The Daily Audio Bible
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17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “Tell Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel: ‘A citizen of Israel or a foreigner living in Israel might want to bring a whole burnt offering. It might be for some special promise he has made. Or it might be a special gift he wanted to give to the Lord. 19 If he does, he must bring a male animal. It must have nothing wrong with it. The gift might be a bull, a sheep or a goat. This is so it might be accepted for him. 20 He must not bring an animal that has something wrong with it. It will not be accepted for him.
21 “‘Someone might bring a fellowship offering to the Lord. That offering might be payment for a special promise the person made. Or it may be a special gift the person wanted to give the Lord. It might be a bull or a sheep. But it must be healthy. There must be nothing wrong with it. This is so it might be accepted for him. 22 You must not offer to the Lord any animal that is blind. It must not have broken bones or be crippled. It must not have running sores or any sort of skin disease. You must not offer any animals like these on the altar. They cannot be used as an offering by fire to the Lord.
23 “‘Sometimes a bull or lamb is smaller than normal. Or it may not be perfectly formed. If someone wants to give that animal as a special gift to the Lord, it will be accepted. But it will not be accepted as payment for a special promise the person made.
24 “‘An animal might have bruised, crushed, torn or cut sex glands. If it does, you must not offer that animal to the Lord in your own land. 25 You must not take such animals from foreigners as sacrifices to the Lord. This is because the animals have been hurt in some way. They have something wrong with them. They will not be accepted for you.’”
26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “When an ox, a sheep or a goat is born, it must stay seven days with its mother. But from the eighth day on, this animal will be accepted as a sacrifice. It may be offered by fire to the Lord. 28 But you must not kill the animal and its mother on the same day. This rule is the same for an ox or a sheep.
29 “You might want to offer some special offering of thanks to the Lord. But you must do it in a way that pleases the Lord. 30 You must eat the whole animal that same day. You must not leave any of the meat for the next morning. I am the Lord.
31 “Remember my commands and obey them. I am the Lord. 32 Show respect for my holy name. You Israelites must remember that I am holy. I am the Lord. I have made you holy. 33 I brought you out of Egypt. I became your God. I am the Lord.”
Special Holidays
23 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘You will announce the Lord’s appointed feasts as holy meetings. These are my special feasts.
The Sabbath
3 “‘There are six days for you to work. But the seventh day will be a special day of rest. It is a day for a holy meeting. You must not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your homes.
The Passover and Unleavened Bread
4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed feasts. You will announce the holy meetings at the times set for them. 5 The Lord’s Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month. It begins at twilight. 6 The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the fifteenth day of the same month. You will eat bread made without yeast for seven days. 7 On the first day of this feast you will have a holy meeting. On that day you must not do any work. 8 For seven days you will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. There will be a holy meeting on the seventh day. And on that day you must not do any regular work.’”
The Feast of Harvests
9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘You will enter the land I will give you. You will gather its harvest. At that time you must bring the first bundle of grain from your harvest to the priest. 11 The priest will present the bundle before the Lord. Then it will be accepted for you. He will present the bundle on the day after the Sabbath.
12 “‘On the day when you present the bundle of grain, offer a male lamb. It must be one year old. There must be nothing wrong with it. It will be a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 You must also offer a grain offering. It should be four quarts of fine flour mixed with olive oil. It is an offering made by fire to the Lord. Its smell will be pleasing to the Lord. You must also offer a quart of wine as a drink offering. 14 First bring your offering to your God. Until you do this, do not eat the new grain, roasted grain or bread made from the new grain. This law will always continue for people from now on, wherever you live.
The Feast of Pentecost
15 “‘Count seven weeks from the morning after the Sabbath. (This is the Sabbath that you bring the bundle of grain to present as an offering.) 16 On the fiftieth day, you will bring a new grain offering to the Lord. This is the first day after the seventh week. 17 On that day bring two loaves of bread from your homes. That bread will be presented as an offering. Use yeast and four quarts of flour to make those loaves of bread. They will be your gift to the Lord from the first wheat of your harvest.
18 “‘Offer one bull, two male sheep and seven male lambs. The lambs must be one year old. There must be nothing wrong with them. Offer them with their grain offerings and drink offerings. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord. They will be an offering made by fire. And the smell will be pleasing to the Lord. 19 You must also offer one male goat for a sin offering. You must offer two male, one-year-old lambs as a fellowship offering.
20 “‘The priest will present the two lambs as an offering. He will present them with the bread from the first wheat of the harvest. They are holy to the Lord. They will belong to the priest. 21 On that same day you will call a holy meeting. You must not do any work that day. This law will continue for you from now on, wherever you live.
22 “‘You will harvest your crops on your land. But do not harvest all the way to the corners of your field. If grain falls onto the ground, don’t gather it up. Leave it for poor people and foreigners in your country. I am the Lord your God.’”
The Feast of Trumpets
23 Again the Lord said to Moses, 24 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you must have a special day of rest. There will be a holy meeting. Blow the trumpet for a special time of remembering. 25 Do not do any work. And bring an offering made by fire to the Lord.’”
