Old/New Testament

13 If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,

² And the sign or the wonder he foretells to you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods—gods you have not known—and let us serve them,

³ You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being.

⁴ You shall walk after the Lord your God and [reverently] fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cling to Him.

⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has talked rebellion and turning away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; that man has tried to draw you aside from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So shall you put the evil away from your midst.

⁶ If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own life entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods—gods you have not known, you nor your fathers,

⁷ Of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other—

⁸ You shall not give consent to him or listen to him; nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him.

⁹ But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.

¹⁰ And you shall stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

¹¹ And all Israel shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

¹² If you hear it said in one of your cities which the Lord your God has given you in which to dwell

¹³ That certain base fellows have gone out from your midst and have enticed away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods—gods you have not known—

¹⁴ Then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it is true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you,

¹⁵ You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly and all who are in it and its beasts with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶ And you shall collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square and shall burn the city with fire with every bit of its spoil [as a whole burnt offering] to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap [of ruins] forever; it shall not be built again.

¹⁷ And nothing of the accursed thing shall cling to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers,

¹⁸ If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

14 You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead,

² For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations on the earth.

³ You shall not eat anything that is abominable [to the Lord and so forbidden by Him].

⁴ These are the beasts which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

⁵ The hart, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁶ And every beast that parts the hoof and has it divided into two and brings up and chews the cud among the beasts you may eat.

⁷ Yet these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud or have the hoof split in two: the camel, the hare, and the coney, because they chew the cud but divide not the hoof; they are unclean for you.

⁸ And the swine, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales you may eat,

¹⁰ And whatever has not fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ Of all clean birds you may eat.

¹² But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the ospray,

¹³ The buzzard, the kite in its several species,

¹⁴ The raven in all its species,

¹⁵ The ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any variety,

¹⁶ The little owl, the great owl, the horned owl,

¹⁷ The pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

¹⁸ The stork, the heron of any variety, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ And all flying insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

²⁰ But of all clean winged things you may eat.

²¹ You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger or the foreigner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to an alien. [They are not under God’s law in this matter] but you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not [even] boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²² You shall surely tithe all the yield of your seed produced by your field each year.

²³ And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place in which He will cause His Name [and Presence] to dwell the tithe (tenth) of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and your flock, that you may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord your God always.

²⁴ And if the distance is too long for you to carry your tithe, or the place where the Lord your God chooses to set His Name [and Presence] is too far away for you, when the Lord your God has blessed you,

²⁵ Then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place [of worship] which the Lord your God has chosen.

²⁶ And you may spend that money for whatever your appetite craves, for oxen, or sheep, or new wine or strong[er] drink, or whatever you desire; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷ And you shall not forsake or neglect the Levite [God’s minister] in your towns, for he has been given no share or inheritance with you.

²⁸ At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year and lay it up within your towns.

²⁹ And the Levite [because he has no part or inheritance with you] and the stranger or temporary resident, and the fatherless and the widow who are in your towns shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

15 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.

² And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, for the Lord’s release is proclaimed.

³ Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother [Israelite] your hand shall release.

⁴ But there will be no poor among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance to possess,

⁵ If only you carefully listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to do watchfully all these commandments which I command you this day.

⁶ When the Lord your God blesses you as He promised you, then you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

⁷ If there is among you a poor man, one of your kinsmen in any of the towns of your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your [minds and] hearts or close your hands to your poor brother;

⁸ But you shall open your hands wide to him and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

⁹ Beware lest there be a base thought in your [minds and] hearts, and you say, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and it be sin in you.

¹⁰ You shall give to him freely without begrudging it; because of this the Lord will bless you in all your work and in all you undertake.

¹¹ For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hands to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor in your land.

¹² And if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

¹³ And when you send him out free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed.

¹⁴ You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress; of what the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

¹⁵ And you shall [earnestly] remember that you were a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I give you this command today.

¹⁶ But if the servant says to you, I will not go away from you, because he loves you and your household, since he does well with you,

¹⁷ Then take an awl and pierce his ear through to the door, and he shall be your servant always. And also to your bondwoman you shall do likewise.

¹⁸ It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired servant he has served you six years; and the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.

¹⁹ All the firstling males that are born of your herd and flock you shall set apart for the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock.

²⁰ You shall eat it before the Lord your God annually in the place [for worship] which the Lord shall choose, you and your household.

²¹ But if it has any blemish, if it is lame, blind, or has any bad blemish whatsoever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.

²² You shall eat it within your towns; the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a hart.

²³ Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

²⁸ Then one of the scribes came up and listened to them disputing with one another, and, noticing that Jesus answered them fitly and admirably, he asked Him, Which commandment is first and most important of all [^[a]in its nature]?

²⁹ Jesus answered, The first and principal one of all commands is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord;

³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God ^[b]out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your ^[c]life) and out of and with all your mind (with ^[d]your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. ^[e]This is the first and principal commandment.^(A)

³¹ The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.^(B)

³² And the scribe said to Him, Excellently and fitly and admirably answered, Teacher! You have said truly that He is One, and there is no other but Him;

³³ And to love Him out of and with all the heart and with all the understanding [with the ^[f]faculty of quick apprehension and intelligence and keenness of discernment] and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.^(C)

³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered intelligently (discreetly and ^[g]having his wits about him), He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that no one ventured or dared to ask Him any further question.

³⁵ And as Jesus taught in [a ^[h]porch or court of] the temple, He said, How can the scribes say that the Christ is David’s Son?

³⁶ David himself, [inspired] in the Holy Spirit, declared, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies [a footstool] under Your feet.^(D)

³⁷ David himself calls Him Lord; so how can it be that He is his Son? Now the great mass of the people heard [Jesus] gladly [listening to Him with delight].

³⁸ And in [the course of] His teaching, He said, Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and [to get] greetings in the marketplaces [public forums],

³⁹ And [have] the front seats in the synagogues and the ^[i]chief couches (places of honor) at feasts,

⁴⁰ Who devour widows’ houses and to cover it up make long prayers. They will receive the heavier [sentence of] condemnation.

⁴¹ And He sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the crowd was casting money into the treasury. Many rich [people] were throwing in large sums.

⁴² And a widow who was poverty-stricken came and put in two copper mites [the smallest of coins], which together make ^[j]half of a cent.

⁴³ And He called His disciples [to Him] and said to them, Truly and surely I tell you, this widow, [she who is] poverty-stricken, has put in more than all those contributing to the treasury.

⁴⁴ For they all threw in out of their abundance; but she, out of her deep poverty, has put in everything that she had—[even] all she had on which to live.