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14 The Eternal One spoke to Moses.
Eternal One: 2-3 These are the instructions for determining when an infected person has recovered from a skin disease and should be pronounced clean. The priest must go outside the camp and examine the infected person. If the priest determines the skin disease has been healed, 4 then he will prescribe that two healthy birds—both ritually pure—some cedar wood, scarlet string, and hyssop be brought for the cleansing ritual. 5 The priest will direct that one of the birds be killed in a clay jar over running water. 6 He will then take the living bird along with the cedar, the scarlet string, and the hyssop and dip them in the blood of the first bird killed over running water. 7 Then the priest will sprinkle the one who is being cleansed from his skin disease seven times with the blood, pronounce that he is once again clean, and set the living bird free in a wide, open field. 8 The person who is presented for cleansing will wash his clothes, shave all the hair from his body, and wash himself with water; then he will be clean. After all this is done, he is permitted to enter the community but he must remain outside of his tent for seven days. 9 When the seventh day arrives, he must shave all the hair from his body again—his head, beard, and eyebrows—and he has to wash his clothes again and bathe in water. This is how he is to be made clean.
10 On the eighth day, the person must bring two unblemished male lambs, an unblemished year-old ewe lamb, six quarts of the finest flour mixed with oil to act as a grain offering, and ⅔ pint of oil. 11 The priest who pronounces the person clean will bring the man and his offering into My presence at the entrance of the congregation tent. 12 The priest is then to take one male lamb as the guilt offering, along with the ⅔ pint of oil, and lift them up as a wave offering in My presence. 13 Then he must slaughter the lamb in the same area of the sanctuary where they kill the purification offering for sin and the burnt offering. The guilt offering, like the purification offering, belongs to the priest. They are most sacred. 14 The priest will then collect some of the blood of the guilt offering and place it on the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the person who is being cleansed. 15 The priest will take some of the ⅔ pint of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand, 16 and then he will dip his right finger into the oil in his left hand and sprinkle drops of it with his finger seven times before Me. 17 He will then take some of the oil from his left hand and place it on the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the person being cleansed and on top of the blood of the guilt offering. 18 The priest should take any remaining oil from his left hand and put it on the head of the person being cleansed. Then the priest must perform the atoning sacrifice before Me to cover the person’s sins. 19 The priest is to offer the purification offering to cover the sin of the one being cleansed. After this, the priest must present the sacrifice for the burnt offering 20 along with the grain offering on the altar. This is how the priest will cover the sin, guilt, and uncleanness of the person seeking to be cleansed; this person must be considered clean once again.
Taken together, these rituals and sacrifices allow the formerly unclean person to reenter the life of the community.
21 If the person who comes for cleansing is poor and cannot afford the prescribed offerings, then he may be covered by bringing one male lamb as a guilt offering to be lifted up as a wave offering. He should also present four pints of the finest flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, along with ⅔ pint of oil. 22 He should also bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford. One of the birds will be for the purification offering and the other one will be for the burnt offering. 23 When the eighth day arrives (which is the day after he shaves the second time), the person must present them for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance of the congregation tent in My presence. 24 The priest will receive the lamb for the guilt offering and the ⅔ pint of oil, and lift them as a wave offering before Me. 25 Afterward, he will kill the lamb for the guilt offering, collect some of its blood, and place it on the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the person being cleansed. 26 The priest is to pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand 27 and sprinkle drops of it with his right finger seven times in My presence. 28 The priest will then take some of the oil from his left hand and place it on the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the person being cleansed and on top of the blood from the guilt offering. 29 The priest should take any remaining oil from his left hand and put it on the head of the person being cleansed to cover him before Me. 30-31 He will then present one of the turtledoves or young pigeons—whichever he can afford—one for the purification offering and the other for the burnt offering that accompanies the grain offering. The priest will cover the sin, guilt, and uncleanness before Me of the person seeking to be cleansed. 32 These instructions explain what to do when someone with a serious skin disease cannot afford all the items for his cleansing.
