The One Year Bible TLB (47 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
February 26The Lord also told Moses to tell the people of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. You must respect your mothers and fathers, and obey my Sabbath law, for I am the Lord your God.
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Do not make or worship idols, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“When you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, offer it correctly so that it will be accepted:
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Eat it the same day you offer it, or the next day at the latest; any remaining until the third day must be burned.
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For any of it eaten on the third day is repulsive to me and will not be accepted.
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If you eat it on the third day, you are guilty, for you profane the holiness of Jehovah, and you shall be excommunicated from Jehovah’s people.
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“When you harvest your crops, don’t reap the corners of your fields, and don’t pick up stray grains of wheat from the ground.
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It is the same with your grape crop—don’t strip every last piece of fruit from the vines, and don’t pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and for those traveling through, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“You must not steal nor lie nor defraud.
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You must not swear to a falsehood, thus bringing reproach upon the name of your God, for I am Jehovah.
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“You shall not rob nor oppress anyone, and you shall pay your hired workers promptly. If something is due them, don’t even keep it overnight.
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“You must not curse the deaf nor trip up a blind man as he walks. Fear your God; I am Jehovah!
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“Judges must always be just in their sentences, not noticing whether a person is poor or rich; they must always be perfectly fair.
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“Don’t gossip. Don’t falsely accuse your neighbor of some crime,
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for I am Jehovah.
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“Don’t hate your brother. Rebuke anyone who sins; don’t let him get away with it, or you will be equally guilty.
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Don’t seek vengeance. Don’t bear a grudge; but love your neighbor as yourself, for I am Jehovah.
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“Obey my laws: Do not mate your cattle with a different kind; don’t sow your field with two kinds of seed; don’t wear clothes made of half wool and half linen.
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“If a man seduces a slave girl
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who is engaged to be married, they shall be tried in a court but not put to death, because she is not free.
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The man involved shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle; the offering shall be a ram.
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The priest shall make atonement with the ram for the sin the man has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.
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“When you enter the land and have planted all kinds of fruit trees, do not eat the first three crops, for they are considered ceremonially defiled.
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And the fourth year the entire crop shall be devoted to the Lord, and shall be given to the Lord in praise to him.
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Finally, in the fifth year, the crop is yours.
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“I am Jehovah your God! You must not eat meat with undrained blood nor use fortune-telling or witchcraft.
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“You must not trim off your hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beard, as the heathen do.
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You shall not cut yourselves nor put tattoo marks upon yourselves in connection with funeral rites; I am the Lord.
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“Do not violate your daughter’s sanctity by making her a prostitute, lest the land become full of enormous wickedness.
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“Keep my Sabbath laws and reverence my Tabernacle, for I am the Lord.
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“Do not defile yourselves by consulting mediums and wizards, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“You shall give due honor and respect to the elderly, in the fear of God. I am Jehovah.
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“Do not take advantage of foreigners in your land; do not wrong them.
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They must be treated like any other citizen; love them as yourself, for remember that you too were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.
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“You must be impartial in judgment. Use accurate measurements—lengths, weights, and volumes—and give full measure, for I am Jehovah your God who brought you from the land of Egypt.
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You must heed all of my commandments and ordinances, carefully obeying them, for I am Jehovah.”
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The Lord gave Moses these further instructions for the people of Israel:
“Anyone—whether an Israelite or a foreigner living among you—who sacrifices his child as a burnt offering to Molech shall without fail be stoned by his peers.
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And I myself will turn against that man and cut him off from all his people, because he has given his child to Molech, thus making my Tabernacle
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unfit for me to live in, and insulting my holy name.
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And if the people of the land pretend they do not know what the man has done and refuse to put him to death,
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then I myself will set my face against that man and his family and cut him off, along with all others who turn to other gods than me.
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“I will set my face against anyone who consults mediums and wizards instead of me and I will cut that person off from his people.
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So sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
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You must obey all of my commandments, for I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
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“Anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death—for he has cursed his own flesh and blood.
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“If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and woman shall be put to death.
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If a man sleeps with his father’s wife, he has defiled what is his father’s; both the man and the woman must die, for it is their own fault.
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And if a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both shall be executed: they have brought it upon themselves by defiling each other.
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The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have brought it upon themselves.
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If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and with her mother, it is a great evil. All three shall be burned alive to wipe out wickedness from among you.
