Old/New Testament

God's covenant with his people

4 Israel's people, listen to the rules and laws that I will now teach you. If you obey them, you will live. You will go into the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving to you. The land will belong to you, for you to live in. ² Do not add anything to these rules. Do not remove anything from them. You must obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving to you.

³ You saw for yourselves what the Lord your God did at Baal-Peor. He killed every person among you who worshipped Baal there.^{[a] 4} But each of you who continued to trust the Lord your God is still alive today.

⁵ Look! I have taught you rules and laws, as the Lord my God told me to do. Now you must obey them when you go into the land where you will live. ⁶ Obey them carefully. That will show people of other nations that you are wise. They will hear about all your laws. Then they will say, ‘The people of this great nation are very wise and clever!’

⁷ No other nation has a god who is near to them like the Lord our God. Even great nations have no god like that. But when we pray to the Lord our God, he listens! ⁸ And no other great nation has rules and laws that are as fair as ours. That is God's Law that I am giving to you today.

⁹ But be very careful! Never forget the things that you yourselves have seen. Remember these things for as long as you live. Tell your children and your grandchildren about all the things that God has done.

¹⁰ Remember when you stood in front of the Lord your God at Sinai. He said to me, ‘Bring all the people here to me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to respect me and obey me. They will do this for as long as they live and they will teach my commands to their children.’ ¹¹ At that time, you came and you stood at the edge of the mountain. You saw that the fire on the mountain reached up to the sky. But the sky was full of black clouds and it was dark. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire. You heard him as he spoke, but you did not see him. You only heard a voice. ¹³ He told you about his covenant and the ten commands that he wrote on two flat pieces of stone. He commanded you to obey them. ¹⁴ At that time, the Lord commanded me to teach you his rules and his laws. You must obey them in the land that you will now go in to live there.

Idols

¹⁵ Remember when the Lord spoke to you at Mount Horeb from the middle of the fire. You did not see him in any shape. So be very careful about everything that you do. ¹⁶ Do not make any image to be your god. That would be a sin. Do not make an image in any shape as your idol. Do not copy the shape of a man or a woman, ¹⁷ or the shape of any animal or bird. ¹⁸ Do not copy the shape of anything that moves along the ground, or any fish that swims in the deep water. ¹⁹ When you look up at the sky, you see the sun, the moon and the stars. They all shine up in the sky. But do not bend down low to them or worship them. They are there because the Lord your God has made them. He has given them to people everywhere in the world.

²⁰ But you belong to the Lord. He brought you out of Egypt, which was like a hot oven where you had much pain. He rescued you, to be his own special people, as you are today.

²¹ The Lord your God became angry with me, because of you. He told me very strongly that I would not go across the Jordan River. He said that I would not go into the good land that he is now giving to you. ²² So I will die here. I will not cross the Jordan River. But you will soon cross over. That good land will belong to you as your home. ²³ Be careful! Do not forget the covenant that the Lord your God has made with you. Do not make for yourselves any kind of image as your idol. That is the command that he has given to you. ²⁴ That is because the Lord your God wants you to belong to him alone. He is like a fire that destroys all bad things.

²⁵ One day, you will have lived in the land for a long time. You will have children and grandchildren. Remember that you still must not make any kind of image as your idol. That would be a sin. Do not do any evil things that will cause the Lord your God to become angry. ²⁶ I am warning you today, as everyone on earth and everyone in heaven hears what I say. If you do not obey this command, you will soon die. You will not live long in the land that is your home on the other side of the Jordan River. You will die very soon. ²⁷ The Lord will send you out of that land to live among other nations. Only a few of you will continue to be alive. ²⁸ Among those nations, you will worship gods that men have made from wood and stone. Those gods cannot see or hear or eat or smell anything.

²⁹ But even in those places, if you look for the Lord your God, you will find him. If you want to serve him with everything that you think and with everything that you do, you will find him. ³⁰ When trouble happens to you in the future, you will turn back to him. When all these bad things happen to you, you will obey God again. ³¹ That is because the Lord your God is very kind. So he will not leave you alone. He will never destroy you. He will never forget the covenant that he made with your ancestors. That was a serious promise that he made to them.

The Lord is God

³² Find out what happened many years ago. Think about everything that has happened since God created people to live on the earth. Go to anyone in the world and ask them. You will realize that nothing as great as this has ever happened before. People have never heard of anything like this. ³³ Only you, the nation of Israel, have heard the voice of God that spoke to you from the middle of the fire. Only you have heard God speak and you still live! ³⁴ No other god has tried to rescue a nation from the power of another nation. The Lord your God did this for you when you were in Egypt. You saw how he used his great authority and strength to punish the Egyptians. He did powerful miracles. He brought war and disease that made them very afraid.

³⁵ The Lord has shown you all these things. So you know that he is the only true God. There is no other God. ³⁶ God spoke to you from heaven so that he could teach you. Here on earth he let you see his great fire. He spoke from that fire and you heard him. ³⁷ He chose you as his special people because he loved your ancestors. You are their descendants so he rescued you out of Egypt. He himself showed you his great power. ³⁸ Now he is chasing out other nations so that you can take their land to live in. They are greater and stronger nations than you are, but he has given their land to you.

