Old/New Testament

The Land Is Divided

45 “‘Divide the land for the Israelite tribes by throwing lots. At that time you will give a part of the land to belong to the Lord. It will be about 7 miles long and about 6 miles wide. All of this land will be holy. ² An area of 875 feet square will be for the Temple. There will be an open space around the Temple that is 87½ feet wide. ³ In the holy area you will measure a part about 7 miles long and 3 miles wide. The Most Holy Place will be in this holy area. ⁴ This holy part of the land will be for the priests who serve in the Temple. This is where they come near to serve the Lord. It will be a place for the priests’ houses. And it will be the place for the Temple. ⁵ Another area will be about 7 miles long and more than 3 miles wide. It will be for the Levites, who serve in the Temple. It will belong to them so they will have cities in which to live.

⁶ “‘And you will give the city an area that is about 1½ miles wide and about 7 miles long. It will be along the side of the holy area. It will belong to all the people of Israel.

⁷ “‘The ruler will have land on both sides of the holy area and the city. On the west of the holy area, his land will reach to the Mediterranean Sea. On the east of the holy area, his land will reach to the eastern border. It will be as long as the land given to each tribe. ⁸ This land will be the ruler’s property in Israel. So my rulers will not be cruel to my people anymore. But they will give land to each tribe in the nation of Israel.

⁹ “‘This is what the Lord God says: You have gone far enough, you rulers of Israel! Stop being cruel and hurting people. Do what is right and fair. Stop forcing my people out of their homes, says the Lord God. ¹⁰ You must have honest scales, an honest dry measurement and an honest liquid measurement. ¹¹ The dry measure and the liquid measure will be the same: The liquid measure will always be a tenth of a homer.^[a] The ephah will always be a tenth of a homer. The measurement they follow will be the homer. ¹² The shekel^[b] will be worth 20 gerahs. A mina will be worth 60 shekels.

Offerings and Holy Days

¹³ “‘This is the gift you will offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley. ¹⁴ The amount of oil you are to offer is a tenth of a bath from each cor. (Ten baths make a homer and also make a cor.) ¹⁵ You should give 1 sheep from each flock of 200 from the watering places of Israel. They are to be offered with the grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. These offerings are to remove sins so you will belong to God, says the Lord God. ¹⁶ All people in the land will give this special offering for the ruler of Israel. ¹⁷ It will be the ruler’s responsibility to supply the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings. These offerings will be given at the feasts and at the New Moons. They will also be given on the Sabbaths and at all the other feasts of Israel. The ruler will supply the sin offerings, grain offerings and fellowship offerings. These offerings are to pay for the sins of Israel.

¹⁸ “‘This is what the Lord God says: On the first day of the first month take a young bull that has nothing wrong with it. Use it to make the Temple pure and ready for God’s service. ¹⁹ The priest will take some of the blood from the sin offering. And he will put it on the doorposts of the Temple. He will put it on the four corners of the ledge of the altar. And he will put it on the posts of the gate of the inner courtyard. ²⁰ You will do the same thing on the seventh day of the month. You will do it for anyone who has sinned by accident or without knowing it. This is how you make the Temple pure and ready for God’s service.

Passover Feast Offerings

²¹ “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month you will celebrate the Feast of Passover. It will be a feast of seven days when you eat bread made without yeast. ²² On that day the ruler must offer a bull for himself and for all the people of the land. The bull will be a sin offering. ²³ During the seven days of the feast the ruler must offer seven bulls. And he must offer seven male sheep. The bulls and sheep must have nothing wrong with them. They will be burnt offerings to the Lord. The ruler will offer them every day of the seven days of the feast. He must also offer a male goat every day as a sin offering. ²⁴ The ruler must give as a grain offering a half bushel for each bull and a half bushel for each sheep. He must give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel.

²⁵ “‘Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you will celebrate the Feast of Shelters. During the feast, the ruler will do the same things for seven days. He will supply the sin offering, burnt offering, grain offering and the olive oil.

Rules for Worship

46 “‘This is what the Lord God says: The east gate of the inner courtyard will be shut on the six working days. But it will be opened on the Sabbath day. And it will be open on the day of the New Moon. ² The ruler will enter through the porch of the gateway. He will enter from outside and stand by the gatepost. Then the priests will offer the ruler’s burnt offering and fellowship offerings. The ruler will worship at the entrance of the gate. Then he will go out. But the gate will not be shut until evening. ³ The people of the land will worship at the entrance of that gateway. They will worship there in the presence of the Lord on the Sabbaths and New Moons. ⁴ This is the burnt offering the ruler will offer to the Lord on the Sabbath day. It will be six male lambs that have nothing wrong with them. And it will be a male sheep that has nothing wrong with it. ⁵ He must give a half bushel grain offering with the male sheep. But he can give as much grain offering with the lambs as he pleases. He must also give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain. ⁶ On the day of the New Moon he must offer a young bull. It must have nothing wrong with it. He must also offer six lambs and a male sheep. They also must have nothing wrong with them. ⁷ The ruler must give a half bushel grain offering with the bull. And he must give the same with the male sheep. With the lambs, he can give as much grain as he pleases. But he must give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain. ⁸ And when the ruler enters, he must go in through the porch of the gateway. He must go out the same way.