The Day of Cleansing
26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “The Day of Cleansing will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. There will be a holy meeting. You will give up eating and bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 Do not do any work on that day. This is because it is the Day of Cleansing. On that day the priests will go before the Lord. They will perform the acts to make you clean from sin so you will belong to the Lord.
29 “If anyone refuses to give up food on this day, he must be separated from his people. 30 If anyone works on this day, I will destroy him from among his people. 31 You must not do any work at all. This law will continue for people from now on wherever you live. 32 It will be a special day of rest for you. And you must not eat. You will start this special day of rest on the evening after the ninth day of the month. It will continue from that evening until the next evening.”
The Feast of Shelters
33 Again the Lord said to Moses, 34 “Tell the people of Israel: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month is the Feast of Shelters. This feast to the Lord will continue for seven days. 35 There will be a holy meeting on the first day. Do not do any work. 36 You will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord each day for seven days. On the eighth day you will have another holy meeting. And you will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. This will be a holy meeting. Do not do any work.
37 (“‘These are the Lord’s special feasts. There will be holy meetings on these feast days. You will bring offerings made by fire to the Lord. They will be whole burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings. You must bring these gifts at the right times. 38 You must bring these offerings in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbath days. You must offer them in addition to offerings you give as payment for special promises. They are also in addition to special offerings you want to give to the Lord.)
39 “‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, celebrate the Lord’s festival for seven days. By then you will have gathered in the crops of the land. You must rest on the first day and the seventh day. 40 On the first day you will take good fruit from the fruit trees. And you will take branches from palm, poplars and other leafy trees. You will celebrate before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This law will continue from now on. You will celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in shelters for seven days. All the people born in Israel must live in shelters. 43 This is so that all your descendants will know I made Israel live in shelters. It was during the time I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
44 So Moses told the people of Israel about all of the Lord’s appointed feast days.
Jesus Talks About His Death
30 Then Jesus and his followers left that place and went through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where he was 31 because he wanted to teach his followers alone. He said to them, “The Son of Man will be given to men who will kill him. After three days, he will rise from death.” 32 But the followers did not understand what Jesus meant. And they were afraid to ask.
Who Is the Greatest?
33 Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum and went into a house there. Then Jesus said to them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest.
35 Jesus sat down and called the 12 apostles to him. He said, “If anyone wants to be the most important, then he must be last of all and servant of all.”
36 Then Jesus took a small child and had him stand among them. He took the child in his arms and said, 37 “If anyone accepts children like these in my name, then he is also accepting me. And if he accepts me, then he is also accepting the One who sent me.”
Anyone Not Against Us Is for Us
38 Then John said, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of a person. We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.”
39 Jesus said, “Don’t stop him. Anyone who uses my name to do powerful things will not say evil things about me. 40 He who is not against us is with us. 41 I tell you the truth. If anyone helps you by giving you a drink of water because you belong to the Christ, then he will truly get his reward.
42 “If one of these little children believes in me, and someone causes that child to sin, then it will be very bad for him. It would be better for him to have a large stone tied around his neck and be drowned in the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body but have life forever. That is much better than to have two hands and go to hell. In that place the fire never goes out. 44 [In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never stopped.][a] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to lose part of your body but have life forever. That is much better than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 46 [In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never stopped.][b] 47 If your eye causes you to sin, take it out. It is better for you to have only one eye but have life forever. That is much better than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. 48 In hell the worm does not die; the fire is never stopped. 49 Every person will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good. But if the salt loses its salty taste, then you cannot make it salty again. So, be full of goodness. And have peace with each other.”
Jesus Teaches About Divorce
10 Then Jesus left that place. He went into the area of Judea and across the Jordan River. Again, crowds came to him. And Jesus taught them as he always did.
2 Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trick him. They asked, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you to do?”
4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write out divorce papers and send her away.”[c]
5 Jesus said, “Moses wrote that command for you because you refused to accept God’s teaching. 6 But when God made the world, ‘he made them male and female.’[d] 7 ‘So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife.[e] 8 And the two people will become one body.’[f] So the people are not two, but one. 9 God has joined the two people together. So no one should separate them.”
10 Later, the followers and Jesus were in the house. They asked Jesus again about the question of divorce. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman is guilty of adultery against her. 12 And the woman who divorces her husband and marries another man is also guilty of adultery.”
A Prayer for Help
For the director of music. A maskil of the sons of Korah.
44 God, we have heard about you.
Our ancestors told us
what you did in their days,
in days long ago.
2 With your power you forced the nations out of the land.
You placed our ancestors here.
You destroyed those other nations.
But you made our ancestors grow strong.
3 It wasn’t their swords that took the land.
It wasn’t their power that gave them victory.
But it was your great power and strength.
You were with them because you loved them.
4 My God, you are my King.
Your commands led Jacob’s people to victory.
5 With your help we pushed back our enemies.
In your name we walked on those who came against us.
6 I don’t trust my bow to help me.
My sword can’t save me.
7 You saved us from Egypt.
You made our enemies ashamed.
8 We will praise God every day.
We will praise your name forever. Selah
19 If you talk a lot, you are sure to sin.
If you are wise, you will keep quiet.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.