On Defilement

5 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the sons of Israel that they ^(A)send away from the camp everyone with leprosy, everyone having a ^(B)discharge, and everyone who is ^(C)unclean because of contact with a dead person. ³ You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they do not defile their camp where I dwell ^(D)in their midst.” ⁴ And the sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the Lord had spoken to Moses, that is what the sons of Israel did.

⁵ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶ “Speak to the sons of Israel: ‘^(E)When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the Lord, and that person is guilty, ⁷ then ^[a]he shall ^(F)confess ^[b]his sin which ^[c]he has committed, and he ^(G)shall make restitution in full for his wrong and add to it a fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged. ⁸ But if the person has no ^[d]redeemer to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the Lord for the priest, besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him. ^9 (H)Also every ^[e]contribution pertaining to all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the priest, shall be his. ¹⁰ So every person’s holy gifts shall be his; whatever anyone gives to the priest, it ^(I)becomes his.’”

The Adultery Test

¹¹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘If any man’s wife ^(J)goes astray and is unfaithful to him, ¹³ and a man has ^(K)sexual relations with her and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she remains undiscovered, although she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act, ^14 [f]if ^[g]an attitude of ^(L)jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has defiled herself, or if ^[h]an attitude of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife when she has not defiled herself, ¹⁵ the man shall then bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring as ^[i]an offering for her a tenth of an ^[j]ephah of barley meal; he shall not pour oil on it nor put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of reminder, ^(M)a reminder of wrongdoing.

¹⁶ ‘Then the priest shall bring her forward and have her stand before the Lord, ¹⁷ and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware container; and ^[k]he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it in the water. ¹⁸ The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord and let down the hair of the woman’s head, and place the grain offering of reminder ^[l]in her hands, that is, the grain offering of jealousy; and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. ¹⁹ And the priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, “If no man has had sexual relations with you and if you have not ^(N)gone astray into uncleanness, as you are under the authority of your husband, be ^[m]immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; ²⁰ if, however, you have ^(O)gone astray, though under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had sexual intercourse with you” ²¹ (then the priest shall have the woman ^(P)swear with the oath of the curse, and the priest shall say to the woman), “may the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people by the Lord’s making your thigh ^[n]shriveled and your ^[o]belly swollen; ²² and this water that brings a curse shall go into your ^[p]stomach, to make your belly swell up and your thigh ^[q]shrivel.” And the woman ^(Q)shall say, “Amen, Amen.”

²³ ‘The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall ^[r]wash them off into the water of bitterness. ²⁴ Then he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, so that the water which brings a curse will go into her ^[s]and cause bitterness. ²⁵ And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, and he shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar; ²⁶ and ^(R)the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its reminder offering and offer it up in smoke on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water. ²⁷ When he has made her drink the water, then it will come about, if she has defiled herself and has been unfaithful to her husband, that the water which brings a curse will go into her ^[t]and cause bitterness, and her belly will swell up and her thigh will ^[u]shrivel, and the woman will become ^(S)a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be ^[v]immune and conceive ^[w]children.

²⁹ ‘This is the law of jealousy: when a wife, who is under the authority of her husband, ^(T)goes astray and defiles herself, ³⁰ or when ^[x]an attitude of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, he shall then have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest shall apply all of this law to her. ³¹ The man, moreover, will be free of ^[y]guilt, but that woman shall ^(U)bear the consequences of her ^[z]guilt.’”

Law of the Nazirites

6 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes ^[a]a special vow, namely, the vow of ^(A)a ^[b]Nazirite, to live as a Nazirite for the Lord, ³ he shall ^(B)abstain from wine and ^[c]strong drink; he shall ^[d]consume no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes. ⁴ All the days of his consecration he shall not eat anything that is produced from the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.

⁵ ‘All the days of his vow of consecration ^(C)no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled which he lives as a Nazirite for the Lord; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.

⁶ ‘^(D)All the days of his life as a Nazirite for the Lord he shall not come up to a dead person. ⁷ He ^(E)shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his consecration to God is ^[e]on his head. ⁸ All the days of his consecration he is holy to the Lord.

⁹ ‘But if someone dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head of hair, then ^(F)he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; ^(G)he shall shave it on the seventh day. ¹⁰ Then on the eighth day he shall bring ^(H)two turtledoves or two young doves to the priest, to the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹¹ And the priest shall offer ^(I)one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him ^[f]regarding his sin because of the dead person. And on that same day he shall consecrate his head, ¹² and shall live his days of consecration as a Nazirite for the Lord, and shall bring a male lamb a year old as a guilt offering; but the preceding days will ^[g]not count, because his consecration was defiled.

