Laws for Sin Offerings

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the people of Israel, saying, uIf anyone sins unintentionally1 in any of the Lord's commandments vabout things not to be done, and does any one of them, ³if it is the anointed priest who wsins, thus bringing guilt on the people, then he shall offer for the sin that he has committed xa bull from the herd without blemish to the Lord for a sin offering. ⁴He shall bring the bull to the yentrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. ⁵And the anointed priest zshall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting, ⁶and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and zsprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. ⁷And the priest ashall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting, and ball the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁸And all the fat of the bull of the sin offering he shall remove from it, cthe fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails ⁹dand the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys ¹⁰(just as these are taken from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offerings); and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. ¹¹But ethe skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung— ¹²all the rest of the bull—he shall carry foutside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall gburn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up.

¹³h“If the whole congregation of Israel sins unintentionally2 and ithe thing is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they do any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt,3 ¹⁴jwhen the sin which they have committed becomes known, the assembly shall offer a bull from the herd for a sin offering and bring it in front of the tent of meeting. ¹⁵And the elders of the congregation kshall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. ¹⁶Then lthe anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting, ¹⁷and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. ¹⁸And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹⁹And all its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar. ²⁰Thus shall he do with the bull. As he did mwith the bull of the sin offering, so shall he do with this. nAnd the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. ²¹And he shall carry the bull foutside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.

²²“When a leader sins, odoing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, ²³or pthe sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, ²⁴and qshall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering. ²⁵rThen the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. ²⁶And all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like sthe fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So tthe priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.

²⁷“If uanyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, ²⁸vor the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. ²⁹wAnd he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. ³⁰And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. ³¹And xall its fat he shall remove, yas the fat is removed from the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a zpleasing aroma to the Lord. aAnd the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.

³²“If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring ba female without blemish ³³wand lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. ³⁴Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. ³⁵And all its fat he shall remove cas the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on top of the Lord's food offerings. dAnd the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.

Psalm 1

Book One

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

¹Blessed is the man1

who awalks not in bthe counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in cthe way of sinners,

nor dsits in ethe seat of fscoffers;

²but his gdelight is in the law2 of the Lord,

and on his hlaw he meditates day and night.

³He is like ia tree

planted by jstreams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its kleaf does not wither.

lIn all that he does, he prospers.

⁴The wicked are not so,

but are like mchaff that the wind drives away.

⁵Therefore the wicked nwill not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in othe congregation of the righteous;

⁶for the Lord pknows qthe way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 2

The Reign of the Lord's Anointed

¹rWhy do sthe nations rage1

and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his tAnointed, saying,

³“Let us uburst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

⁴He who vsits in the heavens wlaughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

⁵Then he will speak to them in his xwrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

⁶“As for me, I have yset my King

on zZion, my aholy hill.”

⁷I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, b“You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

⁸Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and cthe ends of the earth your possession.

⁹You shall dbreak2 them with ea rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like fa potter's vessel.”

¹⁰Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

¹¹gServe the Lord with hfear,

and irejoice with htrembling.

¹²jKiss kthe Son,

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

for his lwrath is quickly kindled.

mBlessed are all who take refuge in him.

¹aBetter is a poor person who bwalks in his integrity

than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

²Desire1 without knowledge is not good,

and whoever cmakes haste with his feet misses his way.

³When a man's folly dbrings his way to ruin,

his heart erages against the Lord.

⁴fWealth brings many new friends,

fbut a poor man is deserted by his friend.

⁵gA false witness will not go unpunished,

and he who hbreathes out lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek the favor of a generous man,2

and everyone is a friend to a man who gives igifts.

⁷jAll a poor man's brothers hate him;

khow much more do his friends go far from him!

He pursues them with words, but does not have them.3

⁸lWhoever gets sense loves his own soul;

he who keeps understanding will mdiscover good.

⁹gA false witness will not go unpunished,

and he who hbreathes out lies will perish.

¹⁰nIt is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,

much less for oa slave to rule over princes.

¹¹pGood sense makes one slow to anger,

and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²A king's wrath is like qthe growling of a lion,

but his rfavor is like sdew on the grass.

¹³tA foolish son is ruin to his father,

and ua wife's quarreling is va continual dripping of rain.

¹⁴wHouse and wealth are inherited from fathers,

but a prudent wife is xfrom the Lord.

¹⁵ySlothfulness casts into za deep sleep,

and aan idle person will suffer hunger.

¹⁶Whoever bkeeps the commandment keeps his life;

he who despises his ways will die.

¹⁷cWhoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,

and he dwill repay him for his edeed.

¹⁸fDiscipline your son, for there is hope;

do not set your heart on gputting him to death.

¹⁹A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,

for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to advice and accept instruction,

that you may gain wisdom in hthe future.

²¹iMany are the plans in the mind of a man,

but jit is the purpose of the Lord kthat will stand.

²²What is desired in a man is steadfast love,

and a poor man is better than a liar.

²³The fear of the Lord lleads to life,

and whoever has it rests msatisfied;

he will nnot be visited by harm.

²⁴oThe sluggard buries his hand in pthe dish

and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

²⁵qStrike ra scoffer, and the simple will slearn prudence;

treprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

²⁶He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother

is ua son who brings shame and reproach.

²⁷Cease to hear instruction, my son,

vand you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks at justice,

and the mouth of the wicked wdevours iniquity.

²⁹Condemnation is ready for rscoffers,

and xbeating for the backs of fools.

¹For I want you to know yhow great a wstruggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, ²that ztheir hearts may be encouraged, being aknit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of bGod's mystery, which is Christ, ³cin whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴I say this in order dthat no one may delude you with plausible arguments. ⁵For ethough I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your fgood order and gthe firmness of your faith in Christ.

Alive in Christ

⁶hTherefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷irooted and jbuilt up in him and kestablished in the faith, just las you were taught, abounding min thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by nphilosophy and oempty deceit, according to phuman tradition, according to the qelemental spirits1 of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹For rin him the whole fullness of deity dwells sbodily, ¹⁰and tyou have been filled in him, who is uthe head of all rule and authority. ¹¹In him also vyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by wputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹²xhaving been buried with him in baptism, in which yyou were also raised with him through faith in zthe powerful working of God, zwho raised him from the dead. ¹³aAnd you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God bmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by ccanceling dthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵wHe disarmed the rulers and authorities2 and eput them to open shame, by ftriumphing over them in him.3

Let No One Disqualify You

¹⁶Therefore let no one gpass judgment on you hin questions of food and drink, or with regard to ia festival or ja new moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷kThese are a shadow of the things to come, but lthe substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸Let no one mdisqualify you, ninsisting on asceticism and worship of angels, ogoing on in detail about visions,4 ppuffed up without reason by qhis sensuous mind, ¹⁹and rnot sholding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ tyou died to the uelemental spirits of the world, vwhy, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹w“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²²(xreferring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to yhuman precepts and teachings? ²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in zpromoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are aof no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.