33 The Eternal One spoke to Moses and Aaron.
Eternal One: 34 When you go into the land of Canaan—the land which I am giving you as your own—and I contaminate or infect one of the houses in your land, 35 the owner of the house must go inform the priest, “I have just noticed a spot in my house.” 36 The priest must then order the person to remove all the contents from the house before he comes to examine the spot. This saves the person from possibly having everything in the house declared unclean. After this is done, the priest can go inside and inspect the spot. 37 If he sees that the spot has greenish or reddish depressions and appears to go deep beneath the surface of the wall, 38 then the priest will exit the house through the door and quarantine the house for seven days. 39 When the seventh day arrives, the priest will go back into the house and inspect it again. If the discolored spot has shown up on other places on the walls, 40 the priest will direct them to remove all the stones that have any suspicious spots on them and discard them in the impure refuse pile outside the camp. 41 They are also to scrape off any suspicious-looking plaster and discard it in the impure refuse pile outside the camp. 42 Then they are to go out and find other stones to replace the ones they removed and then replaster the walls.
43 If there is another outbreak after they have removed all the suspicious-looking stones and plaster and then replastered the walls, 44 the priest must enter the house and inspect it once again. If he finds that the spots have reappeared, then the house has a chronic outbreak and is unclean. 45 The owner must demolish the house and take all its stones, wood, and plaster to the impure refuse pile outside the camp. 46 Whoever enters the house while the house is quarantined by the priest will become unclean until dusk. 47 Also anyone who sleeps or eats inside the house must wash their clothes.
48 If the priest enters the house to inspect it and the spot has not reappeared after the walls have been rebuilt and replastered, the priest will declare the house clean because the spot has not returned. 49 To cleanse the house from its contamination, the priest must take two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet string, and hyssop, 50 and slaughter one bird in a clay jar over running water. 51 He will then dip the cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet string, and the living bird in the blood of the first bird and in running water and sprinkle the house seven times. 52 This is how the priest will cleanse the house from the outbreak using the blood of the sacrificed bird, running water, the living bird, cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet string. 53 He will set the living bird free over a wide, open field outside the camp. In this way, the priest will cover over the impurity of the house, and the house will be declared clean.
54-57 These are God’s instructions for how to deal with suspicious-looking spots: for scaly areas, swelling, rashes, and discolored spots on the skin and for discolored spots on clothing or in a house. With these instructions, priests are able to determine whether they are clean or unclean.
30 Now the twelve returned from their travels and told Him what they had done, whom they had seen, and how they had spread the news of God’s kingdom.
Jesus (to the disciples): 31 Let us go out into the wilderness for a while and rest ourselves.
The crowds gathered as always, and Jesus and the twelve couldn’t eat because so many people came and went. 32 They could get no peace until they boarded a boat and sailed toward a deserted place.
33 But the people would not be put off so easily. Those along the shore who recognized Jesus followed along the coast. People pushed out of all the cities and gathered ahead of Him 34 so that when Jesus came ashore and saw this crowd of people waiting for Him in a place that should have been relatively deserted, He was moved with compassion. They were like sheep without a shepherd.
He began to teach them many things 35 as the day passed; at last the disciples came to Jesus.
Disciples: It is getting late, and there is nothing around for miles. 36 Send these people to the surrounding villages so they can buy something to eat.
Jesus: 37 Why don’t you give them something to eat?
Disciples (looking at Him): What? It would cost a fortune[a] to buy bread for these people!
Jesus: 38 Does anyone have any bread? Go and see.
Disciples (returning from the crowd): There are five pieces of flatbread and two fish, if that makes any difference.
Jesus: 39-40 Listen, tell them to gather in smaller groups and sit on that green patch of grass.
And so the disciples gathered the people in groups of 100 or of 50, and they sat down.
41 Jesus took the five pieces of flatbread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for the food, and broke it. He gave the pieces to the disciples to distribute, 42 and all of the people ate until no one was hungry. 43 Then they gathered twelve baskets full of leftovers.
44 That day, 5,000 men ate their fill of the bread when Jesus fed the hungry crowd.
The disciples pull Jesus aside to point out the obvious: everyone needs to go and eat something.