³⁹ Remember today that the Lord is God. He rules in heaven above and on the earth below. Think about that! There is no other God. ⁴⁰ Obey his commands and his rules that I am giving you today. If you do that, everything will be well for you and for your descendants. You will continue to live for a long time in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. It will belong to you for ever.

Safe cities

⁴¹ Then Moses chose three special cities on the east side of the Jordan River. ⁴² If someone killed another person when he did not mean to do it, he could hide there safely. If he had not hated the other person as his enemy, he could run to one of these cities. Then he would be safe. ⁴³ Moses chose these cities: For Reuben's tribe, he chose Bezer, in the high land of the desert. For Gad's tribe, he chose Ramoth, in Gilead. For Manasseh's tribe, he chose Golan, in Bashan.

Moses starts to teach God's Law to the Israelites

⁴⁴ This is God's Law that Moses explained to the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the rules, the teaching and the commands that Moses taught the Israelites after they had left Egypt. ⁴⁶ At that time they were in the valley near to Beth-Peor, on the east side of the Jordan River. That was in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had attacked him after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took power over his land, as well as the land of Og, king of Bashan. These two Amorite kings ruled on the east side of the Jordan River. ⁴⁸ Their land went from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon valley, as far as Mount Sirion (that is Mount Hermon). ⁴⁹ This land included all the Jordan Valley on the east side of the river, as far south as the Salt Sea, near Mount Pisgah.^[b]

God's 10 special commands

5 Moses called all the Israelites to come together. He said to them:

Listen, Israelites, to the rules and commands that I am teaching to you today. Learn them. Be careful to obey them. ² The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Sinai. ³ He did not make this agreement with our ancestors. He made it with all of us who are alive here today. ⁴ The Lord spoke clearly to you from the middle of the fire on the mountain. ⁵ (At that time, I stood between the Lord and you. I repeated the Lord's message to you. You were afraid of the fire, so you did not go up the mountain.)

God said this:

⁶ ‘I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt, the country where you were slaves.

⁷ You must not have any other gods except me.

⁸ You must not make any idol for yourself. Do not make a false god in the shape of anything that is in the sky above. Do not make one in the shape of anything on the earth or in the sea. ⁹ You must not bend down your head to any idol or worship it. I am the Lord your God and I want you to belong to me alone. I will punish children because of the bad things that their fathers have done. I will also punish their grandchildren and their children too. That is how I will punish everyone who hates me. ¹⁰ But I will truly love all those who love me. They are the people who obey my laws. I will continue to love them and their families for ever.

¹¹ You must not speak the name of the Lord your God in a wrong way. The Lord will punish anyone who speaks his name in a wrong way.

¹² Always make the Sabbath day a special day for God, as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹³ You have six days every week to do all your work. ¹⁴ But the seventh day is a Sabbath day. It is special for the Lord your God. You must not do any work on that day. Your son and your daughter must not work on that day. Your servants, male or female, must not work on that day. Your ox or your donkey or any of your animals must not work on that day, nor any foreign person who lives among you. Then your servants can rest in the same way as you rest. ¹⁵ You must remember that you were slaves in Egypt. But I, the Lord your God, brought you out by my powerful authority. So the Lord your God has told you to make the Sabbath day a special day.

¹⁶ Always respect your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live for many years in the land that the Lord your God will give to you. And you will be happy.

¹⁷ You must not murder anyone.

¹⁸ You must not have sex with another person's wife or husband.

¹⁹ You must not take another person's things for yourself.

²⁰ You must not say false things against your neighbour.

²¹ You must not want to take your neighbour's wife for yourself. You must not want his house or his land, or his servants, male or female. You must not want his ox or his donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.’

²² These are the commands that the Lord spoke to you. You were all there together at the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the middle of a great fire. There was a cloud and it was very dark. He gave only those commands. Then he wrote them on two flat stones and he gave them to me.

²³ The mountain was burning with fire and you heard God's voice speak from the darkness. Then the leaders and older men of your tribes came to speak to me. ²⁴ They said, ‘The Lord our God has shown us how great and how powerful he is. We have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. We have learned this: People can continue to live, even after God has spoken to them. ²⁵ But now we think that this great fire will kill us. We do not want to die! If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, we will surely die. ²⁶ The God who lives for ever has spoken to us from the middle of the fire. Has anyone ever heard him speak like that and then continued to live? ²⁷ We ask you to go near to the Lord our God. Listen to everything that he says. Then you should tell us what he says to you. We will listen carefully and we will obey him.’

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me. He said to me, ‘I have heard what these people have said to you. What they said is right. ²⁹ I really want them to respect me with fear. I want them to obey my commands in the future! If they do that, everything will be well for them and for their descendants for ever. ³⁰ Now tell them to return to their tents. ³¹ But you should stay here with me. I will tell you all the commands, rules and laws that you must teach to the people. Then they can obey them in the land that I will give them to live in.’

