The Daily Audio Bible
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The Inheritance of the Levites
18 The priests, who are Levites, as well as the whole tribe of Levi, will not have any allotted inheritance with Israel. They will eat from the offerings made to the Lord by fire,[a] which is their inheritance.
2 So they will not have an inheritance among their brothers. The Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.
3 This then will be the prescribed allotment for the priests from the people who offer sacrifices, whether an ox or a sheep: They are to give to the priests the shoulder, both cheeks, and the stomach. 4 You are also to give them the firstfruits from your grain, your new wine, your fresh oil, and the first fleece from your flock. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen them from all of your tribes to stand in service in the name of the Lord—them and their sons for all time.
6 When a Levite comes from any of your towns throughout Israel where he resides, and whenever he follows his heart’s desire and comes to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 and he serves in the name of the Lord your God, standing there before the Lord like all of his fellow Levites, 8 then he may eat the same portion, regardless of any income he received from selling family property.
9 When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to practice anything like the abominations of those nations. 10 Let no one be found among you who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire, or who uses divination, or who engages in fortune telling, or who observes omens, or who practices witchcraft, 11 or who casts a magic spell, or who consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or who inquires of the dead.[b]
12 Anyone doing these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
13 You are to be blameless with the Lord your God.
14 It is true that those nations whose land you are taking listen to fortune tellers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not permitted you to do things like that.
The Prophet
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites. Listen to him.
16 That is exactly what you asked from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly. You said, “Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, and do not let me see this great fire again, or I will die.”
17 Then the Lord said to me, “They have done well by saying what they said. 18 I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them everything that I command him. 19 Anyone who will not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 Any prophet who presumes to speak something in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks something in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.”
21 What if you ask yourselves, “How can we know that the Lord has not spoken that word?” 22 If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not come about and does not come true, the Lord has not spoken that word. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.[c]
Cities of Refuge
19 When the Lord your God has cut down the nations whose land the Lord your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of their land and settled in their cities and houses, 2 set aside three cities within the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess. 3 Prepare roads[d] for yourselves, and divide the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance into three parts, so that anyone who has killed a person will be able to flee to one of these cities.
4 Now this is an example of a person who has killed someone who may flee there and live: someone who has struck down his friend unintentionally, without being hateful toward him beforehand. 5 For instance, someone goes with his friend into the forest to cut down trees, and when his hand swings the ax to cut down the tree, the iron ax head slips off the wooden handle and strikes his friend, who then dies—that person may flee to one of these cities and live.
6 Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the one who has killed someone, because the avenger is hot with anger. Then because of the long distance to the city of refuge, the avenger may overtake the man and strike him down fatally. His death would not be just, because he had not been hateful toward the other one beforehand. 7 Therefore I am commanding you this: Set aside for yourselves three cities.
8 When the Lord your God expands your territory, as he swore to your fathers, and he gives you the entire land that he promised to give your fathers, 9 if you carefully keep this whole set of commands that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking in his ways always, then add for yourselves three more cities in addition to these three. 10 Then innocent blood will not be poured out within your land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, nor will you be guilty of bloodshed.
11 But if there is a person who is hateful toward another, and he lies in ambush for him and springs up on him and strikes him so he dies, and the killer flees to one of the cities of God, 12 then the elders of his home city are to send for him and take him from there. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood, and he is to be put to death.
13 Your eye is not to look with compassion on him. You are to purge the blood of the innocent person from Israel so that it may go well for you.
Miscellaneous Laws
14 Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the first generation of occupants set up as a boundary for your inherited property in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
15 A single witness does not have legal standing to convict a person of any guilt or sin in connection with any wrongful action he may have committed. A case is to have standing only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him about a legal offense, 17 and if the two people involved in the dispute stand before the Lord and before the priests and the judges who preside at that time, 18 the judges are to investigate diligently. If the person is a dishonest witness because he has falsely accused his brother, 19 then you are to do to him just as he had plotted to do to his brother. So you will purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear, and they will fear, and they will not do an evil thing like this among you again. 21 Your eye is not to look with compassion. The principle is life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Conduct During War
20 When you go out for battle against your enemies, and you see the horses and chariots of a people more numerous than you are, do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.
2 When you are approaching the battle, the priest is to come forward and speak to the people. 3 He will say to them, “Listen, Israel, you are approaching the battle against your enemies. Do not let your heart become weak. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble. Do not dread them, 4 because the Lord your God is going with you to do battle for you against your enemies, to save you.”
5 The officers also are to speak to the people and say, “Whoever has built a new house but has not dedicated it, let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man dedicates it.
6 “Whoever has planted a vineyard but has not yet removed it from sacred status,[e] let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man is the first to eat from it.
7 “Whoever is pledged in marriage to a woman but has not consummated the marriage, let him go and return to his house so that he does not die in the battle and another man takes her in marriage.”
