Consecration of the Firstborn

¹The Lord said to Moses, ²o“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

³Then Moses said to the people, p“Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, qfor by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. rNo leavened bread shall be eaten. ⁴Today, in the month of sAbib, you are going out. ⁵And when the Lord brings you into tthe land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which uhe swore to your fathers to give you, a land vflowing with milk and honey, wyou shall keep this service in this month. ⁶xSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. ⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. ⁸yYou shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹And it shall zbe to you as a sign on your hand and as aa memorial zbetween your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. ¹⁰bYou shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.

¹¹“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, cas he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, ¹²dyou shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. ¹³eEvery firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every ffirstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. ¹⁴gAnd when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, h‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of islavery. ¹⁵For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the jLord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but kall the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ¹⁶lIt shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for mby a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”

Pillars of Cloud and Fire

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did nnot lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people ochange their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸But God pled the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. ¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph1 had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, q“God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” ²⁰And rthey moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. ²¹And sthe Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. ²²The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

¹He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had ja manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your kmanagement, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures1 of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures2 of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his lshrewdness. For mthe sons of this world3 are lmore shrewd in dealing with their own generation than nthe sons of light. ⁹And I tell you, omake friends for yourselves by means of punrighteous wealth,4 so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰q“One who is rfaithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful in sthat which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³pNo servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The Law and the Kingdom of God

¹⁴tThe Pharisees, who were ulovers of money, heard all these things, and they vridiculed him. ¹⁵And he said to them, “You are those who wjustify yourselves before men, but xGod knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men yis an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶z“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then athe good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and beveryone forces his way into it.5 ¹⁷But cit is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

Divorce and Remarriage

¹⁸d“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹“There was a rich man who was clothed in epurple and fine linen and fwho feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰And at his gate gwas laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who desired to be fed with hwhat fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²²The poor man died and was carried by ithe angels jto Abraham's side.6 The rich man also died and was buried, ²³and in kHades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and lsaw Abraham far off and Lazarus jat his side. ²⁴And he called out, m‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and ncool my tongue, for oI am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that pyou in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹But Abraham said, ‘They have qMoses and the Prophets; rlet them hear them.’ ³⁰And he said, ‘No, sfather Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹He said to him, ‘If they do not hear qMoses and the Prophets, tneither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Job's Final Appeal

¹“I have made a covenant with my beyes;

how then could I gaze at a virgin?

²What would be cmy portion from God above

and cmy heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is not calamity for the unrighteous,

and disaster for the workers of iniquity?

⁴dDoes not he see my ways

and enumber all my steps?

⁵“If I have walked with falsehood

and my foot has hastened to deceit;

⁶(Let me be fweighed in a just balance,

and let God know my integrity!)

⁷if my step has turned aside from the way

and gmy heart has gone after my eyes,

and if any hspot has stuck to my hands,

⁸then let me isow, and another eat,

and let what grows for me1 be rooted out.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,

and I have jlain in wait at my neighbor's door,

¹⁰then let my wife kgrind for another,

and let others lbow down on her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime;

that would be an iniquity mto be punished by the judges;

¹²for that would be a fire nthat consumes as far as Abaddon,

and it would burn to the root all my increase.

¹³“If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,

when they brought a complaint against me,

¹⁴what then shall I do when God rises up?

When he omakes inquiry, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵Did pnot he who made me in the womb make him?

And did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶“If I have qwithheld anything that the poor desired,

or have rcaused the eyes of the widow to fail,

¹⁷or have eaten my morsel alone,

and the fatherless has not eaten of it

¹⁸(for from my youth the fatherless2 grew up with me as with a father,

and from my mother's womb I guided the widow3),

¹⁹if I have seen anyone sperish for tlack of clothing,

or the needy without tcovering,

²⁰if his body has not ublessed me,4

and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,

²¹if I have raised my hand against vthe fatherless,

because I saw my help in wthe gate,

²²then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,

and let my arm be broken from its socket.

²³For I was xin terror of calamity from God,

and I could not have faced his xmajesty.

²⁴y“If I have made gold my ztrust

or called afine gold my confidence,

²⁵if I have brejoiced because my wealth was abundant

or because cmy hand had found much,

²⁶dif I have looked at the sun5 when it shone,

or ethe moon moving in splendor,

²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed,

and my mouth has kissed my hand,

²⁸this also would be fan iniquity to be punished by the judges,

for I would have been false to God above.

²⁹“If I have grejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,

or exulted when evil overtook him

³⁰(hI have not let my mouth sin

by asking for his life with a curse),

³¹if the men of my tent have not said,

‘Who is there that has not been filled with his imeat?’

³²(jthe sojourner has not lodged in the street;

I have opened my doors to the traveler),

³³if I khave concealed my transgressions las others do6

by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴because I stood in great fear of mthe multitude,

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—

³⁵Oh, that I had one to hear me!

(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty nanswer me!)

Oh, that I had othe indictment written by my adversary!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my pshoulder;

I would qbind it on me as ra crown;

³⁷I would give him an account of all my steps;

like a prince I would approach him.

³⁸“If my land has cried out against me

and its furrows have wept together,

³⁹sif I have eaten its yield without payment

and made its owners tbreathe their last,

⁴⁰let uthorns grow instead of wheat,

and foul weeds instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.

Greeting

¹Paul, aan apostle of Christ Jesus bby the will of God, and cTimothy our brother,

To the church of God that is at Corinth, dwith all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

²eGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God of All Comfort

³fBlessed be the gGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and hGod of all comfort, ⁴iwho comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For as we share abundantly in jChrist's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.1 ⁶kIf we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you lshare in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,2 of mthe affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us nrely not on ourselves obut on God pwho raises the dead. ¹⁰qHe delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. rOn him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹sYou also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf tfor the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Paul's Change of Plans

¹²For our boast is this, uthe testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity3 and vgodly sincerity, wnot by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. ¹³For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— ¹⁴just as you did xpartially understand us—that yon the day of our Lord Jesus zyou will boast of us as awe will boast of you.

¹⁵Because I was sure of this, bI wanted to come to you first, so that you might have ca second dexperience of grace. ¹⁶I wanted to visit you eon my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. ¹⁷Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans faccording to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? ¹⁸As surely as gGod is faithful, hour word to you has not been Yes and No. ¹⁹For ithe Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, jSilvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but kin him it is always Yes. ²⁰For lall the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our mAmen to God for his glory. ²¹And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and nhas anointed us, ²²and who has also oput his seal on us and pgiven us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.4

²³But qI call God to witness against me—it was rto spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. ²⁴Not that we slord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm tin your faith.