The Lord Is Holy

19 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, ^(A)You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ^3 (B)Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and ^(C)you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ^4 (D)Do not turn to idols ^(E)or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

^5 (F)“When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so ^(G)that you may be accepted. ⁶ It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. ⁷ If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is ^(H)tainted; it will not be accepted, ⁸ and everyone who eats it shall ^(I)bear his iniquity, because ^(J)he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

^9 (K)“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

^11 (L)“You shall not steal; ^(M)you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. ^12 (N)You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so ^(O)profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

^13 (P)“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. ^(Q)The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. ^14 (R)You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall ^(S)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^15 (T)“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. ^16 (U)You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not ^(V)stand up against the life^[a] of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

^17 (W)“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but ^(X)you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you ^(Y)incur sin because of him. ^18 (Z)You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but ^(AA)you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

You Shall Keep My Statutes

^19 (AB)“You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. ^(AC)You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.

²⁰ “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free; ²¹ but ^(AD)he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. ²² And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.

²³ “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden.^[b] Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten. ²⁴ And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the Lord your God.

^26 (AE)“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. ^(AF)You shall not interpret omens or ^(AG)tell fortunes. ^27 (AH)You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make any ^(AI)cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.

^29 (AJ)“Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity. ^30 (AK)You shall keep my Sabbaths and ^(AL)reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

^31 (AM)“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.

^32 (AN)“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall ^(AO)fear your God: I am the Lord.

^33 (AP)“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ^34 (AQ)You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and ^(AR)you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

^35 (AS)“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. ^36 (AT)You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin:^[c] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ And ^(AU)you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Punishment for Child Sacrifice

20 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Say to the people of Israel, ^(AV)Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. ^3 (AW)I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary ^(AX)unclean and ^(AY)to profane my holy name. ⁴ And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not ^(AZ)put him to death, ⁵ then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in ^(BA)whoring after Molech.

⁶ “If ^(BB)a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, ^(BC)I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. ^7 (BD)Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ^8 (BE)Keep my statutes and do them; ^(BF)I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ⁹ For ^(BG)anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; ^(BH)his blood is upon him.

Punishments for Sexual Immorality

¹⁰ “If a ^(BI)man commits adultery with the wife of^[d] his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. ^11 (BJ)If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^12 (BK)If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed ^(BL)perversion; their blood is upon them. ^13 (BM)If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ^14 (BN)If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you. ^15 (BO)If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. ^16 (BP)If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

^17 (BQ)“If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity. ^18 (BR)If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ^19 (BS)You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to make naked ^(BT)one's relative; they shall bear their iniquity. ^20 (BU)If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ^21 (BV)If a man takes his brother's wife, it is impurity.^[e] He has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

You Shall Be Holy

^22 (BW)“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not ^(BX)vomit you out. ^23 (BY)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. ²⁴ But ^(BZ)I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land ^(CA)flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, ^(CB)who has separated you from the peoples. ^25 (CC)You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. ^26 (CD)You shall be holy to me, ^(CE)for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

^27 (CF)“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be ^(CG)stoned with stones; ^(CH)their blood shall be upon them.”

Holiness and the Priests

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ^(CI)No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, ² except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, ³ or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). ⁴ He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. ^5 (CJ)They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and ^(CK)not profane the name of their God. For they offer the Lord's food offerings, ^(CL)the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. ^7 (CM)They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman ^(CN)divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for ^(CO)I, the Lord, who sanctify you, ^(CP)am holy. ⁹ And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; ^(CQ)she shall be burned with fire.

^10 (CR)“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(CS)shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. ¹¹ He shall not ^(CT)go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. ^12 (CU)He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he ^(CV)profane the sanctuary of his God, for the ^(CW)consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. ¹³ And he shall take a wife in her virginity.^{[f] 14} A widow, ^(CX)or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin^[g] of his own people, ¹⁵ that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for ^(CY)I am the Lord who sanctifies him.”

