Leviticus 26, 27
1 ‘Now you shall not make handcrafted objects for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up a distinctive stone in your land, to worship it; for I am the Lord your God. 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My holy things: I am the Lord.
3 ‘If you walk in My ordinances and keep My commandments, and do them, 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 War shall not pass through your land, and I will give peace in the land; and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; and I will utterly destroy the bad wild animals from the land. 7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by slaughter before you. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. 9 For I will look upon you and make you fruitful, and multiply and establish My covenant with you. 10 You shall eat the old harvest of the past two years, and clear out the old because of the new. 11 I will establish My covenant among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 13 I am the Lord your God, who brings you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their servants; I broke the bands of your yoke and made you walk with confidence.
Punishment for Disobedience
14 ‘Now if you do not obey Me, neither do all these ordinances, 15 but your soul disobeys them and despises My judgments, so as not to do all My commandments but to shatter My covenant, 16 I also will do thus to you: I will bring difficulty upon you, both the itch, the jaundice, the gangrenous eyes, and the withering away of your life. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall fall before your enemies. Those who hate you shall pursue you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.
18 ‘Then after all this, if you do not obey Me, I will increase your punishment seven times more for your sins. 19 I will crush your excessive arrogance; I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 Your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. 21 Then if after this, you walk contrariwise and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. 22 I will also send among you the wild animals of the land; and they will eat you, and utterly destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your highways shall be desolate.
23 ‘Then if by these things you are not corrected by Me, but walk contrary to Me, 24 then I also will walk in hostility to you, and I will strike you yet seven times for your sins. 25 I will also strike you with the sword, exacting the vengeance of the covenant; and you will flee for refuge to your cities. I will also send forth death among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of enemies. 26 When you are afflicted by want of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven; and they shall dole out your bread by measure, and you shall eat and still be hungry.
27 ‘Now if after all this, you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, 28 then I also will walk in hostility to you; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 Then you shall eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. 30 I will make desolate your pillars, and will utterly destroy your wooden handcrafted objects; and I will put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste, and bring your holy things to desolation; and I will not smell the odor of your sacrifices. 32 I will bring your land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and the sword shall suddenly destroy you. Then your land shall be a desert and your cities deserts. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies’ land. Thus the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
36 ‘Now as for those of you remaining in the land, I will send faintness into their heart in the land of their enemies; and the sound of the shaking leaf shall chase them. Then they shall flee as though fleeing from a battle, and shall fall when no one pursues. 37 Brother shall disregard brother as in warfare though no one is in pursuit; and you will be unable to withstand your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the Gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. 39 Now those of you who are left shall be destroyed because of their sins, and waste away in their enemies’ land.
40 ‘But if they confess their sins and the sins of their fathers, that they transgressed and disregarded Me and walked contrary to Me, 41 and that I also have walked in hostility to them and destroyed them in the land of their enemies, then their uncircumcised heart will feel ashamed, and they will render satisfaction for their guilt. 42 Then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be deserted by them; and the land will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate because of them. Then they must take responsibility for their lawless acts, because they disregarded My judgments, and their soul abhorred My ordinances. 44 Yet for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not neglect them nor treat them with contempt, so as to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will remember their former covenant when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God: I am the Lord.’ ”
46 These are the judgments, the ordinances, and the law which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
Laws Concerning Gifts Dedicated to God
