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Chapter 23
1 A man shall not marry his father’s wife; he is not to dishonor his father’s bed.[a]
Membership Exclusions. 2 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting can enter the assembly of the Lord.[b] 3 No one who is illegitimate[c] can enter the assembly of the Lord, nor can his descendants to the tenth generation enter the assembly of the Lord. 4 No Ammonite or Moabite can enter the assembly of the Lord, even their descendants to the tenth generation cannot enter the assembly of the Lord 5 for they did not greet you with bread and water as you were on your way when you came forth out of Egypt. They hired Balaam, the son of Beor who came from Pethor in Mesopotamia to curse you. 6 However, the Lord, your God, would not listen to Balaam. The Lord, your God, turned a curse upon you into a blessing, for the Lord, your God, loved you. 7 Do not establish a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.
8 Do not detest an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not detest an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land. 9 The third generation of children born to them can enter the assembly of the Lord.
10 Camp Sanitation. When you are encamped against your enemies, stay away from everything that is impure. 11 If one of your men among you is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, let him move outside of the camp. He is not to enter the camp. 12 When evening arrives, he is to wash himself with water, and he can come back inside of the camp.
13 Designate a place outside of the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 14 You shall have an implement with your equipment so that when you relieve yourself, you can dig a hole and cover over your excrement.
15 The Lord, your God, walks among you in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies up to you, so your camp must be holy, lest he see something unclean among you and turn away from you.
16 Incidental Rules. If a slave has taken refuge from his master with you, you are not to hand him over to his master. 17 Let him live with you wherever he chooses, in whatever town he chooses. You are not to oppress him.
18 No Israelite woman is to become a sacred prostitute, nor is an Israelite man to be a sacred prostitute. 19 You are not to bring the wages of a female prostitute or a male prostitute[d] into the shrine of the Lord, your God, to pay for any vow. Both of these are abominations to the Lord, your God.
20 [e]Do not charge your brother interest, whether it be on money or food or anything else that could earn interest. 21 You can charge a foreigner interest, but you cannot charge a brother interest. For this you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in everything that you undertake in the land that you are entering to possess.
22 If you make a vow to the Lord, your God, do not be lax in paying it off, for the Lord, your God, will certainly require it of you, and you would be guilty of a sin. 23 But if you fail to make a vow, there is no sin. 24 Whatever your lips utter, you must do, for you have vowed a freewill offering to the Lord, your God, with your own mouth.
25 If you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you can eat as many grapes as you want, but you are not to put any in a basket. 26 If you enter your neighbor’s grain fields, you can pluck the kernels with your hands, but you are not to take a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
Chapter 24
Marriage Laws.[f] 1 If a man marries a woman, and after they are married she becomes displeasing to him because he has discovered something indecent about her, and he writes a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand, and he sends her forth from his house, 2 then after she has left his house, she can become the wife of another man. 3 If this second husband is displeased with her and writes her a bill of divorce and he puts it in her hand and he sends her forth from his house, or if the second man who took her to be his wife should die, 4 then her first husband who had sent her away cannot take her back to be his wife again, for she has been defiled. This would be an abomination to the Lord. You shall not cause the sin to come upon the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance.
5 If a man has recently been married, he is not to go off to battle nor have any other duty laid on him. He will be free to stay at home for one year so that he can bring happiness to the wife whom he has married.
Additional Laws. 6 Do not take a lower or upper millstone as a pledge against a debt, for that would mean that you were taking the man’s livelihood as a pledge.[g]
7 If anyone kidnaps one of his fellow Israelites, mistreating him and selling him, then that kidnapper is to be put to death, and you shall purge the evil from your midst.
8 During an outbreak of leprosy, take heed to observe and carefully fulfill all that the priests, the Levites, tell you to do. Observe what they command of you and do it. 9 Remember what the Lord, your God, did to Miriam on the way after you came up out of Egypt.
10 Be willing to lend your brother anything, and do not go to his house to obtain his pledge against the loan. 11 Stand outside his house, and the man to whom you made the loan will bring the pledge out to you. 12 If a man is poor, you are not to keep his pledge overnight. 13 You are to return his pledge to him when the sun goes down so that he can sleep in his own garment and bless you. This is righteous to the Lord, your God.
14 You shall not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he be one of your brethren or a foreigner who lives on the land within your town gates. 15 You are to give him his wages on the same day before the sun goes down, for he is poor and he has his heart set on it. Otherwise he might cry out against you to the Lord and it would be your sin.
16 Fathers are not to be put to death in the place of their sons, nor are sons to be put to death in place of their fathers. Each man is to be put to death for his own sin.
17 You are not to pervert justice toward a foreigner or an orphan, nor are you to take a widow’s garment as a pledge against a loan. 18 Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and the Lord, your God, redeemed you from there. This is why I command you to do this.
