The Daily Audio Bible

The People Complain

⁴¹ But on the next day all the people of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the Lord’s people.” ⁴² When the people had gathered against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the meeting tent. There the cloud covered it and they saw the shining-greatness of the Lord. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the meeting tent. ⁴⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, ⁴⁵ “Get away from these people, so I may destroy them at once.” Then they fell on their faces. ⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, “Take your fire pot and put fire in it from the altar, and lay special perfume on it. Then be quick to bring it to the people and pay for their sin. For anger has gone out from the Lord. The disease has come!” ⁴⁷ So Aaron took it as Moses said, and ran to the people. The disease had already come upon them. He put on the special perfume and paid for the sin of the people. ⁴⁸ He stood between the dead and the living, and the disease was stopped. ⁴⁹ But 14,700 people died by the disease, as well as those who died because of Korah. ⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the meeting tent, for the disease had been stopped.

Aaron’s Stick Began to Grow

17 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Speak to the people of Israel. Get walking sticks from them, one for each father’s house. Get twelve walking sticks, from all their leaders by their fathers’ houses. Write each man’s name on his stick. ³ Write Aaron’s name on the walking stick of Levi. For there will be one walking stick for the head of each father’s house. ⁴ Then put them in the meeting tent before the Law, where I meet with you. ⁵ And the walking stick of the man I choose will begin to grow. In this way I will stop the complaining of the people of Israel, who are complaining against you.” ⁶ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel. All their leaders each gave him a walking stick, one for each leader by their fathers’ houses, twelve walking sticks. And the walking stick of Aaron was among their walking sticks. ⁷ Moses put the walking sticks before the Lord in the meeting tent of the Law.

⁸ The next day Moses went into the meeting tent of the Law. And he saw that the walking stick of Aaron for the house of Levi had begun to grow buds and flowers and almonds. ⁹ Moses brought out all the walking sticks from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. They looked, and each man took his stick. ¹⁰ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put the walking stick of Aaron in front of the Law again. It will be something special to see against those who go against My Word. Then you may put an end to their complaining against Me, so they will not die.” ¹¹ So Moses did this. He did just as the Lord had told him.

¹² Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “See, we are being destroyed! We are dying! We are all dying! ¹³ Everyone who comes near, who comes near the meeting tent of the Lord, must die. Are we all to be destroyed?”

The Work of the Religious Leaders and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and those of your father’s house will carry the guilt for any sin done in the meeting tent. And you and your sons with you will carry the guilt of any sin of the religious leaders. ² Bring with you your brothers also, the family of Levi, the family of your father. Then they may join you and help you while you and your sons are in front of the meeting tent of the Law. ³ They will help you and help in doing all the work of the tent. But they must not come near the objects of the meeting tent and the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴ They will join you and help do all the work of the meeting tent. But no one else may come near you. ⁵ You must do the work of the meeting tent and the work of the altar, so there will no longer be anger on the people of Israel. ⁶ See, I Myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the work for the meeting tent. ⁷ But you and your sons with you will do the religious work, in all that has to do with the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the work of being the religious leader as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the holy objects will be put to death.”

Gifts for the Religious Leaders

⁸ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “Now see, I am giving you all the gifts brought to Me that are not burned on the altar. I am giving them to you as a share, and to your sons as a share forever. ⁹ This will be yours from the most holy gifts, kept from the fire: every gift of theirs, even every grain gift, every sin gift and every guilt gift, which they bring to Me. They will be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it as the most holy gifts. Every male will eat it. It will be holy to you. ¹¹ And this is yours: their gift that is lifted up and all the wave gifts of the people of Israel. I am giving them to you and to your sons and daughters with you, as a share forever. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹² I give to you all the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the first-fruits of what they give to the Lord. ¹³ The first-fruits ready to eat of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. ¹⁴ Everything in Israel that has been set apart to the Lord will be yours. ¹⁵ Every first-born of all flesh, man or animal, which they give to the Lord, will be yours. But you must pay the price and make free the first-born of man and the first-born of animals that are unclean. ¹⁶ You must make them free when they are one month old. The price to free them will be five large pieces of silver, the price decided upon at the meeting tent. One large piece of silver is worth twenty small pieces of silver. ¹⁷ But do not free the first-born of a bull or sheep or goat. For they are holy. You will put their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a gift by fire, a pleasing smell to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their meat will be yours, like the breast of a wave gift and like the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹ I have given to you and your sons and daughters, for a share forever, all the holy gifts which the people of Israel bring to the Lord. It is an agreement of salt forever before the Lord for you and your children with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no share in their land. You will not own any part of land among them. I am your part and your share among the people of Israel.

