Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this song. He asks God to bless the Temple.

Thank you, Lord^[a]

Rules for the people after a disease of the skin leaves them

14 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘These rules are for a person who has had a disease on his skin. They are rules about how to make him clean. When the disease leaves the person, you must bring him to the priest. ³ The priest must go outside the camp and he must look at the person. If the disease has gone away, ⁴ he must speak to the person. He must tell the person that he must bring two birds. They must be birds that are good for food. The birds must be alive. They must also bring wood from the cedar tree, red wool and some hyssop. ⁵ The priest will bring a pot with water in it. He will hold one of the birds over the pot and he will kill it. ⁶ The priest will take the other bird and the wood from the cedar tree. He will take the red wool and the hyssop. He will put all of them into the blood of the dead bird. ⁷ The priest will shake the blood over the person who had the disease. He will do this seven times. The priest will then say that the person is clean. The priest will let the live bird go. It will fly away.

⁸ The person who had the disease must wash his clothes. He must wash his body with water and he must cut off all his hair. Then he will be clean. He can go into the camp. But he must stay outside the home that he has made from animal skins for seven days. ⁹ On day seven, he must cut all the hair off his head and his face. He must wash his clothes and his body with water.

¹⁰ On the eighth day, the person must bring two young male sheep and one female sheep. The female sheep must be one year old. Both the animals must be perfect. He must also bring three tenths (3/10) of an ephah of flour (about six litres) mixed with oil. And he must bring a cup of olive oil. ¹¹ The priest who is making him clean must be there. He must bring the person to the door of the Tent of Meeting. The person must bring with him his offerings to the Lord.

¹² The priest must take one of the male sheep and the oil. He must lift them up to the Lord as a gift. ¹³ He must kill the sheep at the north side of the altar. That is where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering. The gift is holy. It is food for the priests. ¹⁴ The priest must put some of the blood on the lowest part of the person's right ear. He must put blood on the thumb of the person's right hand. And he must put blood on the big toe of the person's right foot. ¹⁵ The priest must pour some of the oil into his own left hand. ¹⁶ He must put a finger from his right hand into the oil. He must shake the oil seven times in front of the Lord's altar. ¹⁷ The priest must put oil on the lowest part of the person's right ear. He must put some of the oil on the thumb of the person's right hand. He must put some of the oil on the big toe of the person's right foot. He will put the oil on top of the offering's blood. ¹⁸ The priest must put the oil that he did not use on the person's head. This makes his atonement in front of the Lord.

¹⁹ Then the priest must offer the sin offering. That will make atonement for the man who will become clean. Then the priest must kill another sheep. It is a burnt offering. ²⁰ The priest must sacrifice the dead animal. It is a burnt offering. The priest must offer it on the altar. He must burn the flour and the oil with it on the altar. All this will make atonement for the person. This makes the person who had the disease clean.

The sons of Sceva tell bad spirits to leave people

¹¹ God was helping Paul to do special miracles. ¹² Because of this, people were taking pieces of cloth and clothes that Paul gave to them. Paul had used these things, and people took them to those who were ill. After they touched these cloths, the sick people would become well again. Bad spirits also left them.

¹³ There were some Jewish men who travelled about to different places. They caused bad spirits to leave people. Some of them wanted to use the name of the Lord Jesus when they did this. These Jews said to the bad spirits, ‘We tell you to come out of these people. We say this with the authority of Jesus, the man that Paul teaches people about.’

¹⁴ Sceva was a leader of the Jewish priests in that place. He had seven sons who were telling bad spirits to come out of people. They used the name of Jesus when they did this. ¹⁵ But one day the bad spirit in a man said to them, ‘I know who Jesus is. I also know about Paul. But I do not know who you are.’ ¹⁶ The man who had the bad spirit in him then jumped up. He fought with the seven sons and he was too strong for them. He hurt them badly and he tore their clothes off. So the sons ran away from the man's house. Their bodies were bleeding and they wore no clothes.

¹⁷ All the Jews and Gentiles who lived in Ephesus heard about this. They became very afraid. Now they respected the name of the Lord Jesus very much. They knew that he was very powerful. ¹⁸ Many of the believers agreed that they had done wicked things. They told other believers about this. ¹⁹ Some of them had used magic to do powerful things. These people brought all their special books and they burned them in a fire. Everybody saw what they did. The books had cost a lot of money. The value of all the books was 50,000 silver coins. ²⁰ As a result of this, more and more people heard the good news about the Lord Jesus. The message was powerful and people's lives changed.