Covenant Blessings and Discipline

26 “Do not make worthless idols for yourselves,^(A) set up a carved image or sacred pillar for yourselves, or place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. ² Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary;^(B) I am the Lord.

³ “If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands, ⁴ I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land.^{(C) 6} I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.^{(D) 7} You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.^(E)

⁹ “I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new. ¹¹ I will place my residence^[a] among you, and I will not reject you.^{(F) 12} I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.^{(G) 13} I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke^(H) and enabled you to live in freedom.^[b]

¹⁴ “But if you do not obey me and observe all these commands— ¹⁵ if you reject my statutes and despise my ordinances, and do not observe all my commands—and break my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will do this to you: I will bring terror^(I) on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ I will turn^[c] against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you.^(J)

¹⁸ “But if after these things you will not obey me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins.^{(K) 19} I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, ²⁰ and your strength will be used up for nothing.^(L) Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

²¹ “If you act with hostility toward me and are unwilling to obey me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins.^{(M) 22} I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted.^(N)

²³ “If in spite of these things you do not accept my discipline, but act with hostility toward me, ²⁴ then I will act with hostility toward you; I also will strike you seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will bring a sword against you^(O) to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into enemy hands. ²⁶ When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and ration out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.^(P)

²⁷ “And if in spite of this you do not obey me but act with hostility toward me, ²⁸ I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your sons; you will eat the flesh of your daughters.^{(Q) 30} I will destroy your high places, cut down your shrines,^[d] and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols;^(R) I will reject you. ³¹ I will reduce your cities to ruins and devastate your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.^{(S) 32} I also will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it. ³³ But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins.

³⁴ “Then the land will make up for its Sabbath years during the time it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and make up for its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you lived there.

³⁶ “I will put anxiety in the hearts of those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a wind-driven leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as one flees from a sword, and fall though no one is pursuing them. ³⁷ They will stumble over one another as if fleeing from a sword though no one is pursuing them. You will not be able to stand against your enemies. ³⁸ You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you. ³⁹ Those^[e] who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away because of their iniquity; they will also waste away because of their ancestors’ iniquities along with theirs.

⁴⁰ “But when they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness that they practiced against me, and how they acted with hostility toward me, ⁴¹ and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled^(T) and they make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will also remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ For the land abandoned by them will make up for its Sabbaths by lying desolate without the people, while they make amends for their iniquity, because they rejected my ordinances and abhorred my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or abhor them so as to destroy them and break my covenant with them, since I am the Lord their God.^{(U) 45} For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God; I am the Lord.”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws the Lord established between himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Funding the Sanctuary

27 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When someone makes a special vow^(V) to the Lord that involves the assessment of people, ³ if the assessment concerns a male from twenty to sixty years old, your assessment is fifty silver shekels^(W) measured by the standard sanctuary shekel.^{(X) 4} If the person is a female, your assessment is thirty shekels.^{(Y) 5} If the person is from five to twenty years old, your assessment for a male is twenty shekels^(Z) and for a female ten shekels. ⁶ If the person is from one month to five years old, your assessment for a male is five silver shekels,^(AA) and for a female your assessment is three shekels of silver. ⁷ If the person is sixty years or more, your assessment is fifteen shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁸ But if one is too poor to pay the assessment, he is to present the person before the priest and the priest will set a value for him. The priest will set a value for him according to what the one making the vow can afford.

⁹ “If the vow involves one of the animals that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any of these he gives to the Lord will be holy. ¹⁰ He may not replace it or make a substitution for it, either good for bad, or bad for good.^(AB) But if he does substitute one animal for another, both that animal and its substitute will be holy.

¹¹ “If the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal must be presented before the priest. ¹² The priest will set its value, whether high or low; the price will be set as the priest makes the assessment for you. ¹³ If the one who brought it decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the^[f] assessed value.^(AC)

¹⁴ “When a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will assess its value, whether high or low. The price will stand just as the priest assesses it. ¹⁵ But if the one who consecrated his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and it will be his.^(AD)

¹⁶ “If a man consecrates to the Lord any part of a field that he possesses, your assessment of value will be proportional to the seed needed to sow it, at the rate of fifty silver shekels for every six bushels^[g] of barley seed.^{[h] 17} If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee,^(AE) the price will stand according to your assessment. ¹⁸ But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate the price for him in proportion to the years left until the next Year of Jubilee, so that your assessment will be reduced. ¹⁹ If the one who consecrated the field decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and the field will transfer back to him. ²⁰ But if he does not redeem the field or if he has sold it to another man, it is no longer redeemable. ²¹ When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will be holy to the Lord like a field permanently set apart; it becomes the priest’s property.

²² “If a person consecrates to the Lord a field he has purchased that is not part of his inherited landholding, ²³ then the priest will calculate for him the amount of the assessment up to the Year of Jubilee, and the person will pay the assessed value on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. ²⁴ In the Year of Jubilee the field will return to the one he bought it from,^(AF) the original owner. ²⁵ All your assessed values will be measured by the standard sanctuary shekel,^[i] twenty gerahs to the shekel.^(AG)

²⁶ “But no one can consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, whether an animal from the herd or flock, to the Lord, because a firstborn already belongs to the Lord.^{(AH) 27} If it is one of the unclean livestock, it can be ransomed according to your assessment by adding a fifth of its value to it. If it is not redeemed, it can be sold according to your assessment.^(AI)

²⁸ “Nothing that a man permanently sets apart to the Lord from all he owns, whether a person, an animal, or his inherited landholding, can be sold or redeemed; everything set apart is especially holy to the Lord. ²⁹ No person who has been set apart for destruction is to be ransomed; he must be put to death.^(AJ)

³⁰ “Every tenth of the land’s produce, grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord;^(AK) it is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If a man decides to redeem any part of this tenth, he must add a fifth to its value. ³² Every tenth animal from the herd or flock, which passes under the shepherd’s rod,^(AL) will be holy to the Lord. ³³ He is not to inspect whether it is good or bad, and he is not to make a substitution for it. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute will be holy;^(AM) they cannot be redeemed.”^(AN)

³⁴ These are the commands the Lord gave Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.^(AO)

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again^(A) he began to teach^(B) by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. ² He taught them many things in parables,^(C) and in his teaching^(D) he said to them, ³ “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow.^{(E) 4} As he sowed, some seed fell along the path,^(F) and the birds came and devoured^(G) it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly,^(H) since the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶ When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.^{(I) 7} Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased^(J) thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.”^{(K) 9} Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”^(L)

Why Jesus Used Parables

¹⁰ When he was alone, those around him with the Twelve^(M) asked him about the parables.^{(N) 11} He answered them, “The secret^(O) of the kingdom of God^(P) has been given to you, but to those outside,^(Q) everything comes in parables ¹² so that

The Parable of the Sower Explained

¹³ Then^(T) he said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable?^(U) How then will you understand all of the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows^(V) the word.^{(W) 15} Some are like the word sown on the path.^(X) When they hear, immediately Satan^(Y) comes and takes away the word^(Z) sown in them.^{[c] 16} And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.^{(AA) 17} But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress^(AB) or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.^{(AC) 18} Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the worries^(AD) of this age,^(AE) the deceitfulness^[d](AF) of wealth,^(AG) and the desires^(AH) for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.^{(AI) 20} And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word,^(AJ) welcome it, and produce fruit^(AK) thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”

Psalm 28

My Strength

Of David.