The Daily Audio Bible

⁴⁷ “If a resident alien or traveler becomes rich,^[a] but your relative who lives next to him is so poor that he sells himself to that resident alien or traveler among you or to a member of the resident alien’s family, ⁴⁸ he has the right to be redeemed after he sells himself. One of his brothers may redeem him. ⁴⁹ His uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him or any blood^[b] relative from his tribe may redeem him. If^[c] he becomes rich,^[d] then he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰ “He is to bring an accounting to the one who bought him, starting from the year he had sold himself until the year of jubilee. The price of his sale is to correspond to the number of years comparable to the time a hired servant stays with him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he is to refund the cost^[e] of his redemption. ⁵² But if only a few years are left until the year of jubilee, he is to bring an accounting of the years that he is to refund for his redemption. ⁵³ Like a hired servant, he is to remain with him year after year, but he is not to rule over him with what you see as severity. ⁵⁴ If he isn’t redeemed by these, then he is to be set free in the year of jubilee—he and his children^[f] with him— ⁵⁵ because the Israelis are my servants. They’re my servants, since I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Rewards for Obedience

26 “You are not to make worthless idols, images, or pillars for yourselves, nor set up for yourselves carved images to bow down to them in the land, because I am the Lord your God.

² “You are to keep my Sabbath and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³ “If you live^[g] by my statutes, obey my commands, and observe them, ⁴ then I’ll send^[h] your rain in its season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. ⁵ Threshing will extend to the time of vintage and the vintage will extend to the time of sowing, so that you’ll eat your bread to your satisfaction and live securely in your land. ⁶ I’ll give peace in the land so that you’ll lie down without fear. I’ll remove wild^[i] beasts from the land, and not even war will come to^[j] your land. ⁷ Instead, you’ll pursue your enemies and they’ll die^[k] by the sword before you. ⁸ Five of you will chase a hundred, a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

⁹ “I’ll look after you, ensuring that you’ll be fruitful. I’ll increase your number^[l] and keep^[m] my covenant with you. ¹⁰ When you have consumed what was stored of the old, then you’ll take out the old and replace it with what’s new. ¹¹ I’ll set up my tent in your midst and I^[n] won’t loathe you. ¹² I’ll walk among you. I will be your God, and you’ll be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you will no longer be their slaves, since I’ve broken their oppressive yoke upon you to make you walk upright.”

Cascading Consequences

¹⁴ “But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. ¹⁷ I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.

¹⁸ “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. ¹⁹ I’ll break your mighty pride.^[o] I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.

²¹ “If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I’ll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. ²² I’ll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number^[p] so that your roads become desolate.

²³ “If, despite these things, you still won’t return to me, but live life contrary to me, ²⁴ then I’ll certainly oppose^[q] you. I’ll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁵ I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies. ²⁶ When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.

²⁷ “If, after all of this time, you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, ²⁸ I’ll oppose^[r] you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁹ At that time, you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I’ll loathe you. ³¹ I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. ³² I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”

Captivity among the Nations

³³ “I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. ³⁴ Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.

³⁶ “As for the remnants among you, I’ll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. ³⁷ They’ll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing.

“You won’t have power to resist your enemies. ³⁸ You’ll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”

Return from Captivity

⁴⁰ “Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— ⁴¹ causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity— ⁴² then I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I’ll also remember the land. ⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet, despite all of these things, when they’re in the land of their enemies, I won’t reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ Instead, on account of them, I’ll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the Lord.”

⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the Lord made between himself and the Israelis on Mount Sinai, as recorded by the hand of Moses.

Special Offerings

27 The Lord told Moses, ² “Tell the Israelis that when a person^[s] makes a special vow based on the appropriate value of people who belong to the Lord, ³ if your valuation of the vow^[t] is for a male from 20 to 60 years old, the valuation is to be 50 shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ If she is a female from 20 to 60 years old, then your valuation is to be 30 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁵ If a person^[u] is from five to 20 years, then your valuation for a male is to be 20 shekels and for a female ten shekels. ⁶ If a person is from one month to five years old, then your valuation for a male is to be five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation is to be three shekels of silver. ⁷ If a person is 60 or more years old, then your valuation for a male is to be fifteen shekels and for a female ten shekels. ⁸ But if he is too poor to be valuated, then cause him to stand before the priest and let the priest set a value on him according to the ability^[v] of the one making the vow.

⁹ “If it’s an animal from which they make an offering to the Lord, everything that he gives to the Lord from it will be holy. ¹⁰ He is not to substitute it or exchange it—the good with the bad or the bad with the good. If he ever makes an exchange of an animal for an animal, then it and what’s being exchanged is holy. ¹¹ If any animal is unclean, which cannot be brought to the Lord as an offering, make the animal stand in the presence of the priest, ¹² then the priest will evaluate it as to whether it is good or bad. According to your—that is, the priest’s—valuation, so it is to be. ¹³ If a kinsman redeemer decides to redeem it, then he is to add a fifth to your valuation.”

³² Now Jesus and his disciples^[a] had been on the road going up to Jerusalem, with Jesus walking ahead of them. They were astonished, and the others who followed were afraid.

Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection a Third Time^(A)

Once again, Jesus^[b] took the Twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. ³³ “Pay attention! We’re going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the high priests and the scribes, and they’ll condemn him to death. Then they’ll hand him over to the unbelievers,^{[c] 34} and they’ll make fun of him, spit on him, whip him, and kill him. But after three days he’ll be raised.”

The Request of James and John^(B)

³⁵ James and John, the sons of Zebedee, went to Jesus^[d] and told him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you.”

³⁶ He asked them, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³⁷ They asked him, “Let us sit in your glory, one on your right and one on your left.”

³⁸ But Jesus told them, “You don’t realize what you’re asking. Can you drink from the cup that I’m going to drink from or be baptized with the baptism with which I’m going to be baptized?”

³⁹ They told him, “We can.”

Jesus told them, “You will drink from the cup that I’m going to drink and be baptized with the baptism with which I’m going to be baptized. ⁴⁰ But it’s not up to me to grant you a seat at my right or my left. Those positions have already been prepared for others.”

⁴¹ When the ten other disciples^[e] heard this, they began to be furious with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called his disciples^[f] and told them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers among the unbelievers^[g] lord it over them, and their superiors act like tyrants over them. ⁴³ That’s not the way it should be among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to everyone, ⁴⁵ because even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people.”

Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus^(C)

⁴⁶ Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus,^[h] his disciples, and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus (that is, the son of Timaeus) was sitting by the road. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was there, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ Many people sternly told him to be quiet, but he started shouting even louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁹ So Jesus stopped and said, “Call him!”

So they called the blind man and told him, “Have courage! Get up. He’s calling you.” ⁵⁰ He threw off his coat, jumped up, and went to Jesus.

⁵¹ Then Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man told him, “Rabbouni,^[i] I want to see again.”

⁵² Jesus told him, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” At once the man^[j] could see again, and he began to follow Jesus^[k] down the road.

To the Director: An instruction^[a] by the Sons of Korah. A love song to the tune of^[b] “Lilies”.

A Royal Wedding Song