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16 Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd in the place where the Lord will choose to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell.
3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you fled from the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may [earnestly] remember the day when you came out of Egypt.
4 No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed the first day at evening be left all night until the morning.
5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you,
6 But at the place which the Lord your God will choose in which to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset, at the season that you came out of Egypt.
7 And you shall roast or boil and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.
9 You shall count seven weeks; begin to number the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.
10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give to the Lord your God, as the Lord your God blesses you.
11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your manservant and maidservant, and the Levite who is within your towns, the stranger or temporary resident, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place in which the Lord your God chooses to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell.
12 And you shall [earnestly] remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be watchful and obey these statutes.
13 You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths for seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and wine vat.
14 You shall rejoice in your Feast, you, your son and daughter, your manservant and maidservant, the Levite, the transient and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.
15 For seven days you shall keep a solemn Feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses; because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
16 Three times a year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed:
17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.
18 You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 You shall not misinterpret or misapply judgment; you shall not be partial, or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
20 Follow what is altogether just (uncompromisingly righteous), that you may live and inherit the land which your God gives you.
21 You shall not plant for yourselves any kind of tree dedicated to [the goddess] Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God which you shall make.
22 Neither shall you set up an idolatrous stone or image, which the Lord your God hates.
17 You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a blemish or any defect whatsoever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.
2 If there is found among you within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you a man or woman who does what is wicked in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant,
3 Who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or moon or any of the host of the heavens, which I have forbidden,
4 And it is told and you hear of it, then inquire diligently. And if it is certainly true that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,
5 Then you shall bring forth to your town’s gates that man or woman who has done that wicked thing and you shall stone that man or woman to death.
6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses he who is worthy of death shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from among you.
8 If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment—between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one legality and another, between one kind of assault and another, matters of controversy within your towns—then arise and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.
9 And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them and they shall make clear to you the decision.
10 And you shall do according to the decision which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be watchful to do according to all that they tell you;
11 According to the decision of the law which they shall teach you and the judgment which they shall announce to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the verdict they give you, [a]either to the right hand or the left.
12 The man who does presumptuously and will not listen to the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear and [reverently] fear, and not act presumptuously again.
14 When you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live there, and then say, We will set a king over us like all the nations that are about us,
15 You shall surely set as king over you him whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner, who is not your brother, over you.
16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the Lord said to you, You shall never return that way.
17 And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his [mind and] heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
18 And when he sits on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of what is before the Levitical priests.
19 And he shall keep it with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them,
20 That his [mind and] heart may not be lifted up above his brethren and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; so that he may continue long, he and his sons, in his kingdom in Israel.
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was being done by [Jesus], and he was [thoroughly] perplexed and troubled, because it was said by some that John [the Baptist] had been raised from the dead,
8 And by others that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had come back to life.
9 But Herod said, John I beheaded; but Who is this about Whom I [learn] such things by hearsay? And he sought to see Him.
10 Upon their return, the apostles reported to Jesus all that they had done. And He took them [along with Him] and withdrew into privacy near a town called Bethsaida.
11 But when the crowds learned of it, [they] followed Him; and He welcomed them and talked to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed restoration to health.
12 Now the day began to decline, and the Twelve came and said to Him, Dismiss the crowds and send them away, so that they may go to the neighboring hamlets and villages and the surrounding country and find lodging and get a [a]supply of provisions, for we are here in an uninhabited (barren, solitary) place.
13 But He said to them, You [yourselves] give them [food] to eat. They said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all this crowd,(A)
14 For there were about 5,000 men. And [Jesus] said to His disciples, Have them [sit down] reclining in table groups (companies) of about fifty each.
15 And they did so, and made them all recline.
16 And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and [praising God] gave thanks and asked Him to bless them [to their use]. Then He broke them and gave them to the disciples to place before the multitude.
17 And all the people ate and were satisfied. And they gathered up what remained over—twelve [[b]small hand] baskets of broken pieces.
18 Now it occurred that as Jesus was praying privately, the disciples were with Him, and He asked them, Who do men say that I am?
19 And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, that one of the ancient prophets has come back to life.
20 And He said to them, But who do you [yourselves] say that I am? And Peter replied, The Christ of God!
21 But He strictly charged and sharply commanded them [[c]under penalty] to tell this to no one [no one, [d]whoever he might be],
22 Saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be [[e]deliberately] disapproved and repudiated and rejected on the part of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be put to death and on the third day be raised [again].
23 And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [[f]disown himself, [g]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, [h]refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [[i]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
24 For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [[j]from the penalty of eternal death].
25 For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins or forfeits (loses) himself?
26 Because whoever is ashamed of Me and of My teachings, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in the [[k]threefold] glory (the splendor and majesty) of Himself and of the Father and of the holy angels.
27 However I tell you truly, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.
Psalm 72[a]
[A Psalm] for Solomon.
1 Give the king [knowledge of] Your [way of] judging, O God, and [the spirit of] Your righteousness to the king’s son [to control all his actions].
2 Let him judge and govern Your people with righteousness, and Your poor and afflicted ones with judgment and justice.
3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the hills, through [the general establishment of] righteousness.
4 May he judge and defend the poor of the people, deliver the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor,
5 So that they may revere and fear You while the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
6 May he [Solomon as a type of King David’s greater Son] be like rain that comes down upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
7 In [b]His [Christ’s] days shall the [uncompromisingly] righteous flourish and peace abound till there is a moon no longer.(A)
8 He [Christ] shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.(B)
9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the coasts shall bring offerings; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11 Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him.(C)
12 For He delivers the needy when he calls out, the poor also and him who has no helper.
13 He will have pity on the poor and weak and needy and will save the lives of the needy.
14 He will redeem their lives from oppression and fraud and violence, and precious and costly shall their blood be in His sight.
15 And He shall live; and to Him shall be given gold of Sheba; prayer also shall be made for Him and through Him continually, and they shall bless and praise Him all the day long.
16 There shall be abundance of grain in the soil upon the top of the mountains [the least fruitful places in the land]; the fruit of it shall wave like [the forests of] Lebanon, and [the inhabitants of] the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
17 His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun [indeed, His name continues before the sun]. And men shall be blessed and bless themselves by Him; all nations shall call Him blessed!
18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone does wondrous things!
19 Blessed be His glorious name forever; let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and Amen!
20 The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.
8 A man shall be commended according to his Wisdom [godly Wisdom, which is comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God], but he who is of a perverse heart shall be despised.
9 Better is he who is lightly esteemed but works for his own support than he who assumes honor for himself and lacks bread.
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