The Daily Audio Bible
Three Major Festivals
16 Honor the Lord your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib. In the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at night. 2 Slaughter an animal from your flock or herd as the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God. Do this at the place where the Lord will choose for his name to live. 3 Never eat leavened bread with the meat from this sacrifice. Instead, for seven days you must eat unleavened bread at this festival. (It is the bread of misery because you left Egypt in a hurry.) Eat this bread so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you left Egypt. 4 There should be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Never leave until morning any of the meat you slaughter on the evening of the first day.
5 You’re not allowed to slaughter the animals for Passover in any of the cities the Lord your God is giving you. 6 Instead, slaughter your animals for Passover in the place where the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. Do this in the evening as the sun goes down. This is the same time you did it when you left Egypt. 7 Cook the meat, and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. 8 For six days eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day hold a religious assembly dedicated to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work that day.
9 Count seven weeks from the time you start harvesting grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God. Bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 Enjoy yourselves in the presence of the Lord your God along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites who live in your cities, the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. Enjoy yourselves at the place the Lord your God will choose for his name to live. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and obey these laws carefully.
13 After you have gathered the grain from your threshing floor [a] and made your wine, celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days. 14 Enjoy yourselves at the festival along with your sons, daughters, male and female slaves, the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities. 15 For seven days you will celebrate this festival dedicated to the Lord your God in the place he will choose. You will enjoy yourselves, because the Lord your God will bless all your harvest and all your work.
16 Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. But no one may come into the presence of the Lord without an offering. 17 Each man must bring a gift in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given him.
Administering Justice
18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes in every city that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly. 19 Never pervert justice. Instead, be impartial. Never take a bribe, because bribes blind wise people and deny justice to those who are in the right. 20 Strive for nothing but justice so that you will live and take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
21 When you build the altar for the Lord your God, never plant beside it any tree dedicated to the goddess Asherah. 22 Never set up a sacred stone. These are things the Lord your God hates.
17 Never offer an ox or a sheep that has a defect or anything seriously wrong with it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. That would be disgusting to him.
2 In one of the cities the Lord your God is giving you, there may be a man or woman among you who is doing what the Lord considers evil. This person may be disregarding the conditions of the Lord’s promise [b] 3 by worshiping and bowing down to other gods, the sun, the moon, or the whole army of heaven. I have forbidden this. 4 When you are told about it, investigate it thoroughly. If it’s true and it can be proven that this disgusting thing has been done in Israel, 5 then bring the man or woman who did this evil thing to the gates of your city, and stone that person to death. 6 The person can only be sentenced to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses, but no one should ever be sentenced to death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The witnesses must start the execution, then all the other people will join them in putting the person to death. You must get rid of this evil.
8 There may be a case that is too hard for you to decide. It may involve murder, assault, or a dispute—any case which may be brought to court in your cities. Take this case to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 Go to the Levitical priests and the judge who is serving at that time. Ask for their opinion, and they will give you their verdict 10 at the place that the Lord will choose. Do what they tell you. Follow all their instructions carefully, 11 and do what they tell you to do in their verdict. Do exactly what they tell you to do in their decision. 12 If anyone deliberately disobeys the priest (who serves the Lord your God) or the judge, that person must die. You must get rid of this evil in Israel. 13 When all the people hear about it, they will be afraid and will never defy ⌞God’s law⌟ again.
14 You will enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You will take possession of it and live there. You will say, “Let’s have our own king like all the other nations around us.” 15 Be sure to appoint the king the Lord your God will choose. He must be one of your own people. Never let a foreigner be king, because he’s not one of your own people.
16 The king must never own a large number of horses or make the people return to Egypt to get more horses. The Lord has told you, “You will never go back there again.” 17 The king must never have a large number of wives, or he will turn away ⌞from God⌟. And he must never own a lot of gold and silver.
18 When he becomes king, he should have the Levitical priests make him a copy of these teachings on a scroll. 19 He must keep it with him and read it his entire life. He will learn to fear the Lord his God and faithfully obey everything found in these teachings and laws. 20 Then he won’t think he’s better than the rest of his people, and he won’t disobey these commands in any way. So he and his sons will rule for a long time in Israel.
