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Deuteronomy 22-24
The Message
Deuteronomy 22-24
The Message
22 1-3 If you see your kinsman’s ox or sheep wandering off loose, don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it. Return it promptly. If your fellow Israelite is not close by or you don’t know whose it is, take the animal home with you and take care of it until your fellow asks about it. Then return it to him. Do the same if it’s his donkey or a piece of clothing or anything else your fellow Israelite loses. Don’t look the other way as if you didn’t see it.
4 If you see your fellow’s donkey or ox injured along the road, don’t look the other way. Help him get it up and on its way.
5 A woman must not wear a man’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing. This kind of thing is an abomination to God, your God.
6-7 When you come across a bird’s nest alongside the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don’t take the mother with the young. You may take the babies, but let the mother go so that you will live a good and long life.
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof to make it safe so that someone doesn’t fall off and die and your family become responsible for the death.
9 Don’t plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard. If you do, you will forfeit what you’ve sown, the total production of the vineyard.
10 Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11 Don’t wear clothes of mixed fabrics, wool and linen together.
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you use to cover yourself.
13-19 If a man marries a woman, sleeps with her, and then turns on her, calling her loose, giving her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I slept with her I discovered she wasn’t a virgin,” then the father and mother of the girl are to take her with the proof of her virginity to the town leaders at the gate. The father is to tell the leaders, “I gave my daughter to this man as wife and he turned on her, rejecting her. And now he has slanderously accused her, claiming that she wasn’t a virgin. But look at this, here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” And then he is to spread out her bloodstained wedding garment before the leaders for their examination. The town leaders then are to take the husband, whip him, fine him a hundred pieces of silver, and give it to the father of the girl. The man gave a virgin girl of Israel a bad name. He has to keep her as his wife and can never divorce her.
20-21 But if it turns out that the accusation is true and there is no evidence of the girl’s virginity, the men of the town are to take her to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death. She acted disgracefully in Israel. She lived like a whore while still in her parents’ home. Purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both must die. Purge that evil from Israel.
23-24 If a man comes upon a virgin in town, a girl who is engaged to another man, and sleeps with her, take both of them to the town gate and stone them until they die—the girl because she didn’t yell out for help in the town and the man because he raped her, violating the fiancée of his neighbor. You must purge the evil from among you.
25-27 But if it was out in the country that the man found the engaged girl and grabbed and raped her, only the man is to die, the man who raped her. Don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong. This is similar to the case of a man who comes across his neighbor out in the country and murders him; when the engaged girl yelled out for help, there was no one around to hear or help her.
28-29 When a man comes upon a virgin who has never been engaged and grabs and rapes her and they are found out, the man who raped her has to give her father fifty pieces of silver. He has to marry her because he took advantage of her. And he can never divorce her.
30 A man may not marry his father’s ex-wife—that would violate his father’s rights.
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23 No eunuch is to enter the congregation of God.
2 No bastard is to enter the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children.
3-6 No Ammonite or Moabite is to enter the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children, ever. Those nations didn’t treat you with hospitality on your travels out of Egypt, and on top of that they also hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you. God, your God, refused to listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing—how God, your God, loves you! Don’t even try to get along with them or do anything for them, ever.
7 But don’t spurn an Edomite; he’s your kin.
And don’t spurn an Egyptian; you were a foreigner in his land.
8 Children born to Edomites and Egyptians may enter the congregation of God in the third generation.
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9-11 When you are camped out, at war with your enemies, be careful to keep yourself from anything ritually defiling. If one of your men has become ritually unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must go outside the camp and stay there until evening when he can wash himself, returning to the camp at sunset.
12-14 Mark out an area outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourselves. Along with your weapons have a stick with you. After you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the stick and cover your excrement. God, your God, strolls through your camp; he’s present to deliver you and give you victory over your enemies. Keep your camp holy; don’t permit anything indecent or offensive in God’s eyes.
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15-16 Don’t return a runaway slave to his master; he’s come to you for refuge. Let him live wherever he wishes within the protective gates of your city. Don’t take advantage of him.
17-18 No daughter of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute; and no son of Israel is to become a sacred prostitute. And don’t bring the fee of a sacred whore or the earnings of a priest-pimp to the house of God, your God, to pay for any vow—they are both an abomination to God, your God.
19-20 Don’t charge interest to your kinsmen on any loan: not for money or food or clothing or anything else that could earn interest. You may charge foreigners interest, but you may not charge your brothers interest; that way God, your God, will bless all the work that you take up and the land that you are entering to possess.