But Jesus, as usual, isn’t about to be distracted by the obvious. His answer must irritate them even further: “Why don’t you give them something to eat?” Jesus is seeing a much bigger reality. He is deliberately creating a turning point in His ministry: He wants to make them a part of His miracles. From recorders and observers, they will become participants. And so the disciples, not Jesus, tell the people to sit down, pass out the food, and collect the leftovers after everyone has eaten until they are stuffed. The disciples must feel pretty sheepish as they experience how Jesus is making them a part of the miracle—despite their mundane concerns and their frustrations with Him.
45 Not long after, He sent His disciples out onto their boat to sail to Bethsaida on the other shore, and He sent the crowd away. 46 After everyone had gone, He slipped away to pray on a mountain overlooking the sea.
47 When evening came, the boat was out on the sea and He was alone on the land. 48 He saw that the disciples were making little progress because they were rowing against a stiff wind. Before daylight He came near them, walking on the water, and would have passed by them. 49 Some of them saw Him walking on the surface of the water, thought He was a ghost, and cried out. 50 When they all saw Him, they were terrified.
Jesus (immediately calling out): Don’t be frightened. Do you see? It is I.
51 He walked across the water to the boat; and as soon as He stepped aboard, the contrary wind ceased its blowing. They were greatly astonished; 52 although they had just witnessed the miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 with bread and fish, and other signs besides, they didn’t understand what it all meant and their hearts remained hard.
How can the disciples still be in doubt about Jesus after having been part of so many miracles? Like the Israelites in the Old Testament, the disciples are discovering the truth that miracles don’t produce faith. As Jesus so often points out, the process works the other way around: it’s faith that produces miracles. Miracles are only signs—evidence of truth that you have to know before the miracle. As long as the disciples are still in doubt about who Jesus is, they find their faith constantly challenged and frequently wavering. It will not be until after the resurrection, the greatest miracle of all, that they will come to recognize and believe in Jesus for who He is; and then their hearts will at last open.
53 When they finished their journey, they landed the boat in Gennesaret. 54 People at once recognized Jesus as the Healer. 55 Immediately they hurried to collect the sick and infirm—bringing them to Him in beds if they had to— 56 laying them out in the markets of any village, city, or field where He might pass.
Gennesarites: Just let us touch the fringe of Your robe.
Even the people who touched only it were made whole again.
Psalm 40
For the worship leader. A song of David.
1 I waited a long time for the Eternal;
He finally knelt down to hear me.
He listened to my weak and whispered cry.
2 He reached down and drew me
from the deep, dark hole where I was stranded, mired in the muck and clay.
With a gentle hand, He pulled me out
To set me down safely on a warm rock;
He held me until I was steady enough to continue the journey again.
3 As if that were not enough,
because of Him my mind is clearing up.
Now I have a new song to sing—
a song of praise to the One who saved me.
Because of what He’s done, many people will see
and come to trust in the Eternal.
4 Surely those who trust the Eternal—
who don’t trust in proud, powerful people
Or in people who care little for reality, chasing false gods—
surely they are happy, as I have become.
5 You have done so many wonderful things,
had so many tender thoughts toward us, Eternal my God,
that go on and on, ever increasing.
Who can compare with You?
6 Sacrifices and offerings are not what You want,
but You’ve opened my ears,[a] and now I understand.
Burnt offerings and sin offerings
are not what please You.
7 So I said, “See, I have come to do Your will,
as it is inscribed of me in the scroll.
8 I am pleased to live how You want, my God.
Your law is etched into my heart and my soul.”
9 I have encouraged Your people with the message of righteousness,
in Your great assembly (look and see),
I haven’t kept quiet about these things;
You know this, Eternal One.
10 I have not kept Your righteousness to myself, sealed up in the secret places of my heart;
instead, I boldly tell others how You save and how loyal You are.
I haven’t been shy to talk about Your love, nor have I been afraid to tell Your truth
before the great assembly of Your people.
11 The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life,
but words spoken by the wicked cover up violent schemes.
12 Hatred fuels dissension,
but love calms all rebellions.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.