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“If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he shall be executed and the animal killed.
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If a woman has sexual intercourse with an animal, kill the woman and the animal, for they deserve their punishment.
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“If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, it is a shameful thing, and they shall publicly be cut off from the people of Israel. He shall bear his guilt.
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If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman during her period of menstruation, both shall be excommunicated, for he has uncovered the source of her flow, and she has permitted it.
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“Sexual intercourse is outlawed between a man and his maiden aunt—whether the sister of his mother or of his father—for they are near of kin; they shall bear their guilt.
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If a man has intercourse with his uncle’s wife, he has taken what belongs to his uncle; their punishment is that they shall bear their sin and die childless.
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If a man marries his brother’s wife,
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this is impurity; for he has taken what belongs to his brother, and they shall be childless.”
When the local Jewish leaders learned of his [Jesus’] arrival, they came to argue with him.
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“Do a miracle for us,” they said. “Make something happen in the sky. Then we will believe in you.”
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He sighed deeply when he heard this and he said,
“Certainly not. How many more miracles do you people need?”
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So he got back into the boat and left them, and crossed to the other side of the lake.
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But the disciples had forgotten to stock up on food before they left and had only one loaf of bread in the boat.
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As they were crossing, Jesus said to them very solemnly,
“Beware of the yeast of King Herod and of the Pharisees.”
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“What does he mean?” the disciples asked each other. They finally decided that he must be talking about their forgetting to bring bread.
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Jesus realized what they were discussing and said,
“No, that isn’t it at all! Can’t you understand? Are your hearts too hard to take it in?
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‘Your eyes are to see with—why don’t you look? Why don’t you open your ears and listen?’ Don’t you remember anything at all?
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“What about the 5,000 men I fed with five loaves of bread? How many basketfuls of scraps did you pick up afterwards?”
“Twelve,” they said.
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“And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how much was left?”
“Seven basketfuls,” they said.
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“And yet you think I’m worried that we have no bread?”
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When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch and heal him.
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Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and spat upon his eyes, and laid his hands over them.
“Can you see anything now?”
Jesus asked him.
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The man looked around. “Yes!” he said, “I see men! But I can’t see them very clearly; they look like tree trunks walking around!”
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Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again and as the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he saw everything clearly, drinking in the sights around him.
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Jesus sent him home to his family.
“Don’t even go back to the village first,”
he said.
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Jesus and his disciples now left Galilee and went out to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along he asked them,
“Who do the people think I am? What are they saying about me?”
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“Some of them think you are John the Baptist,” the disciples replied, “and others say you are Elijah or some other ancient prophet come back to life again.”
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Then he asked,
“Who do you think I am?”
Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”
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But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone!
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Then he began to tell them about the terrible things he would suffer,
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and that he would be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the other Jewish leaders—and be killed, and that he would rise again three days afterwards.
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He talked about it quite frankly with them, so Peter took him aside and chided him.
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“You shouldn’t say things like that,” he told Jesus.
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Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then said to Peter very sternly,
“Satan, get behind me! You are looking at this only from a human point of view and not from God’s.”
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Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen.
“If any of you wants to be my follower,”
he told them,
“you must put aside your own pleasures and shoulder your cross, and follow me closely.
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If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.
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“And how does a man benefit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul in the process?
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For is anything worth more than his soul?
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And anyone who is ashamed of me and my message in these days of unbelief and sin, I, the Messiah,
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will be ashamed of him when I return in the glory of my Father, with the holy angels.”
As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God.
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I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him?
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Day and night I weep for his help, and all the while my enemies taunt me. “Where is this God of yours?” they scoff.
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Take courage, my soul! Do you remember those times (but how could you ever forget them!) when you led a great procession to the Temple on festival days, singing with joy, praising the Lord? Why then be downcast? Why be discouraged and sad? Hope in God! I shall yet praise him again. Yes, I shall again praise him for his help.
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Yet I am standing here depressed and gloomy, but I will meditate upon your kindness to this lovely land where the Jordan River flows and where Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar stand.
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All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract.
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Yet day by day the Lord also pours out his steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing his songs and pray to God who gives me life.
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“O God my Rock,” I cry, “why have you forsaken me? Why must I suffer these attacks from my enemies?”
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Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound; again and again they scoff, “Where is that God of yours?”
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But, O my soul, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise him for all that he will do. He is my help! He is my God!