Old/New Testament
Chapter 29
Consecration of the Priests. 1 “You shall observe this rite to consecrate them as my priests: Take a bull and two rams without defect, 2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers with oil spread on them. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3 Put them in one basket and bring them and offer them together with the young bull and the two rams.
4 “Then have Aaron and his sons approach the entrance to the meeting tent and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and clothe Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate. Wrap the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him. 6 Place the turban on his head and put the holy crown over the turban. 7 Then pour the anointing oil on his head and anoint him.
8 “As for his sons, make them draw near and clothe them in their tunics, 9 wrap their sashes around them, and tie their caps on them. They will participate in the priesthood by an eternal statute. This is how you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
10 The Offering of the Sacrifices.“Then have the young bull brought in front of the meeting tent. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 11 Kill the bull before the Lord, at the entrance to the meeting tent. 12 Take part of its blood and with a finger put it on the horns of the altar. The rest of the blood shall be poured out at the base of the altar.
13 “Take the fat that surrounds its entrails, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat that surrounds them, and burn them as a sacrifice on the altar. 14 But the meat of the bull, its skin and its dung, you must burn outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
15 “Then take one of the rams. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 16 Kill the ram and gather its blood and pour it around the altar. 17 Cut the ram into pieces. Wash the entrails and the legs and put them with the pieces and the head. 18 Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a pleasing fragrance[a] to the Lord, a burnt offering to the Lord.
19 “Take the second ram. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head, 20 and you shall kill it. Take part of its blood and place it on the right ear lobe of Aaron and the right ear lobes of his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then pour out the blood around the altar. 21 Take some of the blood on the altar and some anointing oil and sprinkle Aaron and his vestments, the sons of Aaron and their vestments. Thus, he shall be consecrated with his vestments together with his sons and their vestments.
22 “Take the fat of the ram: the tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh, for it is a ram of consecration. 23 Also take a round loaf of bread, a cake of bread mixed with oil, and an unleavened wafer from the basket of unleavened breads placed before the altar. 24 Put all of it into the hands of Aaron and the hands of his sons. They shall wave it as an offering before the Lord.[b] 25 Take everything from their hands and burn it on the altar. It shall be a pleasant fragrance to the Lord, a burnt offering to the Lord.
26 “Take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration and wave it as an offering before the Lord. It shall be your portion. 27 Consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the offering and wave it. It is offered from the ram of the consecration, and it is for Aaron and his sons. 28 It is to belong to Aaron and his sons as the portion reserved to them. This shall be an eternal statute for the children of Israel. It will be the priests’ portion to be offered by the children of Israel from their peace offerings, an offering unto the Lord.
29 The Transmission of the Sacred Vestments.“The sacred vestments of Aaron shall belong to his sons after him. They shall be anointed and consecrated in them. 30 Those descendants of Aaron who succeed him in the priesthood and who enter into the meeting tent to minister in the sanctuary shall wear these vestments for seven days.
31 The Sacred Food of the Priests.“Take the ram of consecration and cook its meat in a holy place. 32 At the entrance to the meeting tent, Aaron and his sons shall eat the meat of the ram and the bread of the basket. 33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was obtained. No outsider can eat them, for they are holy things. 34 If any of the meat of consecration or the bread is left over in the morning, you shall burn whatever is left over with fire; it shall not be eaten, for it is holy. 35 Do to Aaron and to his sons what I have commanded you to do. For seven days you shall consecrate them.
36 The Consecrated Altar and the Daily Sacrifice.“For each of seven days you shall offer a young bull as a sin offering for atonement. You shall also make a sin offering for the atonement for the altar, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. 37 For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. It shall thus become a most holy thing, and whatever touches the altar will become holy.[c]
38 “Now this is what you shall offer up on the altar every day and forever: two lambs, a year old. 39 You shall offer one of these lambs in the morning and the second lamb in the evening. 40 With the first lamb you shall offer a tenth of a measure of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of olive oil and a fourth of a hin of wine as a libation. 41 Offer the second lamb in the evening with the same offering and libation as in the morning. It will be a pleasant fragrance to the Lord, a burnt offering to the Lord.
42 “It shall be a perpetual burnt offering throughout all your generations at the entrance to the meeting tent, in the presence of the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you.
43 “I will meet with the children of Israel in this place that will be consecrated to my glory. 44 I will consecrate the meeting tent and the altar. I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to be my priests. 45 I will live in the midst of the children of Israel and I will be their God. 46 They shall know that I am the Lord, their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I, the Lord, their God, might live in their midst.
