Old/New Testament

False Prophets

13 A prophet or someone who tells the future with dreams might come to you. He might say he will show you a miracle or a sign. ² The miracle or sign might even happen. Then he might say, “Let’s serve other gods.” (These are gods you have not known.) “And let’s worship them.” ³ But you must not listen to that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you. He is finding out if you love him with your whole being. ⁴ Serve only the Lord your God. Respect him. Keep his commands and obey him. Serve him and be loyal to him. ⁵ That prophet or dreamer must be killed. He said you should turn against the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of Egypt. He saved you from the land where you were slaves. That prophet tried to turn you from doing what the Lord your God commanded you to do. You must get rid of the evil among you.

⁶ Some relative might try to lead you to serve other gods. It might be your brother, your son or daughter or the wife you love. Or it might be a close friend. He might say, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” (These are gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁷ They are gods of the people who live around you. Some are nearby, and some are far away. They are from one end of the land to the other.) ⁸ Do not give in to him. Do not listen. Do not feel sorry for him. Do not let him go free or protect him. ⁹ You must put him to death. You must be the first one to start to kill him. Then everyone else must join in. ¹⁰ You must throw stones at him until he dies. He tried to turn you away from the Lord your God. The Lord brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹¹ Then everyone in Israel will hear about this. And they will be afraid. No one among you will ever do such an evil thing again.

Cities to Destroy

¹² The Lord your God is giving you cities in which to live. You might hear something about one of them. Someone might say ¹³ that evil men have moved in among you. And they might lead the people of that city away from God. They might say, “Let’s go and worship other gods.” (These are gods you have not known.) ¹⁴ Then you must ask about it. Look into the matter and check carefully. It might be true. It may be proved that a terrible thing has happened among you. ¹⁵ If it has, then you must kill with a sword everyone who lives in that city. Destroy the city completely. Kill everyone in it, as well as the animals, with a sword. ¹⁶ Gather up everything those people owned. Put it in the middle of the city square. Then completely burn the city and everything they owned. It will be a burnt offering to the Lord your God. That city should never be rebuilt. Let it be ruined forever. ¹⁷ Don’t keep any of the things found in that city for yourselves. Then the Lord will not be angry anymore. He will give you mercy. He will feel sorry for you. And he will make your nation grow larger. He promised this to your ancestors. ¹⁸ You will have obeyed the Lord your God. You will be keeping all his commands. I am giving them to you today. And you will be doing what the Lord says is right.

God’s Special People

14 You are the children of the Lord your God. When someone dies, do not cut yourselves or shave your heads to show your sadness. ² You are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God. He has chosen you from all the people on earth to be his very own.

³ Do not eat anything the Lord hates. ⁴ These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goats, ⁵ deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goats, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat any animal that has a split hoof and chews the cud. ⁷ But you may not eat camels, rabbits or rock badgers. These animals chew the cud, but their feet are not divided. So they are unclean for you. ⁸ Pigs are also unclean for you. They have split hooves, but they do not chew the cud. Do not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ There are many things that live in the water. You may eat anything that has fins and scales. ¹⁰ But do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you.

¹¹ You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But do not eat these birds: eagles, vultures, black vultures, ¹³ red kites, falcons, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ horned owls, screech owls, seagulls, any kind of hawk, ¹⁶ little owls, great owls, white owls, ¹⁷ desert owls, ospreys, cormorants, ¹⁸ storks, any kind of heron, the hoopoes or bats.

¹⁹ All insects with wings are unclean for you. Do not eat them. ²⁰ Other things with wings are clean. You may eat them.

²¹ Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town. He may eat it. Or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people. You belong to the Lord your God.

Do not cook a baby goat in its mother’s milk.

Giving One-Tenth

²² Be sure to save one-tenth of all your crops each year. ²³ Take it to the place the Lord your God will choose where he is to be worshiped. There you will be together with the Lord. There eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and oil. And eat the animals born first to your herds and flocks. Then you will learn to respect the Lord your God always. ²⁴ But the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped might be too far away. And he may have blessed you so much you cannot carry a tenth. ²⁵ If so, exchange your one-tenth for silver. Then take the silver with you to the place the Lord your God shall choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy anything you wish. You may buy cattle, sheep, wine, beer or anything you wish. Then you and your family will eat and celebrate there before the Lord your God. ²⁷ Do not forget the Levites in your town. They have no land of their own among you.

²⁸ At the end of every third year, everyone should bring one-tenth of that year’s crop. Store it in your towns. ²⁹ This is for the Levites so they may eat and be full. (They have no land of their own among you.) It is also for strangers, orphans and widows who live in your towns. All of them may eat and be full. Then the Lord your God will bless you and all the work you do.