Rumors about Jesus(A)
7 Herod the ruler heard about everything that was happening. He didn’t know what to make of it. Some people were saying that John had come back to life. 8 Others said that Elijah had appeared, and still others said that one of the prophets from long ago had come back to life.
9 Herod said, “I had John’s head cut off. Who is this person I’m hearing so much about?” So Herod wanted to see Jesus.
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand(B)
10 The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He took them with him to a city called Bethsaida so that they could be alone. 11 But the crowds found out about this and followed him. He welcomed them, talked to them about God’s kingdom, and cured those who were sick.
12 Toward the end of the day, the twelve apostles came to him. They said to him, “Send the crowd to the closest villages and farms so that they can find some food and a place to stay. No one lives around here.”
13 Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish. Unless we go to buy food for all these people, that’s all we have.” 14 (There were about five thousand men.)
Then he told his disciples, “Have them sit in groups of about fifty.” 15 So they did this.
16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and blessed the food. He broke the loaves apart and kept giving them to the disciples to give to the crowd. 17 All of them ate as much as they wanted. When they picked up the leftover pieces, they filled twelve baskets.
Peter Declares His Belief about Jesus(C)
18 Once when Jesus was praying privately and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
19 They answered, “Some say you are John the Baptizer, others Elijah, and still others say that one of the prophets from long ago has come back to life.”
20 He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, whom God has sent.”
21 He ordered them not to tell this to anyone.
Jesus Foretells That He Will Die and Come Back to Life(D)
22 Jesus said that the Son of Man would have to suffer a lot. He would be rejected by the leaders, the chief priests, and the experts in Moses’ Teachings. He would be killed, but on the third day he would come back to life.
What It Means to Follow Jesus(E)
23 He said to all of them, “Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses every day, and follow me. 24 Those who want to save their lives will lose them. But those who lose their lives for me will save them. 25 What good does it do for people to win the whole world but lose their lives by destroying them? 26 If people are ashamed of me and what I say, the Son of Man will be ashamed of those people when he comes in the glory that he shares with the Father and the holy angels.
27 “I can guarantee this truth: Some people who are standing here will not die until they see God’s kingdom.”
By Solomon.
72 O God, give the king your justice
and the king’s son [a] your righteousness
2 so that he may judge your people with righteousness
and your oppressed ⌞people⌟ with justice.
3 May the mountains bring peace to the people
and the hills bring righteousness.
4 May he grant justice to the people who are oppressed.
May he save the children of needy people
and crush their oppressor.
5 May they fear you as long as the sun and moon ⌞shine⌟—
throughout every generation.
6 May he be like rain that falls on ⌞freshly⌟ cut grass,
like showers that water the land.
7 May righteous people blossom in his day.
May there be unlimited peace until the moon no longer ⌞shines⌟.
8 May he rule from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.
9 May the people of the desert kneel in front of him.
May his enemies lick the dust.
10 May the kings from Tarshish and the islands bring presents.
May the kings from Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
11 May all kings worship him.
May all nations serve him.
12 He will rescue the needy person who cries for help
and the oppressed person who has no one’s help.
13 He will have pity on the poor and needy
and will save the lives of the needy.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence.
Their blood will be precious in his sight.
15 May he live long.
May the gold from Sheba be given to him.
May ⌞the people⌟ pray for him continually.
May ⌞they⌟ praise him all day long.
16 May there be plenty of grain in the land.
May it wave ⌞in the breeze⌟ on the mountaintops,
its fruit like ⌞the treetops of⌟ Lebanon.
May those from the city flourish like the grass on the ground.
17 May his name endure forever.
May his name continue as long as the sun ⌞shines⌟.
May all nations be blessed through him and call him blessed.
18 Thank the Lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does miracles.
19 Thanks be to his glorious name forever.
May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and amen!
20 The prayers by David, son of Jesse, end here.
8 A person will be praised based on his insight,
but whoever has a twisted mind will be despised.
9 Better to be unimportant and have a slave
than to act important and have nothing to eat.
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