Laws for Purification

¹Now the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, ²“This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, mand on which a yoke has never come. ³And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and nit shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him. ⁴And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and osprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. pIts skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take qcedarwood and hyssop and scarlet yarn, and throw them into the fire burning the heifer. ⁷Then the priest rshall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸sThe one who burns the heifer rshall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹And a man who is clean shall gather up tthe ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a uclean place. And they shall be kept for the water for vimpurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer rshall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

¹¹w“Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. ¹²He xshall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. ¹³Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, ydefiles the tabernacle of the Lord, zand that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁵And every aopen vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. ¹⁶bWhoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a cgrave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷For the unclean they shall take dsome ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh1 water shall be added in a vessel. ¹⁸Then a clean person shall take ehyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. ¹⁹And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean fon the third day and on the seventh day. gThus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall hwash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.

²⁰“If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, ithat person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean. ²¹And it shall be a statute forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ²²And jwhatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

Psalm 56

In God I Trust

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A pMiktam1 of David, when the qPhilistines seized him in Gath.

¹rBe gracious to me, O God, for man stramples on me;

all day long an attacker oppresses me;

²my enemies trample on me all day long,

for many attack me proudly.

³When I am afraid,

I tput my trust in you.

⁴In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; uI shall not be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

⁵All day long they injure my cause;2

all their thoughts are against me for evil.

⁶They vstir up strife, they wlurk;

they xwatch my steps,

as they have waited for my life.

⁷For their crime will they escape?

yIn wrath zcast down the peoples, O God!

⁸You have kept count of my tossings;3

aput my tears in your bottle.

bAre they not in your book?

⁹Then my enemies will turn back

cin the day when I call.

This I know, that4 dGod is for me.

¹⁰In God, whose word I praise,

in the Lord, whose word I praise,

¹¹in God I trust; uI shall not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

¹²I must perform my evows to you, O God;

I will erender thank offerings to you.

¹³fFor you have delivered my soul from death,

yes, my feet from falling,

gthat I may walk before God

hin the light of life.

Psalm 57

Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth

To the choirmaster: according to iDo Not Destroy. A jMiktam1 of David, when he fled from Saul, in kthe cave.

¹lBe merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,

for in you my soul mtakes refuge;

in nthe shadow of your wings I will take refuge,

otill the storms of destruction pass by.

²I cry out to God Most High,

to God who pfulfills his purpose for me.

³qHe will send from heaven and save me;

he will put to shame rhim who tramples on me. Selah

sGod will send out this steadfast love and his faithfulness!

⁴My soul is in the midst of ulions;

I lie down amid fiery beasts—

the children of man, whose vteeth are spears and arrows,

whose wtongues are sharp swords.

⁵xBe exalted, O God, above the heavens!

Let your glory be over all the earth!

⁶They set ya net for my steps;

my soul was zbowed down.

They adug a pit in my way,

but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah

⁷bMy heart is csteadfast, O God,

my heart is steadfast!

I will sing and make melody!

⁸dAwake, emy glory!2

Awake, fO harp and lyre!

I will awake the dawn!

⁹I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;

I will sing praises to you among the nations.

¹⁰For your gsteadfast love is great to the heavens,

your faithfulness to the clouds.

¹¹xBe exalted, O God, above the heavens!

Let your glory be over all the earth!

Isaiah 8

The Coming Assyrian Invasion

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet wand write on it in common characters,1 ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’2 ²And xI will get reliable witnesses, yUriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

³And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, z“Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴afor before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the awealth of bDamascus and the spoil of bSamaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

⁵The Lord spoke to me again: ⁶“Because this people has refused the waters of cShiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over dRezin and the son of Remaliah, ⁷therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them ethe waters of fthe River,3 mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it gwill rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, ⁸and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, hreaching even to the neck, and its ioutspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, jO Immanuel.”

⁹Be broken,4 you peoples, and kbe shattered;5

give ear, all you far countries;

strap on your armor and be shattered;

strap on your armor and be shattered.

¹⁰Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;

speak a word, lbut it will not stand,

for God mis with us.6

Fear God, Wait for the Lord

¹¹For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and nwarned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹²“Do not call oconspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and pdo not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³But the Lord of hosts, qhim you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. ¹⁴And he will become a rsanctuary and sa stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many tshall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

¹⁶Bind up uthe testimony; vseal the teaching7 among my disciples. ¹⁷I will wwait for the Lord, who is xhiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ¹⁸yBehold, I and zthe children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹And when they say to you, “Inquire of the amediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of bthe dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰cTo the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no ddawn. ²¹They will pass through the land,8 greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against9 their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ²²eAnd they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into fthick darkness.

Isaiah 9:1–7

For to Us a Child Is Born

¹1 But there will be no ggloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he hbrought into contempt the land of iZebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he jhas made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.2

²3 iThe people kwho walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of ldeep darkness,

on them has light shone.

³mYou have multiplied the nation;

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with njoy at the harvest,

as they oare glad pwhen they divide the spoil.

⁴qFor the yoke of his burden,

rand the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as son the day of Midian.

⁵tFor every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶uFor to us a child is born,

to us va son is given;

wand the government shall be xupon4 his shoulder,

and his name shall be called5

Wonderful yCounselor, zMighty God,

aEverlasting bFather, Prince of cPeace.

⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace

dthere will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

ewith justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

fThe zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The Sin of Partiality

¹My brothers,1 wshow no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, xthe Lord of glory. ²For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” ywhile you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” ⁴have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become zjudges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers, ahas not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be brich in faith and heirs of cthe kingdom, dwhich he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you ehave dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who fdrag you ginto court? ⁷Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable hname by which you were called?

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, i“You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹But if you jshow partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point khas become guilty of all of it. ¹¹For he who said, l“Do not commit adultery,” also said, l“Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under mthe law of liberty. ¹³For njudgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith obut does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵pIf a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶qand one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good2 is that? ¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith rapart from your works, and I will show you my faith sby my works. ¹⁹tYou believe that God is one; you do well. Even uthe demons believe—and shudder! ²⁰Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? ²¹vWas not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that wfaith was active along with his works, and faith was completed xby his works; ²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, y“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a zfriend of God. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵And in the same way was not also aRahab the prostitute justified by works bwhen she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? ²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.