24 ^1-2 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring you pure olive oil for an eternal flame ^3-4 in the lampstand of pure gold which stands outside the veil that secludes the Holy of Holies. Each morning and evening Aaron shall supply it with fresh oil and trim the wicks. It will be an eternal flame before the Lord from generation to generation.

^5-8 “Every Sabbath day the High Priest shall place twelve loaves of bread in two rows upon the gold table that stands before the Lord. These loaves shall be baked from finely ground flour, using a fifth of a bushel for each. Pure frankincense shall be sprinkled along each row. This will be a memorial offering made by fire to the Lord, in memory of his everlasting covenant with the people of Israel. ⁹ The bread shall be eaten by Aaron and his sons, in a place set apart for the purpose. For these are offerings made by fire to the Lord under a permanent law of God and are most holy.”

¹⁰ Out in the camp one day, a young man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian got into a fight with one of the men of Israel. ¹¹ During the fight the Egyptian man’s son^[a] cursed God, and was brought to Moses for judgment. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.) ¹² He was put in jail until the Lord would indicate what to do with him.

^13-14 And the Lord said to Moses, “Take him outside the camp and tell all who heard him to lay their hands upon his head; then all the people are to execute him by stoning. ^15-16 And tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses his God must pay the penalty: he must die. All the congregation shall stone him; this law applies to the foreigner as well as to the Israelite who blasphemes the name of Jehovah. He must die.

¹⁷ “Also, all murderers must be executed. ¹⁸ Anyone who kills an animal that isn’t his^[b] shall replace it. ¹⁹ The penalty for injuring anyone is to be injured in exactly the same way: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever anyone does to another shall be done to him.

²¹ “To repeat, whoever kills an animal must replace it, and whoever kills a man must die. ²² You shall have the same law for the foreigner as for the home-born citizen, for I am Jehovah your God.”

²³ So they took the youth out of the camp and stoned him until he died, as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

25 ^1-2 While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord gave him these instructions for the people of Israel:

“When you come into the land I am going to give you, you must let the land rest before the Lord every seventh year. ³ For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, ⁴ but during the seventh year the land is to lie fallow before the Lord, uncultivated. Don’t sow your crops and don’t prune your vineyards during that entire year. ⁵ Don’t even reap for yourself the volunteer crops that come up, and don’t gather the grapes for yourself; for it is a year of rest for the land. ^6-7 Any crops that do grow that year shall be free to all—for you, your servants, your slaves, and any foreigners living among you. Cattle and wild animals alike shall be allowed to graze there.

⁸ “Every fiftieth year, ⁹ on the Day of Atonement,^[c] let the trumpets blow loud and long throughout the land. ¹⁰ For the fiftieth year shall be holy, a time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all enslaved debtors, and a time for the canceling of all public and private debts. It shall be a year when all the family estates sold to others shall be returned to the original owners or their heirs.

¹¹ “What a happy year it will be! In it you shall not sow, nor gather crops nor grapes; ¹² for it is a holy Year of Jubilee for you. That year your food shall be the volunteer crops that grow wild in the fields. ¹³ Yes, during the Year of Jubilee everyone shall return home to his original family possession; if he has sold it, it shall be his again! ^14-16 Because of this, if the land is sold or bought during the preceding forty-nine years, a fair price shall be arrived at by counting the number of years until the Jubilee. If the Jubilee is many years away, the price will be high; if few years, the price will be low; for what you are really doing is selling the number of crops the new owner will get from the land before it is returned to you.

^17-18 “You must fear your God and not overcharge! For I am Jehovah. Obey my laws if you want to live safely in the land. ¹⁹ When you obey, the land will yield bumper crops and you can eat your fill in safety. ²⁰ But you will ask, ‘What shall we eat the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’ ^21-22 The answer is, ‘I will bless you with bumper crops the sixth year that will last you until the crops of the eighth year are harvested!’ ²³ And remember, the land is mine, so you may not sell it permanently. You are merely my tenants and sharecroppers!

²⁴ “In every contract of sale there must be a stipulation that the land can be redeemed at any time by the seller. ²⁵ If anyone becomes poor and sells some of his land, then his nearest relatives may redeem it. ²⁶ If there is no one else to redeem it, and he himself gets together enough money, ²⁷ then he may always buy it back at a price proportionate to the number of harvests until the Jubilee, and the owner must accept the money and return the land to him. ²⁸ But if the original owner is not able to redeem it, then it shall belong to the new owner until the Year of Jubilee; but at the Jubilee year it must be returned again.

²⁹ “If a man sells a house in the city,^[d] he has up to one year to redeem it, with full right of redemption during that time. ³⁰ But if it is not redeemed within the year, then it will belong permanently to the new owner—it does not return to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. ³¹ But village houses—a village is a settlement without fortifying walls around it—are like farmland, redeemable at any time, and are always returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.