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man vows a vow to the Lord equivalent to the value of his soul, 3 and if your valuation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, his valuation shall be fifty didrachm of silver, according to the pure measure. 4 But if it is of a female, your valuation shall be thirty didrachm; 5 and if from five years old up to twenty years old, your valuation for a male shall be twenty didrachm, and for a female ten didrachm; 6 and if from a month old up to five years old, your valuation for a male shall be five didrachm of silver, and for a female, three didrachm of silver; 7 and if from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen didrachm, and for a female ten didrachm. 8 But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him; according to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him. 9 If they bring from the cattle a gift to the Lord, whoever gives from these to the Lord, his gift shall be holy. 10 He shall not change it, good for bad or bad for good; and if he changes it at all, cattle for cattle, then both it and that which is changed shall be holy. 11 But if it is any unclean animal which they do not offer as a gift to the Lord, he shall present the animal before the priest; 12 and the priest shall set a value for it, whether good or bad; and as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 13 But if he wants at all to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth to his valuation. 14 And when a man sanctifies his house to be holy to the Lord, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 15 If he who sanctified his house wants to redeem it, he must add one-fifth of the silver of its valuation, and it shall be his. 16 Now if a man sanctifies part of the field of his possession to the Lord, then the valuation shall be according to the seed required for it: a cor of barley for fifty didrachm of silver. 17 If he sanctifies part of his field from the Year of Remission, according to his valuation it shall stand. 18 But if he sanctifies his field subsequently after the Jubilee, the priest shall reckon to him the silver due according to the years that remain till the Year of Remission, and it shall be deducted from his valuation. 19 And if he who sanctifies the field ever wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth of the silver to his valuation, and it shall belong to him. 20 But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore; 21 but the field, when it is released in the Remission, shall be holy to the Lord, as a field set apart; it shall be the possession of the priest. 22 But if a man sanctifies to the Lord part of a field he bought which is not the field of his possession, 23 then the priest shall reckon to him its full assessment from the Year of Remission, and he shall pay its valuation on that day as holy to the Lord. 24 Then in the Year of Remission, the field shall return to the man from whom he bought it, to the one who owned the land as a possession. 25 Now all your valuations shall be according to the pure measures: twenty obols to the didrachm. 26 But the firstborn of your cattle, which shall be the Lord’s firstborn, no man shall sanctify, whether a young calf or sheep; it is the Lord’s. 27 Now if it is an unclean four-footed animal, he shall change it according to his valuation; and he shall add one-fifth to it, and it will be his. But if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold according to his valuation. 28 Nevertheless, any devoted thing a man may devote to the Lord of anything he has, man or animal, or part of the field of his possession, shall not be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29 Furthermore, people devoted to the Lord shall not be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. 30 Now all the tithe of the land, whether seed of the land or fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man wants at all to redeem his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it, and it will be his. 32 Now concerning the tithe of the oxen or the sheep, of whatever passes in the numbering under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. 33 You shall not change good for bad; but if he changes it at all, both it and that which is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.’ ”
34 These are the commandments the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
Psalm 38
1 For the End, for Jeduthun; an ode by David.
2 I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue;
I set a guard on my mouth
When the sinner stood against me.”
3 I was deadened and humbled; and I kept silent, even from good;
And my grief was stirred anew.
4 My heart was hot within me,
And in my meditation, fire will be kindled.
I spoke with my tongue,
5 “O Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
So as to know what I lack.
6 Behold, You made my days as a handbreadth,
And my existence is as nothing before You;
But all things are vanity, and every man living.
(Pause)
7 “Nevertheless man walks about like a phantom;
Surely in vain they stir themselves up;
He stores up treasure, but does not know for whom he will gather it.
8 And now what is my patience?
Is it not the Lord?
And my support is from You.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions;
You made me a reproach to the undiscerning.
10 I was dumb and opened not my mouth;
For You are He who made me.
11 Take away Your scourges from me;
Because of the strength of Your hand I fainted.
12 With rebukes You chasten a man for his transgression,
And You cause his soul to waste away like a spider web;
But every man stirs himself up in vain.
(Pause)
13 “Hear my prayer, O Lord,
And give ear to my supplication;
Do not be silent at my tears,
For I am a sojourner before You,
And a stranger, as were all my fathers.
14 Do not forsake me, that I may revive
Before I depart and am no longer here.”
Proverbs 8:11–16
11 For wisdom is better than precious stones,
And every costly thing is not worthy of her.
12 I, wisdom, dwell with counsel,
And I call upon knowledge and understanding.
13 The fear of the Lord hates unrighteousness,
And both rudeness and arrogance, and the ways of wicked men;
And I hate the perverted ways of evil men.
14 Counsel and safety are mine;
Discernment is mine, and strength is mine;
15 By me, kings reign,
And princes write of righteousness;
16 By me, noblemen become great,
And by me, monarchs have power in the land.
Matthew 26:26–46
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
30 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
31 Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:
‘I will strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’
32 “But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”
33 Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”
34 Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And so said all the disciples.
The Prayer in the Garden
36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.”
37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?
41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.46 “Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”