The Daily Audio Bible
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The Passover(A)
16 (B)“Honor the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib; it was on a night in that month that he rescued you from Egypt. 2 Go to the one place of worship and slaughter there one of your sheep or cattle for the Passover meal to honor the Lord your God. 3 When you eat this meal, do not eat bread prepared with yeast. For seven days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, as you did when you had to leave Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—it will be called the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you came out of Egypt, that place of suffering. 4 For seven days no one in your land is to have any yeast in the house; and the meat of the animal killed on the evening of the first day must be eaten that same night.
5-6 “Slaughter the Passover animals at the one place of worship—and nowhere else in the land that the Lord your God will give you. Do it at sunset, the time of day when you left Egypt. 7 Boil the meat and eat it at the one place of worship; and the next morning return home. 8 For the next six days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, and on the seventh day assemble to worship the Lord your God, and do no work on that day.
The Harvest Festival(C)
9 (D)“Count seven weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the grain, 10 and then celebrate the Harvest Festival, to honor the Lord your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. 11 Be joyful in the Lord's presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. Do this at the one place of worship. 12 Be sure that you obey these commands; do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt.
The Festival of Shelters(E)
13 (F)“After you have threshed all your grain and pressed all your grapes, celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days. 14 Enjoy it with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. 15 Honor the Lord your God by celebrating this festival for seven days at the one place of worship. Be joyful, because the Lord has blessed your harvest and your work.
16 “All the men of your nation are to come to worship the Lord three times a year at the one place of worship: at Passover, Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters. Each man is to bring a gift 17 as he is able, in proportion to the blessings that the Lord your God has given him.
The Administration of Justice
18 “Appoint judges and other officials in every town that the Lord your God gives you. These men are to judge the people impartially. 19 (G)They are not to be unjust or show partiality in their judgments; and they are not to accept bribes, for gifts blind the eyes even of wise and honest men, and cause them to give wrong decisions. 20 Always be fair and just, so that you will occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you and so that you will continue to live there.
21 (H)“When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah. 22 (I)And do not set up any stone pillar for idol worship; the Lord hates them.
17 “Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God cattle or sheep that have any defects; the Lord hates this.
2 “Suppose you hear that in one of your towns some men or women have sinned against the Lord and broken his covenant 3 (J)by worshiping and serving other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars, contrary to the Lord's command. 4 If you hear such a report, then investigate it thoroughly. If it is true that this evil thing has happened in Israel, 5 then take them outside the town and stone them to death. 6 (K)However, they may be put to death only if two or more witnesses testify against them; they are not to be put to death if there is only one witness. 7 (L)The witnesses are to throw the first stones, and then the rest of the people are to stone them; in this way you will get rid of this evil.
8 “It may be that some cases will be too difficult for the local judges to decide, such as certain cases of property rights or of bodily injury or those cases that involve a distinction between murder and manslaughter. When this happens, go to the one place of worship chosen by the Lord your God, 9 and present your case to the levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time, and let them decide the case. 10 They will give their decision, and you are to do exactly as they tell you. 11 Accept their verdict and follow their instructions in every detail. 12 Anyone who dares to disobey either the judge or the priest on duty is to be put to death; in this way you will remove this evil from Israel. 13 Then everyone will hear of it and be afraid, and no one else will dare to act in such a way.
Instructions concerning a King
14 (M)“After you have taken possession of the land that the Lord your God is going to give you and have settled there, then you will decide you need a king like all the nations around you. 15 Be sure that the man you choose to be king is the one whom the Lord has chosen. He must be one of your own people; do not make a foreigner your king. 16 (N)The king is not to have a large number of horses for his army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to buy horses,[a] because the Lord has said that his people are never to return there. 17 (O)The king is not to have many wives, because this would make him turn away from the Lord; and he is not to make himself rich with silver and gold. 18 When he becomes king, he is to have a copy of the book of God's laws and teachings made from the original copy kept by the levitical priests. 19 He is to keep this book near him and read from it all his life, so that he will learn to honor the Lord and to obey faithfully everything that is commanded in it. 20 This will keep him from thinking that he is better than other Israelites and from disobeying the Lord's commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years, and his descendants will rule Israel for many generations.
Herod's Confusion(A)
7 (B)When Herod, the ruler of Galilee, heard about all the things that were happening, he was very confused, because some people were saying that John the Baptist had come back to life. 8 Others were saying that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 Herod said, “I had John's head cut off; but who is this man I hear these things about?” And he kept trying to see Jesus.
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(C)
10 The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him, and they went off by themselves to a town named Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds heard about it, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, and healed those who needed it.
12 When the sun was beginning to set, the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the people away so that they can go to the villages and farms around here and find food and lodging, because this is a lonely place.”
13 But Jesus said to them, “You yourselves give them something to eat.”
They answered, “All we have are five loaves and two fish. Do you want us to go and buy food for this whole crowd?” 14 (There were about five thousand men there.)
Jesus said to his disciples, “Make the people sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
15 After the disciples had done so, 16 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and had enough, and the disciples took up twelve baskets of what was left over.
Peter's Declaration about Jesus(D)
18 One day when Jesus was praying alone, the disciples came to him. “Who do the crowds say I am?” he asked them.
19 (E)“Some say that you are John the Baptist,” they answered. “Others say that you are Elijah, while others say that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 (F)“What about you?” he asked them. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are God's Messiah.”
Jesus Speaks about His Suffering and Death(G)
21 Then Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. 22 He also told them, “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will be raised to life.”
23 (H)And he said to them all, “If you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow me. 24 (I)For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but are yourself lost or defeated? Of course not! 26 If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27 I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Kingdom of God.”
A Prayer for the King[a]
72 Teach the king to judge with your righteousness, O God;
share with him your own justice,
2 so that he will rule over your people with justice
and govern the oppressed with righteousness.
3 May the land enjoy prosperity;
may it experience righteousness.
4 May the king judge the poor fairly;
may he help the needy
and defeat their oppressors.
5 May your people worship you as long as the sun shines,
as long as the moon gives light, for ages to come.
6 May the king be like rain on the fields,
like showers falling on the land.
7 May righteousness flourish in his lifetime,
and may prosperity last as long as the moon gives light.
8 (A)His kingdom will reach from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
9 The peoples of the desert will bow down before him;
his enemies will throw themselves to the ground.
10 The kings of Spain and of the islands will offer him gifts;
the kings of Sheba and Seba[b] will bring him offerings.
11 All kings will bow down before him;
all nations will serve him.
12 He rescues the poor who call to him,
and those who are needy and neglected.
13 He has pity on the weak and poor;
he saves the lives of those in need.
14 He rescues them from oppression and violence;
their lives are precious to him.
15 Long live the king!
May he be given gold from Sheba;[c]
may prayers be said for him at all times;
may God's blessings be on him always!
16 May there be plenty of grain in the land;
may the hills be covered with crops,
as fruitful as those of Lebanon.
May the cities be filled with people,
like fields full of grass.
17 May the king's name never be forgotten;
may his fame last as long as the sun.
May all nations ask God to bless them
as he has blessed the king.[d]
18 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He alone does these wonderful things.
19 Praise his glorious name forever!
May his glory fill the whole world.
Amen! Amen!
20 This is the end of the prayers of David son of Jesse.
8 If you are intelligent, you will be praised; if you are stupid, people will look down on you.
9 It is better to be an ordinary person working for a living than to play the part of someone great but go hungry.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.