The Nazirites

6 And the Lord said to Moses, ² “Say to the people of Israel, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite,^[a] to separate himself to the Lord, ³ he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. ⁴ All the days of his separation^[b] he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

⁵ “All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

⁶ “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. ⁷ Neither for his father nor for his mother, nor for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean; because his separation to God is upon his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

⁹ “And if any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ¹⁰ On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest to the door of the tent of meeting, ¹¹ and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day, ¹² and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former time shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³ “And this is the law for the Nazirite, when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the door of the tent of meeting, ¹⁴ and he shall offer his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and their cereal offering and their drink offerings. ¹⁶ And the priest shall present them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, ¹⁷ and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall offer also its cereal offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸ And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. ¹⁹ And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaven the hair of his consecration, ²⁰ and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord; they are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is offered; and after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹ “This is the law for the Nazirite who takes a vow. His offering to the Lord shall be according to his vow as a Nazirite, apart from what else he can afford; in accordance with the vow which he takes, so shall he do according to the law for his separation as a Nazirite.”

The Priestly Benediction

²² The Lord said to Moses, ²³ “Say to Aaron and his sons, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

²⁷ “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Jesus Is Rejected by the Jews

²² It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; ²³ it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴ So the Jews gathered round him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness to me; ²⁶ but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; ²⁸ and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me,^[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

³¹ The Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³² Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” ³³ The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.” ³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵ If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), ³⁶ do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? ³⁷ If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; ³⁸ but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ³⁹ Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

⁴⁰ He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained. ⁴¹ And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” ⁴² And many believed in him there.

The Cloud and the Fire

¹⁵ On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. ¹⁶ So it was continually; the cloud covered it by day^[a] and the appearance of fire by night. ¹⁷ And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel encamped. ¹⁸ At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they encamped; as long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. ¹⁹ Even when the cloud continued over the tabernacle many days, the people of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and did not set out. ²⁰ Sometimes the cloud was a few days over the tabernacle, and according to the command of the Lord they remained in camp; then according to the command of the Lord they set out. ²¹ And sometimes the cloud remained from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they set out, or if it continued for a day and a night, when the cloud was taken up they set out. ²² Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out; but when it was taken up they set out. ²³ At the command of the Lord they encamped, and at the command of the Lord they set out; they kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.

²⁹ And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reu′el the Mid′ianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us, and we will do you good; for the Lord has promised good to Israel.” ³⁰ But he said to him, “I will not go; I will depart to my own land and to my kindred.” ³¹ And he said, “Do not leave us, I pray you, for you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you will serve as eyes for us. ³² And if you go with us, whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same will we do to you.”

³³ So they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. ³⁴ And the cloud of the Lord was over them by day, whenever they set out from the camp.

³⁵ And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee.” ³⁶ And when it rested, he said, “Return, O Lord, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

Salutation

1 Paul, a servant^[a] of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, ² in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago ³ and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our Savior;

⁴ To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Titus in Crete

⁵ This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you, ⁶ if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of being profligate or insubordinate. ⁷ For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, ⁸ but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled; ⁹ he must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it. ¹⁰ For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party; ¹¹ they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach. ¹² One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” ¹³ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed.

Teach Sound Doctrine

2 But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. ² Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. ³ Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, ⁴ and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited. ⁶ Likewise urge the younger men to control themselves. ⁷ Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, ⁸ and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.