19 When you reap a harvest in the field and you miss a sheaf of grain, do not turn around to take it. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Then you will be blessed by the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings. 20 When you beat your olive trees, do not go back over the branches a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. 21 When you harvest grapes in your vineyard, do not go back over it a second time. Leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. 22 Remember that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt. This is why I command you to do this.
Chapter 25
Restricted Punishment. 1 If there is a dispute between men and they take it to court for the judges to decide, let them proclaim as innocent the righteous and as guilty the wrongdoer. 2 If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, then the judge will have him lay down and beaten in front of him, giving him the number of lashes that his crime deserves. 3 He can be given up to forty lashes, but no more than that, for if he is given more than that, your brother might be shamed in your sight.
4 Do not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.[h]
Family Marriage.[i] 5 If brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, then the widow of the deceased is not to marry outside of the family. Her husband’s brother will take her as his wife and thus perform the duty of her husband’s brother. 6 The first son will bear the name of the deceased brother, so his name not be extinguished in Israel. 7 However, if the man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, let the brother’s wife go to the elders of the town at the gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to ensure the continuance of his brother in Israel. He will not perform the duty expected of a husband’s brother.” 8 Then the elders of the town will summon him and speak to him. If he continues to say, “I will not marry her,” 9 then the brother’s widow will come up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his shoes from his feet, and spit in his face saying, “This is what a man deserves who will not build a house for his brother.” 10 His family will be known as “the family of the unsandaled one” in Israel.
11 Incidental Rules. If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them comes forward to try to rescue her husband from the man who is beating him, and she reaches out and grabs him by his private parts, 12 you shall cut off her hand. You are to show her no pity.
13 You are not to have two different weights in your sack, one heavy and the other one light.
14 You are not to have two different measures in your house, one large and the other one small.
15 You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live a long time in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you, 16 for anyone who does these things, who deals with others dishonestly, is an abomination to the Lord, your God.
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you were on your way when you came forth from the land of Egypt.[j] 18 They met you along the way and waylaid those who were lagging when you were weary and worn out. They had no fear of God. 19 When the Lord, your God, gives you rest from all of the enemies who surround you in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of the Amalekites from under the heavens. Do not forget!
13 Woe to the Cities of Galilee.[a]“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the mighty deeds performed in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have come to repentance long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will be brought down to the netherworld.[b]
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
17 Joy of the Missionaries.[c] The seventy-two returned rejoicing, and they said, “Lord, in your name even the demons are subject to us.” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. 19 Behold, I have given you the power to tread upon snakes and scorpions and all the forces of the enemy, and nothing will ever harm you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in the knowledge that the spirits are subject to you. Rejoice rather that your names are inscribed in heaven.”
21 Joy of Jesus.[d]At that very hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to children. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
22 “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
23 The Privilege of Discipleship. Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 I tell you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
25 The Greatest Commandment.[e]And behold, a lawyer came forward to test Jesus by asking, “Teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” 26 Jesus said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 Jesus then said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
29 The Parable of the Good Samaritan. But because the man wished to justify himself, he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down[f] from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him and beat him, and then went off leaving him half-dead. 31 A priest happened to be traveling along that same road, but when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 A Levite[g] likewise came to that spot and saw him, but he too passed by on the other side.
33 “But a Samaritan who was traveling along that road came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion. 34 He went up to him and bandaged his wounds after having poured oil and wine on them. Then he brought him upon his own animal to an inn and looked after him.
35 “The next day, he took out two denarii[h] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Look after him, and when I return I will repay you for anything more you might spend.’
36 “Which of those three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He answered, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”[i]
Psalm 75[a]
God Is Judge of the World
1 For the director.[b] According to “Do not destroy!” A psalm of Asaph. A song.
2 We give thanks[c] to you, O God,
we give thanks to you.
For your wondrous deeds
declare that your name is near.
3 [d]You say, “When I receive the assembly,
I will judge with equity.
4 When the earth quakes, with all its inhabitants,
it is I who will hold its pillars firm.[e] Selah
5 [f]“I say to the arrogant,[g] ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns.
6 Do not rebel against heaven
or speak with arrogance against the Rock.’ ”[h]
7 [i]For judgment does not come from east or west,
nor from the wilderness or the mountains.[j]
8 Rather, it is God who judges rightly,
humbling one and exalting another.[k]
9 The Lord holds in his hand a cup
filled with foaming wine and richly spiced.
When he pours it out,
all the wicked[l] of the earth must drink;
they will drain it down to the dregs.
10 As for me, I will proclaim this forever;
I will sing praises[m] to the God of Jacob.
11 “I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
but the horns of the righteous[n] will be exalted.”
12 The wicked desire the prey of evil men,
but the root of the righteous bears fruit.
13 The wicked man is ensnared by the sin of his lips,
but the righteous frees himself from misfortune.
14 An abundance of good things flow from the fruit of one’s lips,
and a man’s labor will give him a suitable reward.[a]
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