Chapter 30
The Altar of Incense. 1 “You shall build an altar upon which to burn incense. Make it of acacia wood, 2 one cubit long and one cubit wide. It shall be square, and two cubits high; and its horns shall all be one piece with it. 3 Cover its top, its sides, and its horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. 4 You shall also make two golden rings below its molding on its two sides. Place them on opposite sides. They shall be used to insert poles with which to carry it. 5 You shall make the poles out of acacia wood and cover them with gold. 6 And you shall place the altar in front of the veil that hides the Ark of Testimony, in front of the seat of atonement that is upon it, where I will meet you.
7 “Aaron shall burn fragrant incense upon the altar. He shall burn it each morning when he trims the lamps, 8 and also in the evening when he refills the lamps. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout all your generations. 9 Do not offer any unholy incense upon it, nor burnt offerings nor sacrifices nor libations. 10 Once a year Aaron shall perform an atonement ritual upon it, upon its horns. He shall make atonement upon it with the blood of your sin offering once a year throughout all your generations. It is something most holy to the Lord.”
11 The Temple Tax. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, 12 “When you take a census of the number of the children of Israel, each man will offer a ransom for his life to the Lord, when you number them, lest there be a plague among them when you number them. 13 Each person counted in the census will give half a shekel according to the measure of the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half shekel will be an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is counted in the census, from twenty years old and up, will give the Lord’s offering. 15 The rich will not give more and the poor will not give less than half a shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering, in order to ransom your life. 16 You shall take the money of this ransom of the children of Israel and designate it for the needs of the meeting tent. It shall be a memorial before the Lord for the children of Israel, for the ransom of your lives.”
17 The Basin for Washing. The Lord said to Moses, 18 “You shall make a basin out of bronze, with a base of bronze, for ablutions. Place it between the meeting tent and the altar and fill it with water. 19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.[d] 20 When they enter the meeting tent, they shall perform an ablution with water, lest they die. Thus, whenever they approach the altar to minister, to burn an offering unto the Lord with fire, 21 they shall wash their hands and their feet so that they might not die. This shall be a perpetual statute for him and his sons, for all their generations.”
22 The Anointing Oil. The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Take the finest spices: five hundred shekels of flowing myrrh, half that amount of sweet-smelling cinnamon, namely two hundred and fifty shekels of it, two hundred and fifty shekels of aromatic cane, 24 five hundred shekels of cassia, all according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil. 25 Make a holy anointing oil out of them using the craft of the perfumer who blends oils. It shall be a holy anointing oil. 26 With it you are to anoint the meeting tent, the Ark of Testimony, 27 the table and all its accessories, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, 28 the altar of burnt offerings and all of its accessories, and the basin and its base. 29 You shall consecrate these things, and they shall become most holy. Whatever touches them will be holy.
30 “You shall also anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so that they may serve me as priests. 31 Say to the children of Israel: ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil for all your generations. 32 You shall not pour it out on anyone’s body, nor shall you make anything else like it. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.’
33 “Anyone who makes anything like it, or who pours it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.”
34 The Incense. The Lord said to Moses, “Gather sweet spices, gum of stacte, onycha, resin of galbanum, equal measures of sweet spices and pure frankincense, 35 and make an incense using the skill of the perfumer. It is to be salted, pure and holy. 36 Beat some of it very fine and put it before the Testimony in the meeting tent where I shall meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.
37 “You shall not make for yourselves anything like this incense according to its composition. You shall consider it to be holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes anything like it to use for its sweet odor shall be cut off from his people.”
23 The Authority of Jesus Questioned.[a] When he entered the temple and began to teach, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him and asked, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus said to them in reply, “I will also ask you one question. If you give me an answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Where did John’s baptism originate? From heaven or from men?”
They argued among themselves, “If we say: ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the people, for they all regard John as a prophet.”
27 Therefore, they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Then neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.[b]
28 The Parable of the Two Sons.[c]“What is your opinion about this? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not,’ but later he had a change of heart and went. 30 The father then gave the same instruction to the second son, who answered, ‘Of course I will,’ but then did not go. 31 Which of the two complied with his father’s instruction?” They responded, “The first.”
Then Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to show you the path of righteousness, but you did not believe him, whereas the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. Yet even after you realized that, you still refused to change your minds and believe in him.
33 The Parable of the Tenants.[d]“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, fenced it in on all sides, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went off on a journey.
34 “When the time for harvest approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the produce. 35 But the tenants seized his servants and beat one of them, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Again, he sent more servants, but they treated them in the same manner.
37 “Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 And so they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40 “Now what do you think the owner of the vineyard will do to those tenants when he comes?” 41 They said to him, “He will kill those evil men, and then he will lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest.”
42 Jesus then said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes’?
43 Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce fruit in abundance. [ 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken into pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.]”[e]
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, who regarded him as a prophet.
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