does them; I am the Lord.

⁶ ‘None of you shall approach any blood relative ^[d]of his to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord. ^7 (F)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness. ^8 (G)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ^9 (H)The nakedness of your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born outside, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ¹⁰ The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for ^[e]their nakedness is yours. ¹¹ The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, ^[f]born to your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^12 (I)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s blood relative. ^14 (J)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother; you shall not approach his wife, she is your aunt. ^15 (K)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, you shall not uncover her nakedness. ^16 (L)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ^17 (M)You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are blood relatives. It is ^[g]lewdness. ¹⁸ You shall not ^[h]marry a woman in addition to ^[i]her sister ^[j]as a rival while she is alive, to uncover her nakedness.

¹⁹ ‘^(N)Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her ^(O)menstrual impurity. ^20 (P)You shall not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her. ²¹ You shall not give any of your offspring ^(Q)to ^[k]offer them to Molech, nor shall you ^(R)profane the name of your God; I am the Lord. ^22 (S)You shall not lie with a male as ^[l]one lies with a female; it is an abomination. ^23 (T)Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to ^[m]mate with it; it is a perversion.

²⁴ ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these ^(U)the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. ²⁵ For the land has become defiled, ^(V)therefore I have brought its ^[n]punishment upon it, so the land ^(W)has spewed out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); ²⁸ so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you. ²⁹ For whoever does any of these abominations, ^[o]those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Thus you are to keep ^(X)My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; ^(Y)I am the Lord your God.’”

Idolatry Forbidden

19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

² “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(Z)You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ Every one of you ^(AA)shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep ^(AB)My sabbaths; ^(AC)I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to ^(AD)idols or make for yourselves molten ^(AE)gods; I am the Lord your God.

⁵ ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and the next day; but what remains until the third day shall be burned with fire. ⁷ So if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an offense; it will not be accepted. ⁸ Everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Sundry Laws

⁹ ‘^(AF)Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ ‘^(AG)You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, ^(AH)nor lie to one another. ^12 (AI)You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to ^(AJ)profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

¹³ ‘^(AK)You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. ^(AL)The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. ¹⁴ You shall not curse a deaf man, nor ^(AM)place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.

¹⁵ ‘^(AN)You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ You shall not go about as ^(AO)a slanderer among your people, and you are not to ^[p]act against the ^[q](AP)life of your neighbor; I am the Lord.

¹⁷ ‘You ^(AQ)shall not hate your ^[r]fellow countryman in your heart; you ^(AR)may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. ^18 (AS)You shall not take vengeance, ^(AT)nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but ^(AU)you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

¹⁹ ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; ^(AV)you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.

²⁰ ‘^(AW)Now if a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free. ²¹ He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord to the doorway of the tent of meeting, ^(AX)a ram for a guilt offering. ²² The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.

²³ ‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as ^[s]forbidden. Three years it shall be ^[t]forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten. ²⁴ But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ In the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ ‘You shall not eat anything ^(AY)with the blood, nor practice ^(AZ)divination or soothsaying. ^27 (BA)You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any cuts in your ^[u]body for the ^[v]dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

²⁹ ‘^(BB)Do not ^[w]profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the land will not fall to harlotry and the land become full of lewdness. ³⁰ You shall ^(BC)keep My sabbaths and ^(BD)revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord.

³¹ ‘Do not turn to ^[x](BE)mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

³² ‘^(BF)You shall rise up before the grayheaded and honor the ^[y]aged, and you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.

³³ ‘^(BG)When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ³⁴ The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and ^(BH)you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

³⁵ ‘^(BI)You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight, or capacity. ³⁶ You shall have ^(BJ)just balances, just weights, a just ^[z]ephah, and a just ^[aa]hin; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt. ³⁷ You shall thus observe all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.’”

An Appeal against the Devastation of the Land by the Enemy.

A ^[a]Maskil of Asaph.

Parable of the Vine-growers

12 ^(A)And He began to speak to them in parables: “^(B)A man ^(C)planted a vineyard and put a ^[a]wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to ^[b]vine-growers and went on a journey. ² At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. ³ They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. ⁵ And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. ⁶ He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the ^[c]owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not even read this Scripture:

^12 (F)And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the ^[d]people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so ^(G)they left Him and went away.

Jesus Answers the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes

^13 (H)Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and ^(I)Herodians to Him in order to ^(J)trap Him in a statement. ¹⁴ They *came and *said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and ^[e]defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it ^[f]lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? ¹⁵ Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a ^[g]denarius to look at.” ¹⁶ They brought one. And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “^(K)Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they ^[h]were amazed at Him.

^18 (L)Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) *came to Jesus, and began questioning Him, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ^(M)if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should ^[i]marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. ²¹ The second one ^[j]married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; ²² and so ^[k]all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. ²³ In the resurrection, ^[l]when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For ^[m]all seven had married her.” ²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not ^[n]understand the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ But ^[o]regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, ^(N)in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘^(O)I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ^27 (P)He is not the God ^[p]of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”