The Special Seventh Year

15 At the end of every seven years, you must forget about collecting what people owe you. ² This is how you must do it: Everyone who has loaned money must forget the loan. He must not make his neighbor or brother pay it back. This is the Lord’s time for canceling what people owe. ³ You may make a foreigner pay what he owes you. But you must not collect what your brother owes you. ⁴ But there should be no poor people among you. The Lord your God will richly bless you in the land he is giving you to own. ⁵ He will bless you if you obey him completely. But you must be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. ⁶ The Lord your God will bless you as he promised. You will lend to other nations. But you will not need to borrow from them. You will rule over many nations. But none will rule over you.

⁷ There might be a poor man among you. He might be in one of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you. Do not be selfish or greedy toward your poor brother. ⁸ But give freely to him. Freely lend him whatever he needs. ⁹ Beware of evil thoughts. Don’t think, “The seventh year is near. It’s the year to forget what people owe.” You might be mean to your needy brother. You might not give him anything. Then he will complain to the Lord about you. And the Lord will find you guilty of sin. ¹⁰ Give freely to the poor person. Do not wish that you didn’t have to give. The Lord your God will bless your work and everything you touch. ¹¹ There will always be poor people in the land. So I command you to give freely to your brothers. Give freely to the poor and needy in your land.

Letting Slaves Go Free

¹² One of your own people might sell himself to you as a slave. It may be a Hebrew man or woman. That person will serve you for six years. The seventh year you must let him go free. ¹³ And when you let him go, don’t send him away without anything. ¹⁴ Give him some of your sheep, your grain and your wine. Give to him as the Lord has given to you. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. And the Lord your God saved you. That is why I am commanding this to you today.

¹⁶ But your slave might say to you, “I don’t want to leave you.” He might love you and your family. He might have a good life with you. ¹⁷ If he does this, stick an awl^[a] through his ear into the door. He will be your slave for life. Also do this to a woman slave.

¹⁸ Do not think of it as a hard thing when you let your slave go free. After all, he served you six years. You paid him only half what a hired person would cost. The Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

Rules About Firstborn Animals

¹⁹ Save all the first male animals born to your herds and flocks. They are for the Lord your God. Do not work the first calf born to your oxen. And do not cut off the wool from the first lamb born to your sheep. ²⁰ Each year you and your family are to eat these animals. Eat them in the presence of the Lord your God. Eat them in the place he will choose to be worshiped. ²¹ An animal might have something wrong with it. It might be crippled or blind. It might have some other thing wrong with it. Do not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² But you may eat that animal in your own town. Both clean and unclean people may eat it. It would be like eating a gazelle or a deer. ²³ But don’t eat its blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.

The Most Important Command

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came to Jesus. He heard Jesus arguing with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He saw that Jesus gave good answers to their questions. So he asked Jesus, “Which of the commands is most important?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important command is this: ‘Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God, he is the only Lord. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God. Love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’^{[a] 31} The second most important command is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’^[b] These two commands are the most important commands.”

³² The man answered, “That was a good answer, Teacher. You were right when you said these things. God is the only Lord, and there is no other God besides him. ³³ One must love God with all his heart, all his mind, and all his strength. And one must love his neighbor as he loves himself. These commands are more important than all the animals and sacrifices we offer to God.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man answered him wisely. So Jesus said to him, “You are close to the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one was brave enough to ask Jesus any more questions.

³⁵ Jesus was teaching in the Temple. He asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? ³⁶ David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, said:

³⁷ David himself calls the Christ ‘Lord.’ So how can the Christ be David’s son?” The large crowd listened to Jesus with pleasure.

³⁸ Jesus continued teaching. He said, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around wearing clothes that look important. And they love for people to show respect to them in the marketplaces. ³⁹ They love to have the most important seats in the synagogues. And they love to have the most important seats at the feasts. ⁴⁰ They cheat widows and steal their homes. Then they try to make themselves look good by saying long prayers. God will punish these people terribly.”

True Giving

⁴¹ Jesus sat near the Temple money box where people put their gifts. He watched the people put in their money. Many rich people gave large sums of money. ⁴² Then a poor widow came and gave two very small copper coins. These coins were not worth even a penny.

⁴³ Jesus called his followers to him. He said, “I tell you the truth. This poor widow gave only two small coins. But she really gave more than all those rich people. ⁴⁴ The rich have plenty; they gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor. But she gave all she had. And she needed that money to help her live.”