The Sacrifices at the Festival of Trumpets

(Leviticus 23.23-25)

The Lord said:

29 On the first day of the seventh month,^[a] you must rest from your work and come together to celebrate at the sound of the trumpets. ² Bring to the altar one bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. And then offer these as sacrifices to please me.^{[b] 3} Three kilograms of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with the bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilograms of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, ⁴ and one kilogram of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. ⁵ You must also offer a goat^[c] as a sacrifice for sin. ⁶ These sacrifices will be made in addition to the regular daily sacrifices^[d] and the sacrifices for the first day of the month.^[e] The smoke from these sacrifices will please me.

The Sacrifices on the Great Day of Forgiveness

(Leviticus 23.26-32)

The Lord said:

^7 (A) The tenth day of the seventh month^[f] is the Great Day of Forgiveness.^[g] On that day you must rest from all work and come together for worship. Show sorrow for your sins by going without food, ⁸ and bring to the altar one young bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me.^{[h] 9} Three kilograms of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with the bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilograms of flour mixed with oil must be offered with the ram, ¹⁰ and one kilogram of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. ¹¹ A goat^[i] must also be sacrificed for the sins of the people. You will offer these sacrifices in addition to the sacrifice to ask forgiveness and the regular daily sacrifices.^[j]

The Sacrifices during the Festival of Shelters

(Leviticus 23.33-44)

The Lord said:

^12 (B) Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month^[k] and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honor of me.

¹³ On the first day, you must rest from your work and come together for worship. Bring to the altar 13 bulls, 2 full-grown rams, and 14 rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me.^{[l] 14} Three kilograms of your finest flour mixed with olive oil must be offered with each bull as a grain sacrifice. Two kilograms of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the rams, ¹⁵ and one kilogram of flour mixed with oil must be offered with each of the young rams. ¹⁶ You must also offer a goat^[m] as a sacrifice for sin. These are to be offered in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.^[n]

^17-34 For the next six days of the festival, you will sacrifice one less bull than the day before, so that on the seventh day, seven bulls will be sacrificed. The other sacrifices and offerings must remain the same for each of these days.

³⁵ On the eighth day, you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship. ³⁶ Bring to the altar one bull, one full-grown ram, and seven rams a year old that have nothing wrong with them. Then offer these as sacrifices to please me. ³⁷ You must also offer the proper grain sacrifices and drink offerings of wine with each animal. ³⁸ And offer a goat^[o] as the sacrifice to ask forgiveness for the people. These sacrifices are made in addition to the regular daily sacrifices.^[p]

³⁹ You must offer all these sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, together with any offerings that are voluntarily given or given because of a promise.

⁴⁰ Moses told the people of Israel everything the Lord had told him about the sacrifices.

Making Promises to the Lord

30 The Lord told Moses to say to Israel's tribal leaders:

^2 (C) When one of you men makes a promise to the Lord,^[q] you must keep your word.

³ Suppose a young woman who is still living with her parents makes a promise to the Lord. ⁴ If her father hears about it and says nothing, she must keep her promise. ⁵ But if he hears about it and objects, then she no longer has to keep her promise. The Lord will forgive her, because her father did not agree with the promise.

^6-7 Suppose a woman makes a promise to the Lord and then gets married. If her husband later hears about the promise but says nothing, she must do what she said, whether she meant it or not. ⁸ But if her husband hears about the promise and objects, she no longer has to keep it, and the Lord will forgive her.

⁹ Widows and divorced women must keep every promise they make to the Lord.

¹⁰ Suppose a married woman makes a promise to the Lord. ¹¹ If her husband hears about the promise and says nothing, she must do what she said. ¹² But if he hears about the promise and does object, she no longer has to keep it. The Lord will forgive her, because her husband would not allow her to keep the promise. ¹³ Her husband has the final say about any promises she makes to the Lord. ¹⁴ If her husband hears about a promise and says nothing about it for a whole day, she must do what she said—since he did not object, the promise must be kept. ¹⁵ But if he waits until the next day to stop her from keeping her promise, he is the one who must be punished.

¹⁶ These are the laws that the Lord gave Moses about husbands and wives, and about young daughters who still live at home.

Israel's War against Midian

31 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Before you die, make sure that the Midianites are punished for what they did to Israel.”^[r]

³ Then Moses told the people, “The Lord wants to punish the Midianites. So tell our men to prepare for battle. ⁴ Each tribe will send 1,000 men to fight.”

⁵ Twelve thousand men were picked from the tribes of Israel, and after they were prepared for battle, ⁶ Moses sent them off to war. Phinehas the son of Eleazar went with them and took along some things from the sacred tent^[s] and the trumpets for sounding the battle signal.

⁷ The Israelites fought against the Midianites, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. They killed all the men, ⁸ including Balaam son of Beor and the five Midianite kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. ⁹ The Israelites captured every woman and child, then led away the Midianites' cattle and sheep, and took everything else that belonged to them. ¹⁰ They also burned down the Midianite towns and villages.

¹¹ Israel's soldiers gathered together everything they had taken from the Midianites, including the captives and the animals. ^12-13 Then they returned to their own camp in the hills of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, where Moses, Eleazar, and the other Israelite leaders met the troops outside camp.

