Old/New Testament
The Passover
16 Celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God during the month of Abib. It was during Abib that he brought you out of Egypt at night. 2 Offer a sacrifice for the Passover to the Lord your God. It should be an animal from your flock or herd. Offer it at the place the Lord will choose to be worshiped. 3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days eat bread made without yeast. This is the bread of suffering because you left Egypt in a hurry. So all your life you will remember the time you left Egypt. 4 There must be no yeast anywhere in your land for seven days. Offer the sacrifice on the evening of the first day. Eat all the meat before morning. Do not leave it overnight.
5 Do not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any town the Lord your God gives you. 6 Offer it in the place he will choose to be worshiped. Offer it in the evening as the sun goes down. That is when you left Egypt. 7 Roast the meat. Then eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. The next morning go back to your tents. 8 Eat bread made without yeast for six days. On the seventh day have a special meeting for the Lord your God. Do not work that day.
Feast of Weeks
9 Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain. 10 Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring him an offering as a special gift to him. Give to him just as he has blessed you. 11 Rejoice before the Lord your God. Rejoice at the place he will choose to be worshiped. Everybody should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans and widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. And carefully obey all these laws.
Feast of Shelters
13 Celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days. Do it after you have gathered your harvest from the threshing floor and winepress. 14 Everybody should rejoice at your Feast: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites and strangers who live in your towns, orphans and widows in your towns. 15 Celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God for seven days. Celebrate it at the place he will choose. The Lord your God will bless all your harvest. He will bless all the work you do. And you will be completely happy.
16 All your men must come before the Lord three times a year. They must come to the place he will choose. They must come at these times: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Shelters. No man should come before the Lord without a gift. 17 Each of you must bring a gift. It should show how much the Lord your God has blessed you.
Judges for the People
18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes. Appoint them in every town the Lord your God is giving you. And they must judge the people fairly. 19 Do not judge unfairly or take sides. Do not let people pay you to make wrong decisions. That kind of payment makes wise people seem blind. And it changes the words of good people. 20 Always do what is right. Then you will live and own the land the Lord your God is giving you.
God Hates Idols
21 Do not set up a wooden Asherah idol next to the altar you build for the Lord your God. 22 And do not set up holy stone pillars. The Lord your God hates them.
17 An ox or sheep might have something wrong with it. Do not offer it as a sacrifice to the Lord your God. He would hate that.
2 A man or woman might be found doing something evil in one of the towns the Lord gave you. That man or woman is breaking his agreement. 3 That person may have served other gods. He may have bowed down to them, to the sun or moon or stars of the sky. I have commanded that should not be done. 4 If someone has told you about it, you must look into the matter. It might be true. A terrible thing may have happened in Israel. 5 If it is true, take the man or woman who has done the evil thing to the city gate. Throw stones at that person until he dies. 6 There must be two or three witnesses that he did it. Then the person should be put to death. But if there is only one witness, the person should not be put to death. 7 The witnesses must be the first to throw stones at the person. Then everyone else will follow. You must get rid of the evil among you.
Courts of Law
8 Some cases that come before you may be too difficult to judge. It may be a case of murder, quarreling or attack. Take these cases to the place the Lord your God will choose. 9 Go to the priests who are Levites. And go to the judge who is on duty at that time. Ask them about the case, and they will decide. 10 You must follow the decision they give you. They will be at the place the Lord your God will choose. Be careful to do everything they tell you. 11 Follow the teachings they give you. Do whatever they decide. Do exactly what they tell you. 12 The person who does not show respect for the judge or priest must be put to death. They are there serving the Lord your God. You must get rid of that evil from Israel. 13 Then everyone will hear about this. And they will be afraid. They will not show disrespect anymore.
Choosing a King
14 You will enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. You will take it as your own and live in it. Then you will say, “Let’s appoint a king over us like the nations all around us.” 15 Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be one of your own people. Do not appoint a foreigner as your king. He is not a fellow Israelite. 16 The king must not have too many horses for himself. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses. The Lord has told you, “Don’t return that way again.” 17 The king must not have many wives. If he does, his heart will be led away from God. He must not have too much silver and gold.
