Deuteronomy 23-25
1 “A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover what is covered of his father’s.
2 “The eunuch and the castrated man shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. 3 The child of a prostitute shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.
4 “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever, 5 because they did not meet you with bread and water when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Mesopotamia to curse you. 6 Nevertheless, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 7 You shall not address them with peaceful words and good wishes all your days forever. 8 You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were an alien in his land. 9 The sons of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.
Guarding the Campsite
10 “If you should go out to encamp against your enemies, then keep yourself from every evil thing. 11 If there should be any man among you who is not clean from a flow in the night, then he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp. 12 But it shall be, when evening comes, he shall wash his body with water; and when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. 13 Also there shall be a place outside the camp, and you shall defecate there; 14 and you shall have a spike on your belt, and when you defecate outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your excrement. 15 For the Lord your God walks about in the midst of your camp to save you and to deliver up your enemy to you; therefore, your camp shall be holy, and no shameful matter shall be seen among you, and He turn away from you.
Other Laws
16 “You shall not deliver to his lord the slave who fled from his lord to you. 17 He may dwell with you in the very place pleasing to him; you shall not afflict him. 18 There shall be no female prostitute among the daughters of Israel, or a male prostitute among the sons of Israel; there shall be no female temple prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no male temple prostitute among the sons of Israel. 19 You shall not bring the wages of a prostitute or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both are an abomination to the Lord your God.
20 “You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything you lend out. 21 You may charge interest to a foreigner, but you shall not charge interest to your brother, that the Lord your God may bless you in all your works in the land you are entering to inherit.
22 “If you should make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 23 But if you should abstain from vowing, it is not a sin to you. 24 That which proceeds from your lips you shall keep and do in the manner you vowed your gift to the Lord your God; that which you spoke with your mouth.
25 “If you enter into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the heads with your hands, but you shall not use a sickle on your neighbor’s standing grain. 26 Now if you enter into your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes at your pleasure, but you shall not put any in your container.
Divorce and Remarriage
1 “If a man takes a wife and marries her, and it should be she finds no favor before him, because he found something shameful in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hands, and sends her out of his house, 2 and she departs from his house and marries a different man, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce, and puts it in her hands, and sends her out of his house, or the latter man dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her cannot take her back to be his wife after she was defiled; because that is an abomination before the Lord your God; and you shall not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Other Laws
5 “If a man should take a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business; he shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife whom he took.
6 “No man shall take the lower or the upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one’s living in pledge.
7 “If a man should kidnap any of his brethren of the sons of Israel and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall put away the evil from among you.
8 “Take heed to yourself in an outbreak of leprosy that you carefully keep and do according to all the law, whatever the priests and Levites may proclaim to you, in the manner I commanded them; so you shall keep and do. 9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you proceeded out of Egypt.
10 “If you should lend your neighbor anything, you shall not enter his house to get his pledge. 11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. 12 Now if the man is poor, you shall not keep his pledge overnight. 13 You shall return the pledge to him again when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you; and it shall be for you an alms before the Lord your God.
14 “You shall not withhold wrongfully the wage of the poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the resident aliens in your cities. 15 Each day you shall pay him his wage and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his hope on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.
16 “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own sin.
17 “You shall not pervert judgment due the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. 18 But you shall remember you were a servant in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore, I command you to do this thing.
19 “If you should reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the poor and the resident alien and the fatherless and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands. 20 If you pick olives, you shall not go back to glean what you left behind you; it shall be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow; and remember, you were a servant in Egypt; therefore, I command you to do this. 21 Now if you should gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow. 22 So remember, you were a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore, I command you to do this thing.
1 “Now if there should be a dispute between men, and they come to judgment, and they judge and justify the one in the right but condemn the impious one, 2 then it shall be, if the impious man should deserve to be beaten, you shall set him before the judges, and one shall beat him before them, according to his impiety, with a certain number of blows. 3 Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above these, and your brother be disgraced before you.
4 “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.
A Departed Brother
5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and dwell with her. 6 Then it shall be, the firstborn son she bears shall be named by the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother does not want to raise up the name of his brother in Israel; my husband’s brother did not wish to do so.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to take her,’ 9 then his brother’s wife shall come before the elders, remove his brother’s sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, ‘So they shall do to the man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed.’
The Enemy Amalek
11 “If two men fight together, a man with his brother, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, 12 then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.
13 “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. 14 You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. 15 You shall have a true and just weight and a true and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. 16 For all who do such things, all who behave unjustly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.
17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, 18 how he met you on the way and cut off your rear guard, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God gives you rest from your enemies all around in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you will blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.
Psalm 60
1 For the End; in hymns; by David.
2 Hear my supplication, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
3 From the end of the earth I cried out to You
When my heart was discouraged;
You lifted me high on a rock.
4 You guided me, for You became my hope,
A tower of strength from the face of the enemy.
5 I will dwell in Your tabernacle unto the ages;
I will be covered with the shelter of Your wings.
(Pause)
6 For You, O God, hear my prayers;
You give an inheritance to those who fear Your name.
7 You will add days to the days of the king,
His years as the days of generation to generation.
8 He will abide before God forever;
Who will seek out His mercy and truth?
9 So I will sing praise to Your name unto ages of ages,
That I may pay my vows day to day.
Proverbs 12:16–20
16 By the fruits of his mouth, the soul of a man will be filled with good things,
And the recompense of his lips will be given to him.
17 The ways of undiscerning men are right in their own eyes,
But a wise man hearkens to counsels.
18 A man without discernment immediately proclaims his wrath,
But an astute man hides his own dishonor.
19 A righteous man declares his honesty openly,
But the witness of the unrighteous is deceitful.
20 There are those who wound with a sword as they speak,
But the tongues of the wise heal.
Mark 11:1–19
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples;
2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.
3 “And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”
4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.
5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”
6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.
7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.
8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
The Fig Tree Withered
12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.
13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.
17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.
19 When evening had come, He went out of the city.