Psalm 45^[a]

For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil.^[b] A wedding song.^(A)

Law Courts

⁸ If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge^(A)—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults^(B)—take them to the place the Lord your God will choose.^{(C) 9} Go to the Levitical^(D) priests and to the judge^(E) who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.^{(F) 10} You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do. ¹¹ Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.^{(G) 12} Anyone who shows contempt^(H) for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering^(I) there to the Lord your God is to be put to death.^(J) You must purge the evil from Israel.^{(K) 13} All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.^(L)

The King

¹⁴ When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession^(M) of it and settled in it,^(N) and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”^{(O) 15} be sure to appoint^(P) over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites.^(Q) Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. ¹⁶ The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses^(R) for himself^(S) or make the people return to Egypt^(T) to get more of them,^(U) for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”^{(V) 17} He must not take many wives,^(W) or his heart will be led astray.^(X) He must not accumulate^(Y) large amounts of silver and gold.^(Z)

¹⁸ When he takes the throne^(AA) of his kingdom, he is to write^(AB) for himself on a scroll a copy^(AC) of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life^(AD) so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees^{(AE) 20} and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law^(AF) to the right or to the left.^(AG) Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.^(AH)

Offerings for Priests and Levites

18 The Levitical^(A) priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings^(B) presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.^{(C) 2} They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,^(D) as he promised them.^(E)

³ This is the share due the priests^(F) from the people who sacrifice a bull^(G) or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.^{(H) 4} You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,^{(I) 5} for the Lord your God has chosen them^(J) and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister^(K) in the Lord’s name always.^(L)

⁶ If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,^{(M) 7} he may minister in the name^(N) of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. ⁸ He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.^(O)

Occult Practices

⁹ When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate^(P) the detestable ways^(Q) of the nations there. ¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire,^(R) who practices divination^(S) or sorcery,^(T) interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,^{(U) 11} or casts spells,^(V) or who is a medium or spiritist^(W) or who consults the dead. ¹² Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.^{(X) 13} You must be blameless^(Y) before the Lord your God.^(Z)

The Prophet

¹⁴ The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.^(AA) But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. ¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.^(AB) You must listen to him. ¹⁶ For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”^(AC)

¹⁷ The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet^(AD) like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words^(AE) in his mouth.^(AF) He will tell them everything I command him.^{(AG) 19} I myself will call to account^(AH) anyone who does not listen^(AI) to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.^{(AJ) 20} But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,^(AK) is to be put to death.”^(AL)

²¹ You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” ²² If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true,^(AM) that is a message the Lord has not spoken.^(AN) That prophet has spoken presumptuously,^(AO) so do not be alarmed.

³⁶ Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.”^(A) When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.^(B)

Belief and Unbelief Among the Jews

³⁷ Even after Jesus had performed so many signs^(C) in their presence, they still would not believe in him. ³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

³⁹ For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

⁴¹ Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory^(F) and spoke about him.^(G)

⁴² Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.^(H) But because of the Pharisees^(I) they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue;^{(J) 43} for they loved human praise^(K) more than praise from God.^(L)

⁴⁴ Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.^{(M) 45} The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.^{(N) 46} I have come into the world as a light,^(O) so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.^{(P) 48} There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them^(Q) at the last day. ⁴⁹ For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me^(R) to say all that I have spoken. ⁵⁰ I know that his command leads to eternal life.^(S) So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”^(T)