⁹ “‘The people of the land must come before the Lord at the special feasts. Anyone who enters through the north gate to worship must go out through the south gate. Anyone who enters through the south gate must go out through the north gate. No one will return the same way he entered. Each person will go out straight ahead. ¹⁰ When the people go in, the ruler will go in with them. When they go out, the ruler will go out.

¹¹ “‘At the feasts and regular times of worship a half bushel of grain must be offered. It will be offered with a young bull. And a half bushel of grain must be offered with a male sheep. But with an offering of lambs, the ruler may give as much grain as he pleases. He should give a gallon of olive oil for each half bushel of grain. ¹² The ruler may give an offering as a special gift to the Lord. It may be a burnt offering or fellowship offering. When he gives it to the Lord, the inner east gate will be opened for him. He must offer his burnt offering and his fellowship offerings as he does on the Sabbath day. Then he will go out. After he has gone out, the gate will be shut.

¹³ “‘Every morning you will give a year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it. It will be for a burnt offering to the Lord every day. ¹⁴ Also, you must offer a grain offering with the lamb every morning. With it you will give three and a third quarts of grain and one and a third quarts of olive oil. This is to make the fine flour moist. It will be a grain offering to the Lord. This is a rule that must be kept from now on. ¹⁵ So they must always give the lamb, the grain offering and the olive oil every morning as a burnt offering.

Rules for the Ruler

¹⁶ “‘This is what the Lord God says: The ruler might give a gift from his land to one of his sons. Then that land will belong to that son’s children. It is their property from their family. ¹⁷ But the ruler might give a gift from his land to one of his slaves. That land will belong to the slave only until the year of freedom. Then the land will go back to the ruler. Only the ruler’s sons may keep a gift of land from the ruler. ¹⁸ The ruler must not take any of the people’s land. He must not force them out of their land. He must give his sons land from his own land. Then my people will not be scattered out of their own land.’”

The Special Kitchens

¹⁹ The man led me through the entrance at the side of the gateway. He led me to the priests’ holy rooms that face north. There I saw a place at the west end. ²⁰ The man said to me, “This is where the priests will boil the meat of the penalty offering and sin offering. There the priests will bake the grain offering. Then they will not need to bring these offerings into the outer courtyard. That would hurt the people.”

²¹ Then the man brought me out to the outer courtyard. He led me to its four corners. In each corner of the courtyard was a smaller courtyard. ²² Small courtyards were in the four corners of the courtyard. Each small courtyard was 70 feet long and 52½ feet wide. All four corners measured the same. ²³ A stone wall was around each of the four small courtyards. Places for cooking were built in each of the stone walls. ²⁴ The man said to me, “These are the kitchens. The Temple priests will boil the sacrifices for the people here.”

Jesus Is Our Helper

2 My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He is the Righteous One. He defends us before God the Father. ² Jesus died in our place to take away our sins. And Jesus is the way that all people can have their sins taken away, too.

³ If we obey what God has told us to do, then we are sure that we truly know God. ⁴ If someone says, “I know God!” but does not obey God’s commands, then he is a liar. The truth is not in him. ⁵ But if someone obeys God’s teaching, then God’s love has truly arrived at its goal in him. This is how we know that we are following God: ⁶ Whoever says that God lives in him must live as Jesus lived.

The Command to Love Others

⁷ My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you. It is the same command you have had since the beginning. It is the teaching you have already heard. ⁸ But I am writing a new command to you. This command is true; you can see its truth in Jesus and in yourselves. The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

⁹ Someone says, “I am in the light.”^[a] But if he hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. ¹⁰ Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him that will cause him to do wrong. ¹¹ But whoever hates his brother is in darkness. He lives in darkness and does not know where he is going. The darkness has made him blind.

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ These are the evil things in the world: wanting things to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, being too proud of the things we have. But none of those things comes from the Father. All of them come from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away. And everything that people want in the world is passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever.

Reject the Enemies of Christ

¹⁸ My dear children, the end is near! You have heard that the Enemy of Christ is coming. And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is near. ¹⁹ Those enemies of Christ were in our group. But they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, then they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.

²⁰ You have the gift^[b] that the Holy One gave you. So you all know the truth.^{[c] 21} Why do I write to you? Do I write because you do not know the truth? No, I write this letter because you do know the truth. And you know that no lie comes from the truth.

²² So who is the liar? It is the person who says Jesus is not the Christ. A person who says Jesus is not the Christ is the enemy of Christ. He does not believe in the Father or in his Son. ²³ If anyone does not believe in the Son, he does not have the Father. But whoever accepts the Son has the Father, too.

²⁴ Be sure that you continue to follow the teaching that you heard from the beginning. If you continue in that teaching, you will stay in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is what the Son promised to us—life forever.

²⁶ I am writing this letter about those people who are trying to lead you the wrong way. ²⁷ Christ gave you a special gift. You still have this gift in you. So you do not need any other teacher. The gift he gave you teaches you about everything. This gift is true, not false. So continue to live in Christ, as his gift taught you.

²⁸ Yes, my dear children, live in him. If we do this, we can be without fear on the day when Christ comes back. We will not need to hide and be ashamed when he comes. ²⁹ You know that Christ is righteous. So you know that all who do what is right are God’s children.