8 Then the officers are to speak again to the people and say, “Whoever is afraid and fainthearted may go and return to his house, so that the hearts of his brother Israelites do not melt in cowardice like his heart.”
9 When the officers finish speaking to the people, they are to appoint army commanders at the head of the people.
10 When you approach a city to fight against it, call out to it, asking for a peaceful surrender. 11 If the city answers you, “Peace,” and it opens up its gates for you, then all the people found in it will become forced labor for you and they will serve you.
12 But if it does not make peace with you, and it makes war against you, then lay siege against it. 13 The Lord your God will deliver it into your hands, and you will strike down all the males with the edge of the sword.
14 But the women and the children, and the cattle and everything that is in the city—all its plunder—take as spoils of war for yourself. You may make use of the plunder of your enemies that the Lord your God gives you.
15 Do this to all the cities that are very far away from you, which are not cities of the nations around here.
16 However, from the cities of these people that the Lord your God is giving to you as your inheritance, do not keep alive anything that breathes. 17 Devote them completely to destruction—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as the Lord your God has commanded you, 18 so that they do not teach you to commit all of the abominations that they commit for their gods, with the result that you sin against the Lord your God.
19 When you lay siege against a city for a long time, as you fight against it in order to capture it, do not destroy its trees by swinging axes against them, because you will be able to eat what the trees bear, so do not cut them down. For is a tree in the field something human that you should besiege it? 20 Only trees that you know are not food-producing trees may be destroyed. You may cut them down to build siege works against the city that makes war against you, until it falls.
The Transfiguration
28 About eight days after he said these words, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 While he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 Just then, two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him! 31 They appeared in glory and were talking about his departure,[a] which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem.
32 Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep, but when they were completely awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not realize what he was saying.
34 While he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them. They were afraid as they went into the cloud. 35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love.[b] Listen to him!” 36 After the voice had spoken, they found Jesus alone. They kept this secret and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.
Jesus Heals a Boy With a Demon
37 The next day, after they had come down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, because he is my only child. 39 See, a spirit takes hold of him, and suddenly he screams. Then it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It hardly ever leaves him and constantly tortures him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”
41 Jesus answered, “O unbelieving and perverse generation,[c] how long will I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
42 As the boy was approaching, the demon threw him down and shook him with convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 They were all astonished at the majesty of God.
Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection
While everyone was amazed at all the things Jesus was doing, he said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears[d] and remember this: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand what he was saying. It was hidden from them so they did not grasp it. And they were afraid to ask him about this statement.
Who Is the Greatest?
46 An argument started among them about which of them would be the greatest. 47 Since Jesus knew the thoughts of their hearts, he took a little child and had him stand next to him. 48 Then he said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. In fact, the one who is least among all of you is the one who is great.”
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
49 John said in reply, “Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he is not following you along with us.”
50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not try to stop him, because whoever is not against you is for you.”
Book III
Psalms 73–89
Psalm 73
Why Do the Wicked Prosper?
Heading
A psalm by Asaph.[a]
The Problem
1 Surely God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet almost slipped out from under me.
I almost lost my footing.[b]
3 I even envied the arrogant when I observed the peace of the wicked.
The Prosperity of the Wicked
4 For there are no struggles at their death.
Their bodies are sturdy.
5 They do not have the trouble common to people.
They are not plagued along with the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace.
They wear violence like clothing.
7 Their eyes bulge out of their fat.[c]
The schemes of their hearts step over boundaries.
8 They mock. They speak maliciously.
From a high perch they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens.
Their tongues strut around on earth.
10 Therefore God’s people turn to them,
and they drink it all in.[d]
11 They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
12 See, this is what the wicked are like—
secure forever, they increase in strength.
The Turning Point
13 Have I really kept my heart pure for nothing?
Have I kept my hands clean in vain?
14 I have been plagued all day.
My punishment comes every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak like this,”
I would certainly have betrayed the circle of your children.
16 When I tried to understand this, it was very troubling to me,
17 until I went to the sanctuary of God.
Then I understood their end.
The Solution
18 Surely you place them on slippery places.
You cause them to fall into destruction.
19 How quickly they come to ruin,
completely destroyed by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when someone wakes up.
So when you arise, O Lord,
you will despise them like an illusion.
21 Yes, my heart was bitter,
and I was torn up inside.
22 I was unthinking and ignorant.
I was a dumb animal before you.
23 Yet I am always with you.
You hold me by my right hand.
24 With your guidance you lead me,
and afterward, you will take me to glory.
25 Who else is there for me in heaven?
And besides you, I desire no one else on earth.
26 My flesh and my heart fail,
but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.
27 No doubt about it!
Those who are far from you will perish.
You destroy all who commit adultery against you.
28 As for me, God’s nearness is good for me.
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
so that I can tell about all your works.
10 A righteous person understands the needs of his livestock,
but the compassion of the wicked is cruel.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.