The Birth of Moses

¹Now a tman from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. ²The woman conceived and bore a son, and uwhen she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. ³When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes1 and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the vreeds by the river bank. ⁴And whis sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. ⁵Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews' children.” ⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” ⁸And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child's mother. ⁹And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became xher son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I ydrew him out of the water.”2

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹One day, zwhen Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their aburdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.3 ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he bstruck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³When che went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” ¹⁴He answered, d“Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” ¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But eMoses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by fa well.

¹⁶Now the gpriest of Midian had seven daughters, and hthey came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. ¹⁷The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and iwatered their flock. ¹⁸When they came home to their father jReuel, he said, “How is it that you have come home so soon today?” ¹⁹They said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds and even drew water for us and iwatered the flock.” ²⁰He said to his daughters, “Then where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may keat bread.” ²¹And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter lZipporah. ²²She gave birth to a son, and he called his name mGershom, for he said, “I have been a nsojourner4 in a foreign land.”

God Hears Israel's Groaning

²³oDuring those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel pgroaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. qTheir cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. ²⁴And rGod heard their groaning, and God sremembered his covenant with tAbraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. ²⁵God usaw the people of Israel—and God vknew.

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

¹On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by uthe lake of Gennesaret, ²vand he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were wwashing their nets. ³Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And xhe sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, y“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵And Simon answered, “Master, zwe toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶And when they had done this, athey enclosed a large number of fish, and atheir nets were breaking. ⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. bAnd they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, c“Depart from me, for dI am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”1 ¹¹And when they had brought their boats to land, ethey left everything and followed him.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

¹²While he was in one of the cities, fthere came a man full of leprosy.2 And when he saw Jesus, he gfell on his face and begged him, “Lord, hif you will, you can make me clean.” ¹³And Jesus3 stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴And he charged him ito tell no one, but “go and show jyourself to the priest, and kmake an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, lfor a proof to them.” ¹⁵mBut now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. ¹⁶But nhe would withdraw to desolate places and npray.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

¹⁷On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and oteachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And pthe power of the Lord was with him to heal.4 ¹⁸qAnd behold, some men were bringing ron a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, ¹⁹but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on sthe roof and let him down with his bed tthrough the tiles into the midst before Jesus. ²⁰And uwhen he saw their faith, he said, “Man, vyour sins are forgiven you.” ²¹And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks wblasphemies? xWho can forgive sins but God alone?” ²²When Jesus yperceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? ²³Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? ²⁴But that you may know that zthe Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” ²⁵And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, aglorifying God. ²⁶And amazement seized them all, and they aglorified God and were filled awith awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

Jesus Calls Levi

²⁷bAfter this he went out and saw ca tax collector named dLevi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” ²⁸And eleaving everything, he rose and followed him.

²⁹And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company fof tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. ³⁰And the Pharisees and gtheir scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, h“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³²iI have not come to call the righteous jbut sinners kto repentance.”

A Question About Fasting

³³And they said to him, l“The disciples of John mfast often and moffer prayers, nand so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” ³⁴And Jesus said to them, o“Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ³⁵pThe days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and qthen they will fast in those days.” ³⁶He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷And no one puts new wine into old rwineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. ³⁸But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”5

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

³These wten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

⁴And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you xmagnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

⁶know then that God has yput me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

⁷Behold, I zcry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

⁸He has awalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

⁹He has bstripped from me my glory

and taken the ccrown from my head.

¹⁰He breaks me down on every side, and I dam gone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

¹¹He has kindled his wrath against me

and ecounts me as his adversary.

¹²His ftroops come on together;

they have gcast up their siege ramp1 against me

and encamp around my tent.

¹³“He has put my hbrothers far from me,

and ithose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives jhave failed me,

my close kfriends have forgotten me.

¹⁵The guests lin my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

¹⁶I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

¹⁷My breath is strange to my mwife,

and I am a stench to the children of nmy own mother.

¹⁸Even young ochildren despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

¹⁹All my pintimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My qbones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has rtouched me!

²²Why do you, like God, spursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were tinscribed in a book!

²⁴Oh that with an iron upen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

²⁵For I vknow that my wRedeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the xearth.2

²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in3 my flesh I shall ysee God,

²⁷whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not zanother.

My heart afaints within me!

²⁸If you say, ‘How we will spursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’4

²⁹be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is ba judgment.”

Lawsuits Against Believers

¹When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous rinstead of the saints? ²Or do you not know that sthe saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? ³Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! ⁴So if you have such cases, twhy do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? ⁵uI say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, ⁶but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? ⁷To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. vWhy not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even wyour own brothers!1

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous2 will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: xneither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,3 ¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And ysuch were some of you. But zyou were washed, ayou were sanctified, byou were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Sexual Immorality

¹²c“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. ¹³d“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one eand the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but ffor the Lord, and gthe Lord for the body. ¹⁴And hGod raised the Lord and iwill also raise us up jby his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that kyour bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined4 to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, l“The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord mbecomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸nFlee from sexual immorality. Every other sin5 a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person osins against his own body. ¹⁹Or pdo you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? qYou are not your own, ²⁰rfor you were bought with a price. sSo glorify God in your body.