³² “There is one exception: The homes of the Levites, even though in walled cities, may be redeemed at any time, ³³ and must be returned to the original owners in the Year of Jubilee; for the Levites will not be given farmland like the other tribes, but will receive only houses in their cities, and the surrounding fields.^{[e] 34} The Levites are not permitted to sell the fields of common land surrounding their cities, for these are their permanent possession, and they must belong to no one else.

³⁵ “If your brother becomes poor, you are responsible to help him; invite him to live with you as a guest in your home. ³⁶ Fear your God and let your brother live with you; and don’t charge him interest on the money you lend him. ³⁷ Remember—no interest; and give him what he needs, at your cost: don’t try to make a profit! ³⁸ For I, the Lord your God, brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹ “If a fellow Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, you must not treat him as an ordinary slave, ⁴⁰ but rather as a hired servant or as a guest; and he shall serve you only until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ At that time he can leave with his children and return to his own family and possessions. ⁴² For I brought you from the land of Egypt, and you are my servants; so you may not be sold as ordinary slaves ⁴³ or treated harshly; fear your God.

⁴⁴ “However, you may purchase slaves from the foreign nations living around you, ⁴⁵ and you may purchase the children of the foreigners living among you, even though they have been born in your land. ⁴⁶ They will be permanent slaves for you to pass on to your children after you; but your brothers, the people of Israel, shall not be treated so.

¹³ Once when some mothers^[a] were bringing their children to Jesus to bless them, the disciples shooed them away, telling them not to bother him.

¹⁴ But when Jesus saw what was happening he was very much displeased with his disciples and said to them, “Let the children come to me, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as they. Don’t send them away! ¹⁵ I tell you as seriously as I know how that anyone who refuses to come to God as a little child will never be allowed into his Kingdom.”

¹⁶ Then he took the children into his arms and placed his hands on their heads and he blessed them.

¹⁷ As he was starting out on a trip, a man came running to him and knelt down and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get to heaven?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good! ¹⁹ But as for your question—you know the commandments: don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, respect your father and mother.”

²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve never once^[b] broken a single one of those laws.”

²¹ Jesus felt genuine love for this man as he looked at him. “You lack only one thing,” he told him; “go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor—and you shall have treasure in heaven—and come, follow me.”

²² Then the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away, for he was very rich.

²³ Jesus watched him go, then turned around and said to his disciples, “It’s almost impossible for the rich to get into the Kingdom of God!”

²⁴ This amazed them. So Jesus said it again: “Dear children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches^[c] to enter the Kingdom of God. ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

²⁶ The disciples were incredulous! “Then who in the world can be saved, if not a rich man?” they asked.

²⁷ Jesus looked at them intently, then said, “Without God, it is utterly impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

²⁸ Then Peter began to mention all that he and the other disciples had left behind. “We’ve given up everything to follow you,” he said.

²⁹ And Jesus replied, “Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything—home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property—for love of me and to tell others the Good News, ³⁰ who won’t be given back, a hundred times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—with persecutions!

“All these will be his here on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life. ³¹ But many people who seem to be important now will be the least important then; and many who are considered least here shall be greatest there.”

⁹ And yet for a time, O Lord, you have tossed us aside in dishonor and have not helped us in our battles. ¹⁰ You have actually fought against us and defeated us before our foes. Our enemies have invaded our land and pillaged the countryside. ¹¹ You have treated us like sheep in a slaughter pen and scattered us among the nations. ¹² You sold us for a pittance. You valued us at nothing at all. ¹³ The neighboring nations mock and laugh at us because of all the evil you have sent. ¹⁴ You have made the word Jew a byword of contempt and shame among the nations, disliked by all. ^15-16 I am constantly despised, mocked, taunted, and cursed by my vengeful enemies.

¹⁷ And all this has happened, Lord, despite our loyalty to you. We have not violated your covenant. ¹⁸ Our hearts have not deserted you! We have not left your path by a single step. ¹⁹ If we had, we could understand your punishing us in the barren wilderness and sending us into darkness and death. ²⁰ If we had turned away from worshiping our God and were worshiping idols, ²¹ would God not know it? Yes, he knows the secrets of every heart. ²² But that is not our case. For we are facing death threats constantly because of serving you! We are like sheep awaiting slaughter.

²³ Waken! Rouse yourself! Don’t sleep, O Lord! Are we cast off forever? ²⁴ Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our sorrows and oppression? ²⁵ We lie face downward in the dust. ²⁶ Rise up, O Lord, and come and help us. Save us by your constant love.

²⁰ When a good man speaks, he is worth listening to, but the words of fools are a dime a dozen.

²¹ A godly man gives good advice, but a rebel is destroyed by lack of common sense.