God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of ^(A)Asaph.

Various Laws

22 “You ^(A)shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. ² And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. ³ And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. ^4 (B)You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵ “A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, ^(C)for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶ “If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^(D)you shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷ You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^(E)that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸ “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

^9 (F)“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,^[a] the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰ You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹ You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

^12 (G)“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

¹³ “If any man takes a wife and ^(H)goes in to her and then hates her ¹⁴ and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶ And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; ¹⁷ and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip^[b] him, ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels^[c] of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin^[d] of Israel. And she shall be his wife. ^(I)He may not divorce her all his days. ²⁰ But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹ then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and ^(J)the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has ^(K)done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. ^(L)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

^22 (M)“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. ^(N)So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³ “If there is a ^(O)betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴ then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. ^(P)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵ “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶ But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, ²⁷ because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

^28 (Q)“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹ then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

^{30 [e] (R)}“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not ^(S)uncover his father's nakedness.^[f]

The Sign of Jonah

^29 (A)When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, ^(B)“This generation is an evil generation. ^(C)It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For as ^(D)Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ^31 (E)The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and ^(F)condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, ^(G)something greater than Solomon is here. ^32 (H)The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and ^(I)condemn it, for ^(J)they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, ^(K)something greater than Jonah is here.

The Light in You

^33 (L)“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ Your eye is ^(M)the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is ^(N)bad, your body is full of darkness. ^35 (O)Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. ³⁶ If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, ^(P)as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Woes to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ While Jesus^[a] was speaking, ^(Q)a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. ³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see ^(R)that he did not first wash before dinner. ³⁹ And the Lord said to him, ^(S)“Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of ^(T)greed and wickedness. ^40 (U)You fools! ^(V)Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But ^(W)give as alms those things that are within, and behold, ^(X)everything is clean for you.

^42 (Y)“But woe to you Pharisees! For ^(Z)you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect ^(AA)justice and ^(AB)the love of God. ^(AC)These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For ^(AD)you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! ^(AE)For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

⁴⁵ One of ^(AF)the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” ⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you ^(AG)lawyers also! For ^(AH)you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ^47 (AI)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. ^48 (AJ)So you are witnesses and you ^(AK)consent to the deeds of ^(AL)your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore also ^(AM)the Wisdom of God said, ^(AN)‘I will send them ^(AO)prophets and apostles, ^(AP)some of whom they will ^(AQ)kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ so that ^(AR)the blood of all the prophets, shed ^(AS)from the foundation of the world, may be ^(AT)charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of ^(AU)Abel to the blood of ^(AV)Zechariah, who perished between ^(AW)the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be ^(AX)required of this generation. ⁵² Woe to you ^(AY)lawyers! ^(AZ)For you have taken away the key of ^(BA)knowledge. You ^(BB)did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, ^54 (BC)lying in wait for him, ^(BD)to catch him in something he might say.