The One Year Bible TLB (32 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
Praise the Lord, you angels of his; praise his glory and his strength.
2
Praise him for his majestic glory, the glory of his name. Come before him clothed in sacred garments.
3
The voice of the Lord echoes from the clouds. The God of glory thunders through the skies.
4
So powerful is his voice; so full of majesty.
5-6
It breaks down the cedars. It splits the giant trees of Lebanon. It shakes Mount Lebanon and Mount Sirion. They leap and skip before him like young calves!
7
The voice of the Lord thunders through the lightning.
8
It resounds through the deserts and shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9
The voice of the Lord spins and topples the mighty oaks.
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It strips the forests bare. They whirl and sway beneath the blast. But in his Temple all are praising, “Glory, glory to the Lord.”
10
At the Flood the Lord showed his control of all creation. Now he continues to unveil his power.
11
He will give his people strength. He will bless them with peace.
I was looking out the window of my house one day
7
and saw a simpleminded lad, a young man lacking common sense,
8-9
walking at twilight down the street to the house of this wayward girl, a prostitute.
10
She approached him, saucy and pert, and dressed seductively.
11-12
She was the brash, coarse type, seen often in the streets and markets, soliciting at every corner for men to be her lovers.
13
She put her arms around him and kissed him, and with a saucy look she said, “I was just coming to look for you and here you are!
14-17
Come home with me, and I’ll fix you a wonderful dinner,
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and after that—well, my bed is spread with lovely, colored sheets of finest linen imported from Egypt, perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18
Come on, let’s take our fill of love until morning,
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for my husband is away on a long trip.
20
He has taken a wallet full of money with him and won’t return for several days.”
21
So she seduced him with her pretty speech, her coaxing and her wheedling, until he yielded to her. He couldn’t resist her flattery.
22
He followed her as an ox going to the butcher or as a stag that is trapped,
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waiting to be killed with an arrow through its heart. He was as a bird flying into a snare, not knowing the fate awaiting it there.
February 6“There are three annual religious pilgrimages you must make.
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15
“The first is the Pilgrimage of Unleavened Bread, when for seven days you are not to eat bread with yeast, just as I commanded you before. This celebration is to be an annual event at the regular time in March, the month you left Egypt; everyone must bring me a sacrifice at that time.
16
Then there is the Harvest Pilgrimage, when you must bring to me the first of your crops. And, finally, the Pilgrimage of Ingathering at the end of the harvest season.
17
At these three times each year, every man in Israel shall appear before the Lord God.
18
“No sacrificial blood shall be offered with leavened bread; no sacrificial fat shall be left unoffered until the next morning.
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“As you reap each of your crops, bring me the choicest sample of the first day’s harvest; it shall be offered to the Lord your God.
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“Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
20
“See, I am sending an Angel before you to lead you safely to the land I have prepared for you.
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Reverence him and obey all of his instructions; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; he is my representative—he bears my name.
*
22
But if you are careful to obey him, following all my instructions, then I will be an enemy to your enemies.
23
For my Angel shall go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, to live there. And I will destroy those people before you.
24
“You must not worship the gods of these other nations, nor sacrifice to them in any way, and you must not follow the evil example of these heathen people; you must utterly conquer them and break down their shameful idols.
25
“You shall serve the Lord your God only; then I will bless you with food and with water, and I will take away sickness from among you.
26
There will be no miscarriages nor barrenness throughout your land, and you will live out the full quota of the days of your life.
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“The terror of the Lord shall fall upon all the people whose land you invade, and they will flee before you;
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and I will send hornets to drive out the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites from before you.
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I will not do it all in one year, for the land would become a wilderness, and the wild animals would become too many to control.
30
But I will drive them out a little at a time, until your population has increased enough to fill the land.
31
And I will set your enlarged boundaries from the Red Sea to the Philistine coast, and from the southern deserts as far as the Euphrates River; and I will cause you to defeat the people now living in the land, and you will drive them out ahead of you.
32
“You must make no covenant with them, nor have anything to do with their gods.
33
Don’t let them live among you! For I know that they will infect you with their sin of worshiping false gods, and that would be an utter disaster to you.”
24:
1
The Lord now instructed Moses, “Come up here with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. All of you except Moses are to worship at a distance.
2
Moses alone shall come near to the Lord; and remember, none of the ordinary people are permitted to come up into the mountain at all.”
3
Then Moses announced to the people all the laws and regulations God had given him; and the people answered in unison, “We will obey them all.”
4
Moses wrote down the laws; and early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars around the altar because there were twelve tribes of Israel.
5
Then he sent some of the young men to sacrifice the burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord.
6
Moses took half of the blood of these animals and drew it off into basins. The other half he splashed against the altar.
7
And he read to the people the Book he had written—the Book of the Covenant—containing God’s directions and laws. And the people said again, “We solemnly promise to obey every one of these rules.”
8
Then Moses threw the blood from the basins toward the people and said, “This blood confirms and seals the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these laws.”
9
Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up into the mountain.
10
And they saw the God of Israel; under his feet there seemed to be a pavement of brilliant sapphire stones, as clear as the heavens.
11
Yet, even though the elders saw God, he did not destroy them; and they had a meal together before the Lord.
12
And the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me into the mountain, and remain until I give you the laws and commandments I have written on tablets of stone, so that you can teach the people from them.”
