Old/New Testament

Unclean people

5 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Speak to the Israelites. They must send any person with a disease of the skin away from the camp. Or somebody may have a disease that causes pus to come out of his body. Any person like that is not clean. Anyone who has touched a dead person is also not clean. Send those people out of the camp too. ³ Do this with both men and women. Send them out of the camp. They must not make the camp unclean, because that is where I live among the people.’

⁴ The Israelites did what the Lord had said to Moses. They sent those people outside the camp.

What to pay when you do a wrong thing

⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ⁶ ‘Tell these rules to the Israelites: A person might do a wrong thing against another person. If they do, then they have turned against the Lord. ⁷ That person must agree that they have sinned. They must pay the right amount to the other person. They must also pay them one fifth extra. ⁸ But the other person may have died. If they have no relative who can accept the money, the money must go to the Lord. The person who did a wrong thing must give the money and a male sheep to the priest. The sheep is a special gift to the Lord to make everything right. Then I will forgive that person. ⁹ All the special gifts from the Israelites to God are for the priest. ¹⁰ The priest will keep all the special gifts.’

Husbands and wives

¹¹ The Lord said to Moses:

¹² ‘Speak to the Israelites. Tell them to follow these rules. A woman may do wrong things against her husband. ¹³ She might have had sex with another man. The husband might not know about this. His wife might have kept it secret. Nobody came in while it was happening. So there is nobody to say that it happened. ¹⁴ But the man may think that it happened. He will be angry. But she may not have made herself unclean in that way. ¹⁵ The man must take his wife to the priest. He must bring one kilogram of barley flour with him. This is a grain offering to discover if his wife really did do those things. So he must not put oil or incense on the grain offering. That is an offering because the man does not trust his wife.

¹⁶ Then the priest will bring the woman to stand in front of the Lord. ¹⁷ He must pour some holy water into a bowl that someone has made from clay.^[a] He must take some dust from the floor of God's Tent. And he must put the dust into the water. ¹⁸ Then the priest must bring the woman in front of the Lord. The priest must make the woman's hair free. He must put into her hands the grain offering. That is the offering because the man does not trust his wife. The priest must hold the bowl that contains the bitter water. The bitter water brings a curse. ¹⁹ Then the woman must agree to the strong promise that the priest tells her to say.

The priest must say to her, “This water brings a curse. If no other man has had sex with you, it will not hurt you. ²⁰ But if another man has had sex with you, ²¹ may the Lord bring the curse on you. The bitter water will cause your female parts to become smaller. Your stomach will become very big. ²² That will happen when you drink the bitter water.”

The woman must say, “That should happen. I agree!”

²³ The priest must write the curses on special paper. Then he must wash the words off the paper into the bitter water. ²⁴ He must tell the woman that she must drink the bitter water. This water that brings a curse will go into her body. It may cause her to be very ill. ²⁵ But first, the priest must take the grain offering from her hands. That is the offering because the man does not trust his wife. The priest must lift it up in front of the Lord. Then he must bring it to the altar. ²⁶ He must burn a small part of it as a sacrifice. After that, the woman must drink the bitter water. ²⁷ If the woman has had sex with another man, the water will cause her to have very bad pain. Her female parts will become smaller. Her stomach will become very big. And people will curse her. ²⁸ But, if she did not do those wrong things, the water will not hurt her. She will be able to have babies.

^29-30 Perhaps a man is jealous because his wife has had sex with another man. Or he may only think that his wife has had sex with another man. This is what the law says that the priest must do: The man must bring her in front of the Lord. ³¹ If the woman did not do those wrong things, you must not punish her husband. But if the woman did do those wrong things, you must punish her.’

People who make special promises to the Lord

6 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell the Israelites this: “A man or a woman may want to make a special promise to the Lord. That will make him or her separate from other people, as a Nazirite.^{[b] 3} They must not drink wine. They must not drink any alcohol or vinegar. They must not drink the juice of grapes, or eat grapes or raisins. ⁴ They must not eat the seeds of grapes for all the time that they are Nazirites. They must not even eat the skins of grapes.

⁵ A person must not cut his hair during the time that he is a Nazirite. He must be different all the time that he is separate for the Lord. He must let the hair on his head grow long. ⁶ He must not go near a dead body while he is separate for the Lord. ⁷ His hair shows that he is separate for God. So he must not go near a dead body. He must not go near it even if the dead person is his father, mother, brother or sister. ⁸ During the time that the person is a Nazirite, they are holy because they belong to the Lord.