¹³ ‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite ^(J)when the days of his consecration are fulfilled: he shall bring ^[h]his offering to the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹⁴ And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb a year old without defect as a burnt offering, one ^(K)ewe lamb a year old without defect as a sin offering, one ram without defect as a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of ^(L)unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, along with ^(M)their grain offering and their drink offering. ¹⁶ Then the priest shall present them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. ¹⁷ He shall also offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, together with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. ^18 (N)The Nazirite shall then shave his consecrated head of hair at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and take the consecrated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. ^19 (O)And the priest shall take the ram’s shoulder when it has been boiled, and one unleavened loaf from the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the ^[i]hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair. ²⁰ Then the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offered as a wave offering, and the thigh offered as ^[j]a contribution; and ^(P)afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.’

²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord according to his consecration, in addition to what else ^[k]he can afford; corresponding to his vow which he makes, so he shall do according to the law of his consecration.”

Aaron’s Benediction

²² Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘In this way ^(Q)you shall bless the sons of Israel. You are to say to them:

²⁷ So they shall ^[m](X)invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and then I will bless them.”

A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise.

For the music director; upon ^[a]Aijeleth Hashshahar. A Psalm of David.

Paul’s Defense before Agrippa

26 ^(A)Now Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul extended his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

² “Regarding all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today, ^3 [a]especially because you are an expert in all ^(B)customs and ^[b]questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ “So then, all Jews know ^(C)my way of life since my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and in Jerusalem, ⁵ since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a ^(D)Pharisee ^(E)according to the strictest ^(F)sect of our religion. ⁶ And now I am standing trial ^(G)for the hope of ^(H)the promise made by God to our fathers; ⁷ the promise ^(I)to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. For this ^(J)hope, O king, I am being ^(K)accused by Jews. ⁸ Why is it considered incredible among you people ^(L)if God raises the dead?

⁹ “So ^(M)I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to ^(N)the name of Jesus ^[c]of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And this is ^[d]just what I ^(O)did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ^[e]saints in prisons, after ^(P)receiving authority from the chief priests, but I also ^(Q)cast my vote against them when they were being put to death. ¹¹ And ^(R)as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was ^(S)extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^(T)even to ^[f]foreign cities.

¹² “^[g]While so engaged, ^(U)as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, ¹³ at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, ^[h]brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who were journeying with me. ¹⁴ And when we had ^(V)all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the ^[i](W)Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? ^[j]It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But get up and ^(X)stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to ^(Y)appoint you as a ^(Z)servant and ^(AA)a witness not only to the things in which you have seen Me, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, ^17 (AB)rescuing you ^(AC)from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, ¹⁸ to ^(AD)open their eyes so that they may turn from ^(AE)darkness to light, and from the ^[k]power of ^(AF)Satan to God, that they may receive ^(AG)forgiveness of sins and an ^(AH)inheritance among those who have been sanctified by ^(AI)faith in Me.’

¹⁹ “For that reason, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰ but continually proclaimed ^(AJ)to those in Damascus first, and ^(AK)in Jerusalem, and then all the region of Judea, and even ^(AL)to the Gentiles, that they are to ^(AM)repent and turn to God, performing deeds ^(AN)consistent with repentance. ²¹ For these reasons some Jews ^(AO)seized me in the temple and tried ^(AP)to murder me. ²² So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day ^(AQ)testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what ^(AR)the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place, ²³ as to ^(AS)whether the ^[l]Christ was ^[m]to suffer, and whether, as ^(AT)first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim ^(AU)light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴ While ^[n]Paul was stating these things in his defense, Festus *said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! ^[o]Your great ^(AV)learning is ^[p]driving you insane.” ²⁵ But Paul *said, “I am not insane, ^(AW)most excellent Festus; on the contrary, I am speaking out with ^[q]truthful and rational words. ²⁶ For the king ^[r](AX)knows about these matters, and I also speak to him with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a ^[s]corner. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you believe.” ²⁸ Agrippa replied to Paul, “^[t]In a short time you are going to persuade me to ^[u]make a ^(AY)Christian of myself.” ²⁹ And Paul said, “I would ^[v]wish to God that even ^[w]in a short or long time not only you, but also all who hear me this day would become such as I myself am, except for these ^(AZ)chains.”

^30 (BA)The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them, ³¹ and when they had gone out, they began talking to one another, saying, “^(BB)This man is not doing anything deserving death or ^[x]imprisonment.” ³² And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been ^(BC)set free if he had not ^(BD)appealed to Caesar.”