Various Laws

¹“You sshall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. ²And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. ³And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. ⁴tYou shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, ufor whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.

⁶“If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, vyou shall not take the mother with the young. ⁷You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, wthat it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

⁹x“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited,1 the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard. ¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. ¹¹You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

¹²y“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

¹³“If any man takes a wife and zgoes in to her and then hates her ¹⁴and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; ¹⁷and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip2 him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels3 of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin4 of Israel. And she shall be his wife. aHe may not divorce her all his days. ²⁰But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and bthe men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has cdone an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. dSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²²e“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. dSo you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“If there is a fbetrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. dSo you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, ²⁷because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸g“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

³⁰5 h“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not iuncover his father's nakedness.6

Psalm 110

Sit at My Right Hand

A Psalm of David.

¹qThe Lord says to my Lord:

r“Sit at my right hand,

suntil I make your enemies your tfootstool.”

²The Lord sends forth ufrom Zion

vyour mighty scepter.

wRule in the midst of your enemies!

³xYour people will yoffer themselves freely

on the day of your zpower,1

in aholy garments;2

from the womb of the morning,

the dew of your youth will be yours.3

⁴bThe Lord has csworn

and will dnot change his mind,

e“You are fa priest gforever

after the order of hMelchizedek.”

⁵The Lord is at your iright hand;

he will jshatter kings on kthe day of his wrath.

⁶He will lexecute judgment among the nations,

mfilling them with corpses;

he will nshatter chiefs4

over the wide earth.

⁷He will odrink from the brook by the way;

therefore he will lift up his head.

Psalm 111

Great Are the Lord's Works

¹1 pPraise the Lord!

I qwill give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the company of rthe upright, in the congregation.

²Great are the sworks of the Lord,

tstudied by all who delight in them.

³uFull of splendor and majesty is his work,

and his vrighteousness endures forever.

⁴He has wcaused his wondrous works to be remembered;

the Lord is gracious and merciful.

⁵He provides food for those who fear him;

he xremembers his covenant forever.

⁶He has shown his people the power of his works,

in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

⁷The works of his hands are faithful and just;

all his precepts are ytrustworthy;

⁸they are zestablished forever and ever,

to be performed with afaithfulness and uprightness.

⁹He sent bredemption to his people;

he has ccommanded his covenant forever.

dHoly and awesome is his name!

¹⁰eThe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

all those who practice it have fa good understanding.

His gpraise endures forever!

The Servant of the Lord

¹Listen to me, kO coastlands,

and give attention, you peoples lfrom afar.

mThe Lord called me from the womb,

from the body of my mother he named my name.

²nHe made my mouth like a sharp sword;

oin the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away.

³And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, pin whom I will be glorified.”1

⁴qBut I said, “I have labored in vain;

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my right is with the Lord,

and my recompense with my God.”

⁵rAnd now the Lord says,

he mwho formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him;

and that Israel might be gathered to him—

for sI am honored in the eyes of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—

⁶he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

tI will make you uas a light for the nations,

that vmy salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷Thus says the Lord,

wthe Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

xto one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,

the servant of rulers:

y“Kings shall see and arise;

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

The Restoration of Israel

⁸Thus says the Lord:

z“In a atime of favor I have answered you;

in a day of salvation I have helped you;

I will keep you band give you

as a covenant to the people,

to establish the land,

cto apportion the desolate heritages,

⁹dsaying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’

eThey shall feed along the ways;

on all bare heights shall be their pasture;

¹⁰fthey shall not hunger or thirst,

neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,

for he who has pity on them gwill lead them,

and by springs of water will guide them.

¹¹hAnd I will make all my mountains a road,

and my highways shall be raised up.

¹²iBehold, these shall come from afar,

and behold, jthese from the north and from the west,2

and these from the land of Syene.”3

¹³kSing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the Lord lhas comforted his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, m“The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵n“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.

¹⁶Behold, oI have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

¹⁷Your builders make haste;4

pyour destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

¹⁸qLift up your eyes around and see;

they all gather, they come to you.

rAs I live, declares the Lord,

syou shall put them all on as an ornament;

you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹“Surely your waste and your desolate places

and your devastated land—

tsurely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

²⁰uThe children of your bereavement

will yet say in your ears:

t‘The place is too narrow for me;

make room for me to dwell in.’

²¹Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

uI was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

from where have these come?’”

²²Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

vand raise my signal to the peoples;

wand they shall bring your sons in their arms,5

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

²³xKings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

yWith their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,

and zlick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;

athose who wait for me bshall not be put to shame.”

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty,

or the captives of a tyrant6 be rescued?

²⁵For thus says the Lord:

c“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,

and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,

for I will contend with those who contend with you,

and I will save your children.

²⁶dI will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk ewith their own blood as with wine.

Then all flesh shall know

that fI am the Lord your Savior,

and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Rejoicing in Heaven

¹After this I heard nwhat seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

oSalvation and glory and power belong to our God,

²for phis judgments are true and just;

for he has judged qthe great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality,

and rhas avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

³Once more they cried out,

“Hallelujah!

sThe smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”

⁴And tthe twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” ⁵And from the throne came a voice saying,

u“Praise our God,

all you his servants,

vyou who fear him,

small and great.”

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb

⁶Then I heard what seemed to be wthe voice of a great multitude, like xthe roar of many waters and ylike the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God

the Almighty zreigns.

⁷Let us rejoice and exult

and give him the glory,

for athe marriage of the Lamb has come,

and bhis Bride has made herself ready;

⁸cit was granted her to clothe herself

with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is dthe righteous deeds of the saints.

⁹And the angel said1 to me, “Write this: eBlessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, f“These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰Then gI fell down at his feet to worship him, hbut he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to ithe testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The Rider on a White Horse

¹¹Then I saw jheaven opened, and behold, ka white horse! The one sitting on it is called lFaithful and True, and min righteousness he judges and makes war. ¹²nHis eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are omany diadems, and he has pa name written that no one knows but himself. ¹³He is clothed in qa robe dipped in2 blood, and the name by which he is called is rThe Word of God. ¹⁴And the armies of heaven, sarrayed in fine linen, white and pure, twere following him on white horses. ¹⁵uFrom his mouth comes a sharp sword vwith which to strike down the nations, and whe will rule3 them with a rod of iron. xHe will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh yhe has a name written, zKing of kings and Lord of lords.

¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to aall the birds that fly directly overhead, b“Come, gather for cthe great supper of God, ¹⁸dto eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,4 both small and great.” ¹⁹And I saw ethe beast and the kings of the earth with their armies fgathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. ²⁰And the beast was captured, and with it gthe false prophet hwho in its presence5 had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who iworshiped its image. These two were jthrown alive into the lake of kfire that burns with sulfur. ²¹And the rest were slain by the sword lthat came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and mall the birds were gorged with their flesh.