Old/New Testament

Celebrate the Passover

16 “Observe the month of Abib, keeping the Passover to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib. ² Then sacrifice sheep and cattle for the Passover to the Lord your God at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name. ³ You must not eat any yeast with it. Instead, for seven days eat bread without yeast—the bread of affliction—because you left the land of Egypt in haste. Remember the day you went out of the land of Egypt for the rest of your lives. ⁴ Yeast is not to be seen in any of your territories for seven days. The meat is not to remain from the evening of the first day until morning.

⁵ “You must not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your cities^[a] that the Lord your God is about to give you. ⁶ Instead, you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening at dusk—at the time of day you left Egypt—at the place where your God will choose to establish his name. ⁷ Boil and eat the Passover meal^[b] at the place that the Lord your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. ⁸ Eat bread without yeast for six days. Then on the seventh day, hold an assembly to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work.”

Celebrate the Festival of Weeks

⁹ “Count off seven weeks from when the sickle is first put to standing grain. ¹⁰ Then observe the Festival of Weeks in the presence of the Lord your God by giving your tribute and the freewill offering of your hands in proportion to the manner in which the Lord your God blessed you. ¹¹ Rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God with your son, daughter, male and female slaves, the descendant of Levi who is in your city,^[c] the stranger, the orphan, and the widow among you, at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, so keep and observe these statutes.”

Celebrate the Festival of Tents

¹³ “Celebrate the Festival of Tents^[d] for seven days after you harvest from your threshing floor and your wine press. ¹⁴ Rejoice in your festival—you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the descendants of Levi, and foreigners, orphans, and widows, who live in your cities.^{[e] 15} For seven days you are to celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in everything you do, and your joy will be complete.

¹⁶ “Every male must appear in the presence of the Lord your God three times a year at the place where he will choose: for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Seven Weeks, and the Festival of Tents.^[f] He must not appear in the Lord’s presence empty-handed, ¹⁷ but each one must appear^[g] with his own gift, proportional to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you.”

Pursue Justice

¹⁸ “Appoint judges and civil servants according to your tribes in all your cities^[h] that the Lord your God is about to give you, so they may judge the people impartially.^{[i] 19} You must not twist justice, show favoritism, or take bribes, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the speech of the righteous. ²⁰ You are to pursue justice—and only justice—so you may live and possess the land that the Lord your God is about to give you.”

Prohibited Practices

²¹ “You are not to set up a sacred pole^[j] beside the altar of the Lord your God that you will build. ²² Furthermore, you are not to erect for yourselves a sacred stone pillar, because the Lord your God detests these things. 17 ¹ You are not to sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any flaw in it, because that is detestable to the Lord your God.”

Death to the Idolater

² “You may discover that a man or woman living in one of your cities that the Lord your God is about to give you has done evil in the eyes of the Lord your God by transgressing his covenant. ³ He may be following and serving other gods by bowing down to them—that is, to the sun, the moon, or to any of the heavenly host^[k] (something I did not command). ⁴ When it is reported to you or you hear of it, you are to investigate it thoroughly. When the truth has been established that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ summon the man or the woman who did this evil thing to your city gates, and then stone the man or the woman to death. ⁶ Based on the testimony^[l] of two or three witnesses, they must surely die, but they are not to die based on the testimony of one person. ⁷ Let the witnesses^[m] be the first to begin executing them, then the rest of^[n] the people are to follow. By doing this you will purge evil from among you.”

Deciding Difficult Cases

⁸ “If a case is too difficult for you to decide with respect to bloodshed,^[o] civil claims,^[p] assault and battery,^[q] or other matters of dispute within your courts,^[r] bring^[s] it to the place that the Lord your God will choose. ⁹ Present the case^[t] to the Levitical priest or the judge at that time. When you have inquired and they have announced the verdict, ¹⁰ carry out the verdict that was declared to you at the place that the Lord will choose. Carefully observe all of their instructions to you ¹¹ in accordance with what the Law says and in accordance with the verdict that will be handed to you. You must not deviate from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right or to the left. ¹² If a man presumptuously disregards the priest who is serving the Lord your God there, or the judge, that person must die so you will purge evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people who hear will be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.”

Duties of the Future King

¹⁴ “When you have come to the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it and have settled in it, then you will say, ‘I will appoint a king over me like all the nations around me.’ ¹⁵ You will certainly set a king over you, whom the Lord your God will choose from among your relatives, but you must not place a foreign king over you who is not from your relatives. ¹⁶ He must not amass horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to obtain more horses, because the Lord said you must never return that way again. ¹⁷ Also, he must not accumulate wives for himself (otherwise, his affection will become diverted), nor accumulate for himself excessive quantities of^[u] silver and gold. ¹⁸ When he occupies his royal throne, he must make a copy of this Law for himself from a scroll used by the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It is to remain with him the rest of his life so he may learn to fear the Lord his God and observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, in order to fulfill them. ²⁰ He is not to exalt himself over his relatives, nor turn aside from the commandment—neither to the right nor to the left—so that he and his sons may reign long in Israel.”