21-23 When you make a vow to God, your God, don’t put off keeping it; God, your God, expects you to keep it and if you don’t you’re guilty. But if you don’t make a vow in the first place, there’s no sin. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Keep the vow you willingly vowed to God, your God. You promised it, so do it.
24-25 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want until you’re full, but you may not put any in your bucket or bag. And when you walk through the ripe grain of your neighbor, you may pick the heads of grain, but you may not swing your sickle there.
24 1-4 If a man marries a woman and then it happens that he no longer likes her because he has found something wrong with her, he may give her divorce papers, put them in her hand, and send her off. After she leaves, if she becomes another man’s wife and he also comes to hate her and this second husband also gives her divorce papers, puts them in her hand, and sends her off, or if he should die, then the first husband who divorced her can’t marry her again. She has made herself ritually unclean, and her remarriage would be an abomination in the Presence of God and defile the land with sin, this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.
5 When a man takes a new wife, he is not to go out with the army or be given any business or work duties. He gets one year off simply to be at home making his wife happy.
6 Don’t seize a handmill or an upper millstone as collateral for a loan. You’d be seizing someone’s very life.
7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his kinsmen, someone of the People of Israel, to enslave or sell him, the kidnapper must die. Purge that evil from among you.
8-9 Warning! If a serious skin disease breaks out, follow exactly the rules set down by the Levitical priests. Follow them precisely as I commanded them. Don’t forget what God, your God, did to Miriam on your way out of Egypt.
10-13 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, don’t enter his house to claim his pledge. Wait outside. Let the man to whom you made the pledge bring the pledge to you outside. And if he is destitute, don’t use his cloak as a bedroll; return it to him at nightfall so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you. In the sight of God, your God, that will be viewed as a righteous act.
14-15 Don’t abuse a laborer who is destitute and needy, whether he is a fellow Israelite or foreigner living in your land and in your city. Pay him at the end of each workday; he’s living from hand to mouth and needs it now. If you hold back his pay, he’ll protest to God and you’ll have sin on your books.
16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children for their parents. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
17-18 Make sure foreigners and orphans get their just rights. Don’t take the cloak of a widow as security for a loan. Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
19-22 When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.
Deuteronomy 22-24
New International Version
Deuteronomy 22-24
New International Version
22 If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.(A) 2 If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. 3 Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4 If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey(B) or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.(C)
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
6 If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.(D) 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go,(E) so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.(F)
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(G)
9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard;(H) if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.[a]
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.(I)
11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.(J)
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.(K)
Marriage Violations
13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her(L), dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate(M) proof that she was a virgin. 16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders(N) shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels[b] of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true(O) and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing(P) in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept(Q) with her and the woman must die.(R) You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.(S)
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed,(T) there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,(U) 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[c] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.[d](V)
Exclusion From the Assembly
23 [e]No one who has been emasculated(W) by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.
2 No one born of a forbidden marriage[f] nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.
3 No Ammonite(X) or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.(Y) 4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water(Z) on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam(AA) son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim[g](AB) to pronounce a curse on you.(AC) 5 However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse(AD) into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves(AE) you. 6 Do not seek a treaty(AF) of friendship with them as long as you live.(AG)
7 Do not despise an Edomite,(AH) for the Edomites are related to you.(AI) Do not despise an Egyptian, because you resided as foreigners in their country.(AJ) 8 The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Uncleanness in the Camp
9 When you are encamped against your enemies, keep away from everything impure.(AK) 10 If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.(AL) 11 But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset(AM) he may return to the camp.(AN)
12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the Lord your God moves(AO) about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy,(AP) so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
Miscellaneous Laws
15 If a slave has taken refuge(AQ) with you, do not hand them over to their master.(AR) 16 Let them live among you wherever they like and in whatever town they choose. Do not oppress(AS) them.
17 No Israelite man(AT) or woman is to become a shrine prostitute.(AU) 18 You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute[h] into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both.(AV)
19 Do not charge a fellow Israelite interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.(AW) 20 You may charge a foreigner(AX) interest, but not a fellow Israelite, so that the Lord your God may bless(AY) you in everything you put your hand to in the land you are entering to possess.
21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to pay it,(AZ) for the Lord your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.(BA) 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty.(BB) 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.
