The Altar of Incense

¹j“You shall make kan altar on which to burn incense; you shall make it of acacia wood. ²A cubit1 shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth. It shall be square, and two cubits shall be its height. lIts horns shall be of one piece with it. ³You shall moverlay it with pure gold, its top and around its sides and its horns. And you shall make a molding of gold around it. ⁴And you shall make two golden rings for it. Under its molding on two opposite sides of it you shall make them, and they shall be nholders for poles with which to carry it. ⁵You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ⁶And you shall put it in front of the veil that is above the ark of the testimony, in front of the omercy seat that is above the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁷And Aaron shall pburn fragrant incense on it. Every morning when he qdresses the lamps he shall burn it, ⁸and when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a regular incense offering before the Lord throughout your generations. ⁹You shall not offer runauthorized incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, and you shall not pour a drink offering on it. ¹⁰sAaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the tsin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”

The Census Tax

¹¹The Lord said to Moses, ¹²u“When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give va ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. ¹³Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel2 according to the wshekel of the sanctuary (the xshekel is twenty gerahs),3 yhalf a shekel as an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. ¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than ythe half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives. ¹⁶You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall zgive it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to aremembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”

The Bronze Basin

¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸“You shall also make a bbasin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. bYou shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, ¹⁹with which Aaron and his sons cshall wash their hands and their feet. ²⁰When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering4 to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. ²¹They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall dbe a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

The Anointing Oil and Incense

²²The Lord said to Moses, ²³“Take the efinest spices: of liquid myrrh 500 shekels, and of sweet-smelling cinnamon half as much, that is, 250, and 250 of faromatic cane, ²⁴and 500 of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a ghin5 of olive oil. ²⁵And you shall make of these a sacred anointing oil blended as by the hperfumer; it shall be a iholy anointing oil. ²⁶jWith it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony, ²⁷and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, ²⁸and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the kbasin and its stand. ²⁹You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. lWhatever touches them will become holy. ³⁰mYou shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. ³¹And you shall say to the people of Israel, ‘This shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. ³²It shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person, and you shall make no other like it in composition. nIt is holy, and it shall be holy to you. ³³oWhoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”

³⁴The Lord said to Moses, p“Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part), ³⁵and make an qincense blended as by the rperfumer, sseasoned with salt, pure and holy. ³⁶You shall beat some of it very small, and put part of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting twhere I shall meet with you. uIt shall be most holy for you. ³⁷And the incense that you shall make vaccording to its composition, you shall not make for yourselves. It shall be for you holy to the Lord. ³⁸wWhoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.”

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ²And his disciples asked him, c“Rabbi, dwho sinned, ethis man or fhis parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴We must hwork the works of him who sent me iwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, jI am the light of the world.” ⁶Having said these things, khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. lThen he anointed the man's eyes with the mud ⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in mthe pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ncame back seeing.

⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, o“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹He answered, p“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹²They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not sfrom God, tfor he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, u“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And vthere was a division among them. ¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, w“He is a prophet.”

¹⁸xThe Jews1 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²²(His parents said these things ybecause they feared the Jews, for zthe Jews had already agreed that if anyone should aconfess Jesus2 to be Christ, bhe was to be put out of the synagogue.) ²³Therefore his parents said, c“He is of age; ask him.”

²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, d“Give glory to God. We know that ethis man is a sinner.” ²⁵He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I fwas blind, now I see.” ²⁶They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, g“I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but hwe are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, iwe do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰The man answered, “Why, this is jan amazing thing! kYou do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that lGod does not listen to sinners, but mif anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³nIf this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered him, o“You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they pcast him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in qthe Son of Man?”3 ³⁶He answered, r“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and sit is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹Jesus said, t“For judgment I came into this world, uthat those who do not see may see, and vthose who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, w“Are we also blind?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, xyou would have no guilt;4 but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Practical Warnings

¹My son, if you have put up esecurity for your neighbor,

have egiven your pledge for a stranger,

²if you are fsnared in the words of your mouth,

caught in the words of your mouth,

³then do this, my son, and save yourself,

for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:

go, hasten,1 and gplead urgently with your neighbor.

⁴hGive your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,2

ilike a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶jGo to kthe ant, O lsluggard;

consider her ways, and mbe wise.

⁷nWithout having any chief,

oofficer, or ruler,

⁸she prepares her bread pin summer

and qgathers her food in harvest.

⁹rHow long will you lie there, lO sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰sA little sleep, a little slumber,

ta little sfolding of the hands to rest,

¹¹uand poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.

¹²vA worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with wcrooked speech,

¹³xwinks with his eyes, signals3 with his feet,

points with his finger,

¹⁴with yperverted heart zdevises evil,

continually asowing discord;

¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;

bin a moment he will be broken cbeyond healing.

¹⁶There are dsix things that the Lord hates,

dseven that are an abomination to him:

¹⁷ehaughty eyes, fa lying tongue,

and ghands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸ha heart that devises wicked plans,

ifeet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹ja false witness who kbreathes out lies,

and one who asows discord among brothers.

Warnings Against Adultery

²⁰lMy son, keep your father's commandment,

land forsake not your mother's teaching.

²¹mBind them on your heart always;

ntie them around your neck.

²²oWhen you walk, they4 will lead you;

owhen you lie down, they will pwatch over you;

and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is qa lamp and the teaching a light,

and the rreproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,5

from the smooth tongue of sthe adulteress.6

²⁵tDo not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her ueyelashes;

²⁶for vthe price of a prostitute is only wa loaf of bread,7

but a married woman8 xhunts down a precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry yfire next to his zchest

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one awalk on hot coals

and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife;

none who touches her bwill go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals

to csatisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

³¹but dif he is caught, he will pay esevenfold;

he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery lacks sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For fjealousy makes a man furious,

and he will not spare when ghe takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation;

he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

Christ Has Set Us Free

¹For sfreedom Christ has tset us free; ustand firm therefore, and do not submit again to va yoke of wslavery.

²Look: I, Paul, say to you that xif you accept circumcision, yChrist will be of no advantage to you. ³I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that zhe is obligated to keep the whole law. ⁴You are asevered from Christ, byou who would be justified1 by the law; cyou have fallen away from grace. ⁵For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly dwait for the hope of righteousness. ⁶For in Christ Jesus eneither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but fonly faith working through love.

⁷gYou were running well. Who hindered you from obeying hthe truth? ⁸This persuasion is not from ihim who calls you. ⁹jA little leaven leavens the whole lump. ¹⁰kI have confidence in the Lord that you will ltake no other view, and mthe one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. ¹¹But if I, brothers,2 still preach3 circumcision, nwhy am I still being persecuted? In that case othe offense of the cross has been removed. ¹²I wish pthose who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. qOnly do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love rserve one another. ¹⁴For sthe whole law is fulfilled in one word: t“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But if you ubite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Keep in Step with the Spirit

¹⁶But I say, vwalk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify wthe desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For xthe desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, yto keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸But if you are zled by the Spirit, ayou are not under the law. ¹⁹Now bthe works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, cdivisions, ²¹envy,4 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that dthose who do5 such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But ethe fruit of the Spirit is flove, joy, peace, patience, gkindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³hgentleness, iself-control; jagainst such things there is no law. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus khave crucified the flesh with its lpassions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, mlet us also keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶nLet us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.