²¹ “See, I have given a tenth part of everything in Israel to the Levites, in return for the work they do, the work of the meeting tent. ²² The people of Israel must not come near the meeting tent again, or they will be guilty of sin and die. ²³ Only the Levites may do the work around the meeting tent, and they will carry their sin. It will be a Law forever for all your children-to-come. And they will have no land among the people of Israel. ²⁴ For I have given to the Levites one-tenth part of what the people of Israel give to the Lord. This is why I have said of them, ‘They will have no land among the people of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tenth which I have given you from them for your share, then give a gift from it to the Lord. Give one-tenth part of the tenth. ²⁷ And your gift will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor or all the wine from the crushed grapes. ²⁸ So you must give a gift to the Lord from the tenth of what you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you must give the Lord’s gift to Aaron the religious leader. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you must give every gift that should go to the Lord, from all the best of them. Give the holy part from them.’

³⁰ “And say to them, ‘When you have given the best part of it, the rest of it will be to you as if it were the grain from the grain-floor and the wine from the crushed grapes. ³¹ You and those of your houses may eat it in any place. For it is your pay for your work in the meeting tent. ³² You will not be guilty because of it, when you have given the best of it. But do not make unclean the holy gifts of the people of Israel, or you will die.’”

Jesus Is Raised from the Dead ^(A)

16 The Day of Rest was over. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices. They wanted to put the spices on Jesus’ body. ² Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the grave. The sun had come up. ³ They said to themselves, “Who will roll the stone away from the door of the grave for us?” ⁴ But when they looked, they saw the very large stone had been rolled away.

⁵ They went into the grave. There they saw a young man with a long white coat sitting on the right side. They were afraid. ⁶ He said, “Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth Who was nailed to a cross. He is risen! He is not here! See, here is the place where they laid Him. ⁷ Go and tell His followers and Peter that He is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see Him there as He told you.” ⁸ They ran from the grave shaking and were surprised. They did not say anything to anyone because they were afraid.

The Followers of Jesus Do Not Believe He Was Raised from the Dead ^(B)

⁹ (*It was early on the first day of the week when Jesus was raised from the dead. Mary Magdalene saw Him first. He had put seven demons out of her. ¹⁰ She went and told His followers. They were crying because of much sorrow. ¹¹ But they did not believe her when she said she had seen Him alive.

¹² After that He was seen again by two of His followers as they walked into the country. He did not look like He had looked before to these two people. ¹³ They went and told it to the others. The others did not believe them.

¹⁴ Later He was seen by the eleven followers as they were eating. He spoke to them with sharp words because they did not believe and their hearts were hard. And they did not believe the others who had seen Him since He had been raised from the dead.

Jesus Sends His Followers to Preach ^(C)

¹⁵ He said to them, “You are to go to all the world and preach the Good News to every person. ¹⁶ He who puts his trust in Me and is baptized will be saved from the punishment of sin. But he who does not put his trust in Me is guilty and will be punished forever. ¹⁷ These special powerful works will be done by those who have put their trust in Me. In My name they will put out demons. They will speak with languages they have never learned. ¹⁸ They will pick up snakes. If they drink any poison, it will not hurt them. They will put their hands on the sick and they will be healed.”

¹⁹ After Jesus had talked to them, He was taken up into heaven. He sat down on the right side of God.

²⁰ The followers went from there and preached everywhere. The Lord worked with them. The Lord showed that the Word of God was true by the special works they had power to do.)

Prayer of a Man Hurt by a Friend

55 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not hide Yourself from what I ask. ² Hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I have no peace, ³ because of the voice of those who hate me and the power of the sinful. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they keep on having bad thoughts against me.

⁴ My heart is in pain within me. The fears of death have come upon me. ⁵ I have begun shaking with fear. Fear has power over me. ⁶ And I say, “If only I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. ⁷ Yes, I would go far away. I would live in the desert. ⁸ I would hurry to my safe place, away from the wild wind and storm.”

⁹ Mix them up, O Lord. Divide their tongues. For I have seen fighting and trouble in the city. ¹⁰ They go around on its walls day and night. Sin and wrong-doing are within it. ¹¹ Destroying powers are in the city. Trouble and lies never leave its streets.

¹² I would be able to take it if one who hates me were putting me to shame. I could hide from him. It is not one who hates me who has put himself up against me. ¹³ But it is you, a man like myself, one who has gone with me, my close friend. ¹⁴ We shared together. And we walked with the people in the house of God. ¹⁵ Let death take them by surprise. Let them go down alive to the grave. For sin is with them where they live. ¹⁶ As for me, I will call on God and the Lord will save me. ¹⁷ I will cry out and complain in the evening and morning and noon, and He will hear my voice. ¹⁸ He will save my soul in peace from those who make war against me. For there are many who fight me. ¹⁹ God sits on His throne forever. And He will hear them and bring trouble upon them, because there has been no change in them. They do not fear God. ²⁰ He goes against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his agreement. ²¹ What he says is smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are raised swords.

²² Give all your cares to the Lord and He will give you strength. He will never let those who are right with Him be shaken. ²³ But You, O God, will bring the sinful down into the hole that destroys. Men who kill and lie will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

⁷ When a sinful man dies, his hope dies with him, and all his power comes to nothing.