³² So you must be careful to do everything that the Lord your God has commanded you to do. You must not refuse to obey any of his laws. ³³ Live in the way that he has commanded you. If you do that, you will be happy in the land where you are going. You will live for a long time in the land that will be your home.

Love the Lord your God!

6 These are the commands, rules and laws that the Lord your God gave to me. He told me to teach them to you. You must obey them when you go across the Jordan River to live in that land. ² You must respect the Lord your God with fear. You must obey his rules and his commands that I am teaching you. You, your children and your grandchildren must obey them all through your lives. If you do that, you will enjoy a long life.

³ Listen, Israelites! Be careful to obey God's rules. If you do that, everything will be well for you. You will have many children. You will live in a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised that this will happen.

⁴ Listen, Israelites! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other true God. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him with all that you are. ⁶ Always think about these commands that I am giving you today. ⁷ Teach them to your children at all times. Talk about them when you sit together at home. Talk about them as you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as signs on your arms and on your heads, so that you remember them. ⁹ Write them on the wood beside the doors of your houses and on your gates.

¹⁰ The Lord your God will soon bring you into a land that has large, beautiful cities that you did not build. That is the land that he promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹¹ It has houses that are full of good things that you did not put into them. There are wells of water that you did not dig. There are fields with grapes and olive trees that you did not plant. You will be able to eat as much as you want. ¹² But be careful that you do not forget the Lord. He rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves.

¹³ You must respect and obey the Lord your God. Serve only him. If you make a serious promise, only use his name to make it strong. ¹⁴ Do not try to serve other gods. They are the gods that the people who live around you worship. ¹⁵ The Lord your God lives among you. He wants you to belong to him alone. If you worship other gods, he will be very angry with you. He will completely destroy you from the whole earth.

¹⁶ Do not test the Lord your God, to see what he will do. That is what you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be careful to obey his commands. Remember the laws and the rules that he has told you to obey. ¹⁸ Do things that the Lord says are right and good. If you do that, you will be happy in everything that you do. You will go into the good land that he promised to your ancestors, and that will be your home. ¹⁹ You will be able to chase out all your enemies, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ One day, your children may say to you, ‘Please tell us about the rules and laws that the Lord our God commanded us to obey.’

²¹ Then you must tell them, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. But the Lord used his great power to rescue us. ²² We saw him do great and powerful miracles that brought trouble to the Egyptians, and to Pharaoh himself and his family. ²³ The Lord rescued us from Egypt so that he could give us another land to live in. That is the land that he promised to our ancestors. ²⁴ The Lord commanded us to obey all these rules and to respect him with fear. If we do that, we will always live happily and the Lord will keep us safe, as he has done until now. ²⁵ We must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord our God. If we do what he has told us, he will be pleased with us as people who do what is right.’

Jesus rides into Jerusalem

11 Jesus and his disciples were coming near to Jerusalem. They were almost at the villages called Bethphage and Bethany. They were on the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two of his disciples to go further.^[a]

² He said to them, ‘Go into the village that is in front of you. When you arrive there, you will immediately see a young donkey. Someone has tied it there. Nobody has ever yet ridden on it. Undo the rope and bring the donkey here to me. ³ Someone may ask you, “Why are you doing this?” Then say, “The Master needs the donkey. He will send it back here soon.” ’

⁴ So the two disciples went into the village. They found the young donkey in the street. Someone had tied it outside, by a door. So the disciples undid the rope. ⁵ Some people were standing there. They asked the two disciples, ‘What are you doing? Why are you undoing the donkey's rope?’ ⁶ The disciples answered them. They repeated what Jesus had told them to say. The people then let them take the donkey away. ⁷ The two disciples brought the young donkey to Jesus. They put their coats on its back and Jesus sat on it. ⁸ Many people then put their coats down on the road. Other people cut branches down from trees in the fields. They put the branches down on the road as well.^[b]

⁹ Many people went in front of Jesus, and other people followed him. All of them were shouting,

¹¹ Jesus went into Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked at everything there. It was late in the day, so he then went out of the city to Bethany. The 12 apostles went with him.

A tree without fruit

¹² On the next day, they left Bethany. Jesus was hungry. ¹³ He saw a fig tree which was a long way away. There were leaves on it. So he went to see if it had fruit on it. When he reached it, he found nothing except leaves. That was because it was not the right season for it to have fruit. ¹⁴ So Jesus said to the tree, ‘Nobody will ever eat your fruit again.’ And his disciples heard what he said.

Jesus goes to the temple

¹⁵ When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus went into the yard of the temple.^[c] People were buying and selling things there. Jesus began to make them all leave that place. Some men were changing coins there for people.^[d] He pushed over their tables. And he pushed over the seats of the men who sold birds.^[e]

¹⁶ Jesus would not let anyone carry things through that place. ¹⁷ While he was teaching the people, Jesus said, ‘The Bible says, “God's house will be a place where people from all countries pray.” But you have changed it into a place where robbers meet.’

¹⁸ The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law heard this. And they thought about how they could kill Jesus. They were afraid of him. That was because all the crowd were listening to him. And the things that he taught caused the crowd to be very surprised.