The Nazirite Vow

¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of ea Nazirite,1 fto separate himself to the Lord, ³he gshall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. ⁴All the days of his separation2 he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.

⁵“All the days of his vow of separation, no hrazor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. iHe shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.

⁶“All the days that he separates himself to the Lord jhe shall not go near a dead body. ⁷kNot even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.

⁹“And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then lhe shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. ¹⁰mOn the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹¹and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day ¹²and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old nfor a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³“And this is the law for the Nazirite, owhen the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹⁴and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish pas a sin offering, and one ram without blemish qas a peace offering, ¹⁵and a basket of unleavened bread, rloaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their sgrain offering and their tdrink offerings. ¹⁶And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer uhis sin offering and his burnt offering, ¹⁷and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸And the Nazirite vshall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. ¹⁹And the priest shall take the wshoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and xshall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, ²⁰and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. yThey are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹“This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”

Aaron's Blessing

²²The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³“Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus zyou shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

²⁴The Lord abless you and bkeep you;

²⁵the Lord cmake his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

²⁶the Lord dlift up his countenance3 upon you and give you peace.

²⁷e“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Psalm 40

My Help and My Deliverer

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹I uwaited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and vheard my cry.

²He drew me up from wthe pit of destruction,

out of xthe miry bog,

and yset my feet upon a rock,

zmaking my steps secure.

³He put aa new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will bsee and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

⁴Blessed is the man who cmakes

the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

to those who dgo astray after a lie!

⁵You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

your ewondrous deeds and your fthoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are gmore than can be told.

⁶hIn sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open iear.1

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

⁷Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written jof me:

⁸kI delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is lwithin my heart.”

⁹I have told the glad news of deliverance2

in mthe great congregation;

behold, I have not nrestrained my lips,

oas you know, O Lord.

¹⁰I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

¹¹As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your psteadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

¹²For evils have qencompassed me

beyond number;

my riniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot ssee;

they are tmore than the hairs of my head;

my heart ufails me.

¹³vBe pleased, O Lord, to wdeliver me!

O Lord, xmake haste to help me!

¹⁴yLet those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who seek to snatch away my life;

let those be zturned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

¹⁵Let those be appalled because of their shame

who asay to me, “Aha, Aha!”

¹⁶But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

bsay continually, “Great is the Lord!”

¹⁷As for me, I am cpoor and needy,

but dthe Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God!

Psalm 41

O Lord, Be Gracious to Me

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹eBlessed is the one who considers the poor!1

fIn the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;

²the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;

he is called blessed in the land;

you gdo not give him up to the will of his enemies.

³The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;

in his illness you restore him to full health.2

⁴As for me, I said, “O Lord, hbe gracious to me;

iheal me,3 for I have sinned against you!”

⁵My enemies say of me in malice,

“When will he die, and his name perish?”

⁶And when one comes to see me, jhe utters empty words,

while his heart gathers iniquity;

when he goes out, he tells it abroad.

⁷All who hate me whisper together about me;

they imagine the worst for me.4

⁸They say, “A deadly thing is poured out5 on him;

he will not rise again from where he lies.”

⁹Even my kclose friend in whom I trusted,

who late my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

¹⁰But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,

and raise me up, that I may repay them!

¹¹By this I know that myou delight in me:

my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.

¹²But nyou have upheld me because of omy integrity,

and pset me in your presence qforever.

¹³rBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!

Amen and Amen.

Solomon Admires His Bride's Beauty

He

¹Behold, myou are beautiful, my love,

behold, you are beautiful!

nYour eyes are doves

obehind your veil.

pYour hair is like a flock of goats

leaping down qthe slopes of Gilead.

²Your rteeth are like a flock of shorn ewes

that have come up from the washing,

all of which bear twins,

and not one among them has lost its young.

³Your lips are like sa scarlet thread,

and your mouth is tlovely.

Your ucheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

obehind your veil.

⁴Your vneck is like the tower of David,

built in wrows of stone;1

on it xhang a thousand shields,

all of ythem shields of warriors.

⁵Your ztwo breasts are like two afawns,

twins of a gazelle,

that bgraze among the lilies.

⁶cUntil the day breathes

and the shadows flee,

I will go away to the mountain of dmyrrh

and the hill of dfrankincense.

⁷eYou are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no fflaw in you.

⁸gCome with me from hLebanon, my ibride;

come with me from hLebanon.

Depart2 from the peak of Amana,

from the peak of jSenir and kHermon,

from the dens of lions,

from the mountains of leopards.

⁹You have captivated my heart, my lsister, my bride;

you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes,

with one mjewel of your necklace.

¹⁰How beautiful is your love, my lsister, my bride!

How much nbetter is your love than wine,

and othe fragrance of your oils than any spice!

¹¹Your plips drip nectar, my bride;

qhoney and milk are under your tongue;

the fragrance of your garments is rlike the fragrance of hLebanon.

¹²A garden locked is my lsister, my bride,

a spring locked, sa fountain tsealed.

¹³Your shoots are uan orchard of pomegranates

with all vchoicest fruits,

whenna with xnard,

¹⁴nard and saffron, ycalamus and ycinnamon,

with all trees of zfrankincense,

amyrrh and baloes,

with all ychoice spices—

¹⁵a garden fountain, a well of cliving water,

and flowing streams from hLebanon.

¹⁶Awake, O north wind,

and come, O south wind!

Blow upon my dgarden,

let its spices flow.

Together in the Garden of Love

She

eLet my beloved come to his fgarden,

and eat its vchoicest fruits.

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem nto have failed to reach it. ²For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because othey were not united by faith with those who listened.1 ³For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

p“As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: q“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵And again in this passage he said,

r“They shall not enter my rest.”

⁶Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news sfailed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

t“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God2 would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰for whoever has entered God's rest has also urested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so vthat no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹²For wthe word of God is living and xactive, ysharper than any ztwo-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and adiscerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And bno creature is hidden from his sight, but all are cnaked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

¹⁴Since then we have da great high priest ewho has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, flet us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest gwho is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been dtempted as we are, hyet without sin. ¹⁶iLet us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.