¹⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may ^(CZ)approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸ For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man ^(DA)blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face ^(DB)or a limb too long, ¹⁹ or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a ^(DC)defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or ^(DD)crushed testicles. ²¹ No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to ^(DE)offer the Lord's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. ²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of ^(DF)the most holy and of the ^(DG)holy things, ²³ but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not ^(DH)profane my sanctuaries,^{[h] (DI)}for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

The Lord Is My Shepherd

A Psalm of David.

Women Accompanying Jesus

8 Soon afterward he went on ^(A)through cities and villages, proclaiming and ^(B)bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, ² and also ^(C)some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: ^(D)Mary, called Magdalene, ^(E)from whom seven demons had gone out, ³ and ^(F)Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them^[a] out of their means.

The Parable of the Sower

^4 (G)And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, ^5 (H)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶ And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, ^(I)it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷ And some fell among ^(J)thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸ And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded ^(K)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, ^(L)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

⁹ And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, ¹⁰ he said, ^(M)“To you it has been given to know ^(N)the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so ^(O)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ^11 (P)Now the parable is this: The seed is ^(Q)the word of God. ¹² The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not ^(R)believe and be saved. ¹³ And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it ^(S)with joy. But these have no root; they ^(T)believe for a while, and in time of testing ^(U)fall away. ¹⁴ And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but ^(V)as they go on their way they are choked by the ^(W)cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. ¹⁵ As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and ^(X)bear fruit ^(Y)with patience.

A Lamp Under a Jar

^16 (Z)(AA)“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ^17 (AB)For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. ^18 (AC)Take care then how you hear, ^(AD)for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

^19 (AE)Then his mother and ^(AF)his brothers^[b] came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰ And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” ²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those ^(AG)who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus Calms a Storm

^22 (AH)One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of ^(AI)the lake.” So they set out, ²³ and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on ^(AJ)the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. ²⁴ And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and ^(AK)rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, ^(AL)and there was a calm. ²⁵ He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they ^(AM)were afraid, and they ^(AN)marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that ^(AO)he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

^26 (AP)Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,^[c] which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷ When Jesus^[d] had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house ^(AQ)but among the tombs. ²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he ^(AR)cried out and fell down before him and said ^(AS)with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, ^(AT)Son of ^(AU)the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” ²⁹ For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon ^(AV)into the desert.) ³⁰ Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, ^(AW)“Legion,” for many demons had entered him. ³¹ And they begged him not to command them to depart into ^(AX)the abyss. ³² Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into ^(AY)the lake and drowned.

³⁴ When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵ Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting ^(AZ)at the feet of Jesus, ^(BA)clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ³⁶ And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed^[e] man had been healed. ³⁷ Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes ^(BB)asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Return to your home, and ^(BC)declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus's Daughter

⁴⁰ Now when Jesus returned, the crowd ^(BD)welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. ^41 (BE)And there came a man named Jairus, who was ^(BF)a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, ⁴² for he had ^(BG)an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

As Jesus went, the people ^(BH)pressed around him. ⁴³ And there was a woman ^(BI)who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her ^(BJ)living on physicians,^[f] she could not be healed by anyone. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched ^(BK)the fringe of his garment, and ^(BL)immediately her discharge of blood ceased. ⁴⁵ And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter^[g] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that ^(BM)power has gone out from me.” ⁴⁷ And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ And he said to her, “Daughter, ^(BN)your faith has made you well; ^(BO)go in peace.”

⁴⁹ While he was still speaking, someone from ^(BP)the ruler's house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; ^(BQ)do not trouble ^(BR)the Teacher any more.” ⁵⁰ But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” ⁵¹ And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except ^(BS)Peter and ^(BT)John and James, and the father and mother of the child. ⁵² And all were weeping and ^(BU)mourning for her, but he ^(BV)said, “Do not weep, for ^(BW)she is not dead but ^(BX)sleeping.” ⁵³ And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. ⁵⁴ But ^(BY)taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, ^(BZ)arise.” ⁵⁵ And ^(CA)her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. ⁵⁶ And her parents were amazed, but ^(CB)he charged them to tell no one what had happened.