Provision for the Descendants of Levi

18 “The Levitical priests—the whole tribe of Levi—will not have a portion or an inheritance within Israel. Instead, they will eat the burnt offerings of the Lord, because that is their inheritance. ² But they will not have an inheritance among their relatives, because the Lord alone is their inheritance—as he promised them.”

Provision for the Priests

³ “A portion of what the people offer in sacrifice, whether cattle or sheep, is to be due the priests. They must set aside the shoulder, jowls, and stomach for the priest. ⁴ Give them the first gatherings of your grain, wine, and oil, as well as wool from the shearing of your flock. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants^[v] from among your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the Lord all their lives.”^[w]

Provision for the Itinerant Levite

⁶ “Any descendant of Levi who wishes to do so may come from any city or part of Israel where he resides to the place that the Lord will choose. ⁷ There he may serve in the name of the Lord his God. Like his fellow descendants of Levi who stand there in the Lord’s presence, ⁸ he may eat the same share as they do regardless of what he receives from his ancestral estate.”

Detestable Practices

⁹ “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, don’t learn the detestable practices of those nations there. ¹⁰ There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices^[x] his son or daughter in fire, practices divination, interprets omens, practices sorcery, ¹¹ casts spells, or who is a medium, an occultist, or a necromancer. ¹² Whoever practices these things is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God will expel them before you because of these things. ¹³ You must be completely faithful to the Lord your God, ¹⁴ because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the Lord does not allow you to act this way.”

Discerning the True Prophet

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from among your relatives. You must listen to him, ¹⁶ because this is what you asked from the Lord your God at Horeb when you were assembled together: ‘Don’t let us^[y] hear the voice of the Lord our God again, or even see this great fire—otherwise, we^[z] will die.’

¹⁷ “Then the Lord told me: ‘What they have suggested is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet like you from among their relatives, and I will place my words in his mouth so that he may expound everything that I have commanded to them. ¹⁹ But if someone will not listen to those words that the prophet^[aa] speaks in my name, I will hold him accountable. ²⁰ Even then, if the prophet speaks presumptuously in my name, which I didn’t authorize him to speak, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.’ ²¹ Now you may ask yourselves, ‘How will we be able to discern that the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² Whenever a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the oracle does not come about or the word is not fulfilled, then the Lord has not spoken it. The prophet will have spoken presumptuously, so you need not fear him.”

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple^(A)

13 While Jesus^[a] was leaving the Temple, one of his disciples told him, “Look, Teacher! What stones! And what buildings!”

² “Do you see these large buildings?” Jesus responded. “Not even a single stone here will be left on top of another that won’t be demolished.”

Cults, Revolutions, Famines, and Earthquakes^(B)

³ As Jesus^[b] was sitting on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew were asking him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what is to be the sign when these things will be put into effect?”

⁵ Jesus began by telling them, “See to it that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, proclaiming, ‘I AM,’ and they will deceive many people.^{[c] 7} But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t panic. These things must take place, but the end won’t have come yet, ⁸ because nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Furthermore, there will be earthquakes and famines in various places. These things are only a beginning of agonies.”

Future Persecution and Evangelism^(C)

⁹ “As for yourselves, be on your guard! People^[d] will hand you over to local councils, and you will be beaten in their synagogues. You will stand before governors and kings in order to testify to them because of me. ¹⁰ But first, the gospel must be proclaimed to all nations.^{[e] 11} When they take you away and hand you over for trial, don’t worry ahead of time about what you will say. Instead, say whatever is given to you at that time, because it won’t be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. ¹² Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. ¹³ You will be hated continuously by everyone on account of my name. But the person who endures to the end will be saved.”

Signs of the End^(D)

¹⁴ “So when you see the destructive desecration standing where it should not be (let the reader take note),^[f] then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. ¹⁵ Anyone who’s on his housetop must not come down and go into his house to take anything out of it, ¹⁶ and the one who’s in the field must not turn back to get his coat.

¹⁷ “How terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days! ¹⁸ Pray that it may not be in winter, ¹⁹ because those days will be a time of suffering,^[g] a kind that has not happened from the beginning of creation—which God himself created—until now, and certainly will never happen again. ²⁰ If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one^[h] would survive. But for the sake of the elect whom he has chosen, he has shortened those days.