24 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their standing grain.(BC)
24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him(BD) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,(BE) gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord(BF) your God is giving you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.(BG)
6 Do not take a pair of millstones—not even the upper one—as security for a debt, because that would be taking a person’s livelihood as security.(BH)
7 If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die.(BI) You must purge the evil from among you.(BJ)
8 In cases of defiling skin diseases,[i] be very careful to do exactly as the Levitical(BK) priests instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them.(BL) 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.(BM)
10 When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge.(BN) 11 Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. 12 If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge(BO) in your possession. 13 Return their cloak by sunset(BP) so that your neighbor may sleep in it.(BQ) Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.(BR)
14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.(BS) 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor(BT) and are counting on it.(BU) Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.(BV)
16 Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.(BW)
17 Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless(BX) of justice,(BY) or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt(BZ) and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it.(CA) Leave it for the foreigner,(CB) the fatherless and the widow,(CC) so that the Lord your God may bless(CD) you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.(CE) Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.(CF)
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 22:9 Or be forfeited to the sanctuary
- Deuteronomy 22:19 That is, about 2 1/2 pounds or about 1.2 kilograms
- Deuteronomy 22:29 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams
- Deuteronomy 22:30 In Hebrew texts this verse (22:30) is numbered 23:1.
- Deuteronomy 23:1 In Hebrew texts 23:1-25 is numbered 23:2-26.
- Deuteronomy 23:2 Or one of illegitimate birth
- Deuteronomy 23:4 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
- Deuteronomy 23:18 Hebrew of a dog
- Deuteronomy 24:8 The Hebrew word for defiling skin diseases, traditionally translated “leprosy,” was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
Mark 14:1-26
The Message
Mark 14:1-26
The Message
Anointing His Head
14 1-2 In only two days the eight-day Festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin. The high priests and religion scholars were looking for a way they could seize Jesus by stealth and kill him. They agreed that it should not be done during Passover Week. “We don’t want the crowds up in arms,” they said.
3-5 Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper. While he was eating dinner, a woman came up carrying a bottle of very expensive perfume. Opening the bottle, she poured it on his head. Some of the guests became furious among themselves. “That’s criminal! A sheer waste! This perfume could have been sold for well over a year’s wages and handed out to the poor.” They swelled up in anger, nearly bursting with indignation over her.
6-9 But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why are you giving her a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me. You will have the poor with you every day for the rest of your lives. Whenever you feel like it, you can do something for them. Not so with me. She did what she could when she could—she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the whole world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about admiringly.”
10-11 Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the cabal of high priests, determined to betray him. They couldn’t believe their ears, and promised to pay him well. He started looking for just the right moment to hand him over.
Traitor to the Son of Man
12 On the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the day they prepare the Passover sacrifice, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations so you can eat the Passover meal?”
13-15 He directed two of his disciples, “Go into the city. A man carrying a water jug will meet you. Follow him. Ask the owner of whichever house he enters, ‘The Teacher wants to know, Where is my guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will show you a spacious second-story room, swept and ready. Prepare for us there.”
16 The disciples left, came to the city, found everything just as he had told them, and prepared the Passover meal.
17-18 After sunset he came with the Twelve. As they were at the supper table eating, Jesus said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators, one who at this moment is eating with me.”
19 Stunned, they started asking, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it?”
20-21 He said, “It’s one of the Twelve, one who eats with me out of the same bowl. In one sense, it turns out that the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense, the man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”
“This Is My Body”
22 In the course of their meal, having taken and blessed the bread, he broke it and gave it to them. Then he said,
Take, this is my body.
23-24 Taking the chalice, he gave it to them, thanking God, and they all drank from it. He said,
This is my blood,
God’s new covenant,
Poured out for many people.
25 “I’ll not be drinking wine again until the new day when I drink it in the kingdom of God.”
26 They sang a hymn and then went directly to Mount Olives.
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Mark 14:1-26
New International Version
Mark 14:1-26
New International Version
Jesus Anointed at Bethany(A)(B)(C)
14 Now the Passover(D) and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.(E) 2 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”
3 While he was in Bethany,(F) reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.(G)
4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 7 The poor you will always have with you,[b] and you can help them any time you want.(H) But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.(I) 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world,(J) what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,(K) went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.(L) 11 They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
The Last Supper(M)(N)
12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb,(O) Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs,(P) furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”
19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”
20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me.(Q) 21 The Son of Man(R) will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it(S) and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.(T)
24 “This is my blood of the[c] covenant,(U) which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”(V)
26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.(W)
Footnotes
- Mark 14:5 Greek than three hundred denarii
- Mark 14:7 See Deut. 15:11.
- Mark 14:24 Some manuscripts the new
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