13
So Moses and Joshua, his assistant, went up into the mountain of God.
14
He told the elders, “Stay here and wait for us until we come back; if there are any problems while I am gone, consult with Aaron and Hur.”
15
Then Moses went up the mountain and disappeared into the cloud at the top.
16
And the glory of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud.
17
Those at the bottom of the mountain saw the awesome sight: the glory of the Lord on the mountaintop looked like a raging fire.
18
And Moses disappeared into the cloud-covered mountaintop, and was there for forty days and forty nights.
25:
1-7
Jehovah said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel that everyone who wants to may bring me an offering from this list: gold, silver, bronze, blue cloth, purple cloth, scarlet cloth, fine-twined linen, goats’ hair, red-dyed rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, olive oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.
8
“For I want the people of Israel to make me a sacred Temple where I can live among them.
9
“This home of mine shall be a tent pavilion—a Tabernacle. I will give you a drawing of the construction plan and the details of each furnishing.
10
“Using acacia wood, make an Ark 3
3
/
4
feet long, 2
1
/
4
feet wide, and 2
1
/
4
feet high.
11
Overlay it inside and outside with pure gold, with a molding of gold all around it.
12
Cast four rings of gold for it and attach them to the four lower corners, two rings on each side.
13-14
Make poles from acacia wood overlaid with gold, and fit the poles into the rings at the sides of the Ark to carry it.
15
These carrying poles shall never be taken from the rings, but are to be left there permanently.
16
When the Ark is finished, place inside it the tablets of stone I will give you, with the Ten Commandments engraved on them.
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17
“And make a lid of pure gold, 3
3
/
4
feet long and 2
1
/
4
feet wide. This is the place of mercy for your sins.
*
18
Then make two statues of Guardian Angels
*
using beaten gold, and place them at the two ends of the lid of the Ark.
19
They shall be one piece with the mercy place, one at each end.
20
The Guardian Angels shall be facing each other, looking down upon the place of mercy, and shall have wings spread out above the gold lid.
21
Install the lid upon the Ark, and place within the Ark the tablets of stone I shall give you.
22
And I will meet with you there and talk with you from above the place of mercy between the Guardian Angels; and the Ark will contain the laws of my covenant. There I will tell you my commandments for the people of Israel.
23
“Then make a table of acacia wood 3 feet long, 1
1
/
2
feet wide, and 2
1
/
4
feet high.
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Overlay it with pure gold, and run a rib of gold around it.
25
Put a molding four inches wide around the edge of the top, and a gold ridge along the molding, all around.
26-27
Make four gold rings and put the rings at the outside corner of the four legs, close to the top; these are rings for the poles that will be used to carry the table.
28
Make the poles from acacia wood overlaid with gold.
29
And make gold dishes, spoons, pitchers, and flagons;
30
and always keep the special Bread of the Presence on the table before me.
31
“Make a lampstand of pure, beaten gold. The entire lampstand and its decorations shall be one piece—the base, shaft, lamps, and blossoms.
32-33
It will have three branches going out from each side of the center shaft, each branch decorated with three almond flowers.
34-35
The central shaft itself will be decorated with four almond flowers—one placed between each set of branches; also, there will be one flower above the top set of branches and one below the bottom set.
36
These decorations and branches and the shaft are all to be one piece of pure, beaten gold.
37
Then make seven lamps for the lampstand, and set them so that they reflect their light forward.
38
The snuffers and trays are to be made of pure gold.
39
You will need about 95 pounds
*
of pure gold for the lampstand and its accessories.
40
“Be sure that everything you make follows the pattern I am showing you here on the mountain.”
“Immediately after the persecution of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give light, and the stars will seem to fall from the heavens,
*
and the powers overshadowing the earth will be convulsed.
30
“And then at last the signal of my coming
*
will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning all around the earth. And the nations of the world will see me arrive in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
31
And I shall send forth my angels with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast, and they shall gather my chosen ones from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
*
32
“Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When her branch is tender and the leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is almost here.
33
Just so, when you see all these things beginning to happen, you can know that my return is near,
*
even at the doors.
34
Then at last this age will come to its close.
*
35
“Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words remain forever.
36
But no one knows the date and hour when the end will be—not even the angels. No, nor even God’s Son.
*
Only the Father knows.
37-38
“The world will be at ease
*
—banquets and parties and weddings—just as it was in Noah’s time before the sudden coming of the Flood;
39
people wouldn’t believe
*
what was going to happen until the Flood actually arrived and took them all away. So shall my coming be.
40
“Two men will be working together in the fields, and one will be taken, the other left.
41
Two women will be going about their household tasks; one will be taken, the other left.
42
“So be prepared, for you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.
43
“Just as a man can prevent trouble from thieves by keeping watch for them,
44
so you can avoid trouble by always being ready for my unannounced return.
45
“Are you a wise and faithful servant of the Lord? Have I given you the task of managing my household, to feed my children day by day?
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Blessings on you if I return and find you faithfully doing your work.
47
I will put such faithful ones in charge of everything I own!
48
“But if you are evil and say to yourself, ‘My Lord won’t be coming for a while,’
49
and begin oppressing your fellow servants, partying and getting drunk,
50
your Lord will arrive unannounced and unexpected,
51
and severely whip you and send you off to the judgment of the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”