18 When he becomes king, he should write a copy of the teachings on a scroll for himself. He should copy it from the priests and Levites. 19 He should keep it with him all the time. He should read from it every day of his life. Then he will learn to respect the Lord his God. And he will obey all the teachings and commands. 20 He should not think he is better than his brothers. He must not stop obeying the law in any way. Then he and his descendants will rule the kingdom for a long time.
Shares for Priests and Levites
18 The priests are from the tribe of Levi. That tribe will not receive a share of the land with the Israelites. They will eat the offerings made to the Lord by fire. That is their share. 2 They will not inherit any of the land like their brothers. They will inherit the Lord himself. This is what he promised them.
3 When you offer a bull or sheep as a sacrifice, you must share with the priests. Give them the shoulder, the cheeks and the inner organs. 4 Give them the first of your grain, new wine and oil. Give them the first wool you cut from your sheep. 5 The Lord your God has chosen the priests and their descendants out of all your tribes. They are to stand and serve the Lord always.
6 A Levite might move from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he lives. He is sincere and comes to the place the Lord will choose. 7 He may serve the Lord his God. He will be like his fellow Levites who serve there before the Lord. 8 They all will have an equal share of the food. This is separate from what he has received from the sale of family possessions.
Do Not Follow Other Nations
9 You will enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. But don’t learn to do the terrible things the other nations do. 10 Don’t let anyone among you offer his son or daughter as a sacrifice in the fire. Don’t let anyone use magic or witchcraft. No one should try to explain the meaning of signs. 11 Don’t let anyone try to control others with magic. Don’t let them be mediums or try to talk with the spirits of dead people. 12 The Lord hates anyone who does these things. The other nations do these things. That is why the Lord your God will force them out of the land ahead of you. 13 You must be innocent in the presence of the Lord your God.
The Lord’s Special Prophet
14 The nations you will force out listen to people who use magic and witchcraft. But the Lord your God will not let you do those things. 15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet like me. He will be one of your own people. Listen to him. 16 This is what you asked the Lord your God to do. You were gathered at Mount Sinai. You said, “Don’t make us listen to the voice of the Lord our God again. Don’t make us look at this terrible fire anymore. We will die.”
17 So the Lord said to me, “What they have said is good. 18 So I will give them a prophet like you. He will be one of their own people. I will tell him what to say. And he will tell them everything I command. 19 This prophet will speak for me. Anyone who does not listen when he speaks will answer to me. 20 But a prophet might say something I did not tell him to say. And he might say he is speaking for me. Or a prophet might speak in the name of other gods. That prophet must be killed.”
21 You might be thinking, “How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?” 22 What a prophet says in the name of the Lord might not happen. If it doesn’t, it is not the Lord’s message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don’t be afraid of him.
The Temple Will Be Destroyed
13 Jesus was leaving the Temple. One of his followers said to him, “Look, Teacher! This Temple has beautiful buildings with very big stones.”
2 Jesus said, “Do you see all these great buildings? Every stone will be thrown to the ground. Not one stone will be left on another.”
3 Later, Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. He was alone with Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They could all see the Temple. They asked Jesus, 4 “Tell us, when will all these things happen? And what will show us that the time has come for them to happen?”
5 Jesus said to them: “Be careful that no one fools you. 6 Many people will come and use my name. They will say, ‘I am the One.’ And they will fool many. 7 You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming. But don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. 8 Nations will fight against other nations. Kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat. And there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.
9 “You must be careful. People will arrest you and take you to court. They will beat you in their synagogues. You will be forced to stand before kings and governors, to tell them about me. This will happen to you because you follow me. 10 But before these things happen, the Good News must be told to all people. 11 When you are arrested and judged, don’t worry about what you should say. Say the things God gives you to say at that time. It will not really be you speaking. It will be the Holy Spirit.
12 “Brothers will turn against their own brothers and give them over to be killed. Fathers will turn against their own children and give them over to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and cause their parents to be killed. 13 All people will hate you because you follow me. But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved.
14 “You will see ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’[a] You will see this thing standing in the place where it should not be.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. 15 If a person is on the roof[b] of his house, he must not go down to take anything out of his house. 16 If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat. 17 At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies. 18 Pray that these things will not happen in winter. 19 This is because those days will be full of trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning, when God made the world. And nothing as bad will ever happen again. 20 God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help his special people whom he has chosen.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.