The Lamps

24 ^(A)The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. ³ Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall arrange it from evening to morning before the Lord regularly. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴ He shall arrange the lamps on the ^(B)lampstand of pure gold^[a] before the Lord regularly.

Bread for the Tabernacle

⁵ “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^(C)loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah^[b] shall be in each loaf. ⁶ And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, ^(D)on the table of pure gold^[c] before the Lord. ⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. ^8 (E)Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. ⁹ And ^(F)it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and ^(G)they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due.”

Punishment for Blasphemy

¹⁰ Now an Israelite woman's son, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the people of Israel. And the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel fought in the camp, ¹¹ and the Israelite woman's son ^(H)blasphemed the ^(I)Name, and cursed. Then they ^(J)brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. ¹² And ^(K)they put him in custody, ^(L)till the will of the Lord should be clear to them.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^14 (M)“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him ^(N)lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall ^(O)bear his sin. ¹⁶ Whoever ^(P)blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

An Eye for an Eye

^17 (Q)“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. ^18 (R)Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. ¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, ^(S)as he has done it shall be done to him, ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. ^21 (T)Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, ^(U)and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. ²² You shall have the ^(V)same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” ²³ So Moses spoke to the people of Israel, and ^(W)they brought out of the camp the one who had cursed and stoned him with stones. Thus the people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Sabbath Year

25 ^(X)The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into ^(Y)the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. ³ For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, ⁴ but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ^5 (Z)You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ⁶ The Sabbath of the land^[d] shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves^[e] and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, ⁷ and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: ^(AA)all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸ “You shall count seven weeks^[f] of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall sound ^(AB)the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. ^(AC)On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^(AD)proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of ^(AE)you shall return to his clan. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it ^(AF)you shall neither sow nor reap ^(AG)what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. ^(AH)You may eat the produce of the field.^[g]

^13 (AI)“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. ¹⁴ And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, ^(AJ)you shall not wrong one another. ^15 (AK)You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. ¹⁶ If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. ^17 (AL)You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

^18 (AM)“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then ^(AN)you will dwell in the land securely. ^19 (AO)The land will yield its fruit, and ^(AP)you will eat your fill ^(AQ)and dwell in it securely. ²⁰ And if you say, ^(AR)‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if ^(AS)we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ ²¹ I will ^(AT)command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ^22 (AU)When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of ^(AV)the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Redemption of Property

²³ “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for ^(AW)the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. ²⁴ And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

²⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, ^(AX)then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷ let ^(AY)him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. ²⁸ But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall ^(AZ)be released, and ^(BA)he shall return to his property.

²⁹ “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; ^(BB)it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹ But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and ^(BC)they shall be released in the jubilee. ³² As for ^(BD)the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. ³³ And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. ³⁴ But the fields ^(BE)of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

Kindness for Poor Brothers

³⁵ “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, ^(BF)you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. ^36 (BG)Take no interest from him or profit, but ^(BH)fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. ^37 (BI)You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. ^38 (BJ)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

^39 (BK)“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰ he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. ^41 (BL)Then he shall go out from you, ^(BM)he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^(BN)to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are ^(BO)my servants,^[h] whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ^43 (BP)You shall not rule over him ^(BQ)ruthlessly but ^(BR)shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. ^45 (BS)You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶ You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ^(BT)you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

⁴⁷ “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ^(BU)your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, ⁴⁸ then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may ^(BV)redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ^(BW)grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be ^(BX)rated as the time of a hired worker. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵² If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. ⁵³ He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ^(BY)He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ^(BZ)he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵ For it is ^(CA)to me that the people of Israel are servants.^[i] They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

23 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, ^(A)I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” ² And the high priest ^(B)Ananias commanded those who stood by him ^(C)to strike him on the mouth. ³ Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you ^(D)whitewashed ^(E)wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet ^(F)contrary to the law you ^(G)order me to be struck?” ⁴ Those who stood by said, “Would you revile ^(H)God's high priest?” ⁵ And Paul said, ^(I)“I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ^(J)‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

⁶ Now when Paul perceived that one part were ^(K)Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, ^(L)I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is ^(M)with respect to the ^(N)hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” ⁷ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees ^(O)say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and some of ^(P)the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, ^(Q)“We find nothing wrong in this man. What ^(R)if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” ¹⁰ And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into ^(S)the barracks.

^11 (T)The following night ^(U)the Lord stood by him and said, ^(V)“Take courage, for ^(W)as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must ^(X)testify also in Rome.”

A Plot to Kill Paul

¹² When it was day, ^(Y)the Jews made a plot and ^(Z)bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”

¹⁶ Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered ^(AA)the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul ^(AB)the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” ¹⁹ The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” ²⁰ And he said, ^(AC)“The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. ²¹ But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who ^(AD)have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” ²² So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”

Paul Sent to Felix the Governor

²³ Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.^{[a] 24} Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to ^(AE)Felix ^(AF)the governor.” ²⁵ And he wrote a letter to this effect:

²⁶ “Claudius Lysias, to ^(AG)his Excellency the governor Felix, ^(AH)greetings. ^27 (AI)This man was seized by the Jews and ^(AJ)was about to be killed by them ^(AK)when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, ^(AL)having learned that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸ And ^(AM)desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. ²⁹ I found that he was being accused ^(AN)about questions of their law, but ^(AO)charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. ^30 (AP)And when it was disclosed to me ^(AQ)that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ^(AR)ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”

³¹ So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. ³² And on the next day they returned to ^(AS)the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. ³³ When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. ³⁴ On reading the letter, he asked what ^(AT)province he was from. And when he learned ^(AU)that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, “I will give you a hearing ^(AV)when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's ^(AW)praetorium.