¹⁴ Moses became angry with the army commanders ¹⁵ and said, “I can't believe you let the women live! ^16 (D) They are the ones who followed Balaam's advice and invited our people to worship the god Baal Peor. That's why the Lord punished us by killing so many of our people. ¹⁷ You must put to death every boy and all the women who have ever had sex. ¹⁸ But do not kill the young women who have never had sex. You may keep them for yourselves.”

¹⁹ Then Moses said to the soldiers, “If you killed anyone or touched a dead body, you are unclean and have to stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third and seventh days, you must go through a ceremony to make yourselves and your captives clean. ²⁰ Then wash your clothes and anything made from animal skin, goat's hair, or wood.”

^21-23 Eleazar then explained, “If you need to purify something that won't burn, such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, you must first place it in a hot fire. After you take it out, sprinkle it with the water that purifies. Everything else should only be sprinkled with the water. Do all of this, just as the Lord commanded Moses. ²⁴ Wash your clothes on the seventh day, and after that, you will be clean and may return to the camp.”

Everything Taken from the Midianites Is Divided

²⁵ The Lord told Moses:

^26-27 Make a list of everything taken from the Midianites, including the captives and the animals. Then divide them between the soldiers and the rest of the people. Eleazar the priest and the family leaders will help you.

^28-29 From the half that belongs to the soldiers, set aside for the Lord one out of every 500 people or animals and give these to Eleazar.

³⁰ From the half that belongs to the people, set aside one out of every 50 and give these to the Levites in charge of the sacred tent.

³¹ Moses and Eleazar followed the Lord's instructions ^32-35 and listed everything that had been taken from the Midianites. The list included 675,000 sheep and goats, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 young women who had never had sex.

^36-47 Each half included 337,500 sheep and goats, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 young women. From the half that belonged to the soldiers, Moses counted out 675 sheep and goats, 72 cattle, 61 donkeys, and 32 women and gave them to Eleazar to be dedicated to the Lord. Then from the half that belonged to the people, Moses set aside one out of every 50 animals and women, as the Lord had said, and gave them to the Levites.

⁴⁸ The army commanders went to Moses ⁴⁹ and said, “Sir, we have counted our troops, and not one soldier is missing. ⁵⁰ So we want to give the Lord all the gold jewelry we took from the Midianites. It's our gift to him for watching over us and our troops.”

⁵¹ Moses and Eleazar accepted the jewelry from the commanders, ⁵² and its total weight was over 200 kilograms. ⁵³ This did not include the things that the soldiers had kept for themselves. ⁵⁴ So Moses and Eleazar placed the gold in the Lord's sacred tent to remind Israel of what had happened.^[t]

9 I can assure you that some of the people standing here will not die before they see God's kingdom come with power.

The True Glory of Jesus

(Matthew 17.1-13; Luke 9.28-36)

^2 (A) Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him. They went up on a high mountain, where they could be alone. There in front of the disciples, Jesus was completely changed. ³ And his clothes became much whiter than any bleach on earth could make them. ⁴ Then Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus.

⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Teacher, it is good for us to be here! Let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ But Peter and the others were terribly frightened, and he did not know what he was talking about.

^7 (B) The shadow of a cloud passed over and covered them. From the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, and I love him. Listen to what he says!” ⁸ At once the disciples looked around, but they saw only Jesus.

⁹ As Jesus and his disciples were coming down the mountain, he told them not to say a word about what they had seen, until the Son of Man had been raised from death. ¹⁰ So they kept it to themselves. But they wondered what he meant by the words “raised from death.”

^11 (C) The disciples asked Jesus, “Don't the teachers of the Law of Moses say that Elijah must come before the Messiah does?”

^12 (D) Jesus answered:

Elijah certainly will come^[a] to get everything ready. But don't the Scriptures also say that the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected? ¹³ I can assure you that Elijah has already come. And people treated him just as they wanted to, as the Scriptures say they would.

Jesus Heals a Boy

(Matthew 17.14-20; Luke 9.37-43a)

¹⁴ When Jesus and his three disciples came back down, they saw a large crowd around the other disciples. The teachers of the Law of Moses were arguing with them.

¹⁵ The crowd was really surprised to see Jesus, and everyone hurried over to greet him.

¹⁶ Jesus asked, “What are you arguing about?”

¹⁷ Someone from the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. A demon keeps him from talking. ¹⁸ Whenever the demon attacks my son, it throws him to the ground and makes him foam at the mouth and grit his teeth in pain. Then he becomes stiff. I asked your disciples to force out the demon, but they couldn't do it.”

¹⁹ Jesus said, “You people don't have any faith! How much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

²⁰ They brought the boy, and as soon as the demon saw Jesus, it made the boy shake all over. He fell down and began rolling on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy's father, “How long has he been like this?”

The man answered, “Ever since he was a child. ²² The demon has often tried to kill him by throwing him into a fire or into water. Please have pity and help us if you can!”

²³ Jesus replied, “Why do you say ‘if you can’? Anything is possible for someone who has faith!”

²⁴ At once the boy's father shouted, “I do have faith! Please help me to have even more.”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering fast, he spoke sternly to the evil spirit that had kept the boy from speaking or hearing. He said, “I order you to come out of the boy! Don't ever bother him again.”

²⁶ The spirit screamed and made the boy shake all over. Then it went out of him. The boy looked dead, and almost everyone said he was. ²⁷ But Jesus took hold of his hand and helped him stand up.

²⁸ After Jesus and the disciples had gone back home and were alone, they asked him, “Why couldn't we force out that demon?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Only prayer can force out this kind of demon.”