⁹ The Nazirite may be near to a person when that person dies suddenly. Then his head becomes unclean. He must remove all the hair from his head seven days after the person dies. Then he will be clean. ¹⁰ On day 8, he must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the door of the Tent of Meeting. He must give them to the priest. ¹¹ The priest must sacrifice one bird as a sin offering and the other bird as a burnt offering. The priest must do that because the Nazirite sinned. He went too near to a dead body. That will make the Nazirite's head clean again on that same day. ¹² He must begin his time as a Nazirite again, with a new promise to the Lord. He cannot include the days before he became unclean. He must bring a male lamb that is one year old. That is a guilt offering.

¹³ He is a Nazirite for a certain time. When that time finishes, the people must bring him to the door of the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁴ He must offer to the Lord three animals that have nothing wrong with them. He must offer a young male sheep that is one year old. That is a burnt offering. He must offer a young female sheep that is one year old. That is a sin offering. He must offer a male sheep. That is a friendship offering. ¹⁵ And he must bring a basket of bread that people have made without yeast. He must bring cakes that people have made with the best flour and oil. Also, he must bring thin biscuits with oil on them. But they must not have yeast in them either. He must bring the proper grain offerings and drink offerings with them.

¹⁶ The priest must offer those things to the Lord. And he must sacrifice the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷ Then the priest must sacrifice the male sheep as a friendship offering to the Lord. He must offer the basket of bread. He must give the grain offering and the drink offering with it.

¹⁸ Then the Nazirite must stand at the place where people go into the Tent of Meeting. He must remove all the hair from his head. He must put his hair into the same fire where the priest has cooked the friendship offering.

¹⁹ When the male sheep is cooked, the priest must take its shoulder. Also, he must take one cake and one thin biscuit from the basket. The cake and the biscuit must not have yeast in them. The priest must put these things into the hands of the Nazirite who has removed the hair from his head. ²⁰ The Nazirite must give those things back to the priest. The priest must lift them up to the Lord as a special gift. They are a special gift for the priest. Also, the priest can eat the front part of the sheep and its back leg. After that, the Nazirite can drink wine.”

²¹ Those are the rules about Nazirites. Also, the Nazirite may give anything else that he can give. And he must bring any other gift that he promised to the Lord.’

The priests' blessing

²² The Lord said to Moses, ²³ ‘Tell Aaron and his sons to use these words when they ask me to bless the Israelites.

²⁴ They must say:

²⁷ Aaron and his sons must use my name to bless the Israelites. If they do that, I will certainly bless them.’

Jesus tells a story about a farmer's seeds

4 Again, Jesus began to teach people near the edge of Lake Galilee. A large crowd came together to listen to him. So he went and sat in a boat that was on the water. The crowd of people stayed on the shore. ² Jesus used stories to teach them many things. He said to them, ³ ‘Listen to me! A farmer went out to plant seeds in his field.^{[a] 4} While he was throwing the seeds, some of them fell on the path. The birds came and they ate those seeds. ⁵ Other seeds fell on ground which had many rocks. There was not much soil in that place. The seeds quickly began to grow, because the soil was not deep. ⁶ But when the sun rose, it burned the young plants. They soon died because they had not grown down well into the soil. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorn bushes. Those bushes grew up with the young plants. They stopped the seeds from growing into strong plants. So the plants could not make any new seeds. ⁸ But some seeds fell on good soil. Good strong plants grew from these seeds. Some plants made 30 new seeds. Some plants made 60 new seeds. And some plants made 100 new seeds.’

⁹ Then Jesus said, ‘You have ears, so listen well to what I say!’

Jesus explains to his disciples why he uses stories

¹⁰ When Jesus was alone, the 12 apostles and other people who were there asked him about the stories. ¹¹ Jesus replied, ‘God has let you understand how he rules in the lives of his people. But these other people only listen to stories. ¹² This is so that:

If they did understand, they would turn to God. Then God would forgive them.’

Jesus explains the story about the seeds

¹³ Then Jesus answered the people who had asked him about the story. ‘You should understand this story. If you do not understand it, you will not understand any of my stories. ¹⁴ The seeds are like the message from God. The farmer is like a person who tells people about that message. ¹⁵ Some seeds fell on the path. That is like some people who listen to the message. But then Satan comes and he quickly takes the message away from their minds. ¹⁶ Some of the seeds fell on soil with rocks in it. This is also like some people who hear God's message. These people are happy to believe it for a time. ¹⁷ But they are like plants that have not grown down well into the soil. So they only believe for a short time. They may have problems. Or because they obey God's message, other people may do bad things to them. When that happens, these people soon stop believing. ¹⁸ Some seeds fell among thorn bushes. This is like some other people who hear God's message. ¹⁹ But they have many troubles in their minds. They think that more money and other valuable things will make them happy. So they do not let God's message change them. They are like plants that do not grow well and make new seeds. ²⁰ But some seeds fell on good soil. This is like other people who listen to the message from God. They understand the message and they believe it. These people are like good plants that grow well. From one seed, some good plants make 30 new seeds. Other good plants make 60 new seeds, and some good plants make 100 new seeds.’