Bible Reading Plan – Day 53

₁“Honour the LORD your God by celebrating Passover in the month of Abib; it was on a night in that month that he rescued you from Egypt. ₂Go to the one place of worship and slaughter there one of your sheep or cattle for the Passover meal to honour the LORD your God. ₃When you eat this meal, do not eat bread prepared with yeast. For seven days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, as you did when you had to leave Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread — it will be called the bread of suffering — so that as long as you live you will remember the day you came out of Egypt, that place of suffering. ₄For seven days no one in your land is to have any yeast in the house; and the meat of the animal killed on the evening of the first day must be eaten that same night.

_5-6“Slaughter the Passover animals at the one place of worship — and nowhere else in the land that the LORD your God will give you. Do it at sunset, the time of day when you left Egypt. ₇Boil the meat and eat it at the one place of worship; and the next morning return home. ₈For the next six days you are to eat bread prepared without yeast, and on the seventh day assemble to worship the LORD your God, and do no work on that day.

₉“Count seven weeks from the time that you begin to harvest the corn, ₁₀and then celebrate the Harvest Festival, to honour the LORD your God, by bringing him a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing he has given you. ₁₁Be joyful in the LORD's presence, together with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. Do this at the one place of worship. ₁₂Be sure that you obey these commands; do not forget that you were slaves in Egypt.

₁₃“After you have threshed all your corn and pressed all your grapes, celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days. ₁₄Enjoy it with your children, your servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. ₁₅Honour the LORD your God by celebrating this festival for seven days at the one place of worship. Be joyful, because the LORD has blessed your harvest and your work.

₁₆“All the men of your nation are to come to worship the LORD three times a year at the one place of worship: at Passover, Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Shelters. Each man is to bring a gift ₁₇as he is able, in proportion to the blessings that the LORD your God has given him.

₁₈“Appoint judges and other officials in every town that the LORD your God gives you. These men are to judge the people impartially. ₁₉They are not to be unjust or show partiality in their judgements; and they are not to accept bribes, for gifts blind the eyes even of wise and honest men, and cause them to give wrong decisions. ₂₀Always be fair and just, so that you will occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you and will continue to live there.

₂₁“When you make an altar for the LORD your God, do not put beside it a wooden symbol of the goddess Asherah. ₂₂And do not set up any stone pillar for idol worship; the LORD hates them.

₁“Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God cattle or sheep that have any defects; the LORD hates this.

₂“Suppose you hear that in one of your towns some man or woman has sinned against the LORD and broken his covenant ₃by worshipping and serving other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars, contrary to the LORD's command. ₄If you hear such a report, then investigate it thoroughly. If it is true that this evil thing has happened in Israel, ₅then take that person outside the town and stone him to death. ₆However, he may be put to death only if two or more witnesses testify against him; he is not to be put to death if there is only one witness. ₇The witnesses are to throw the first stones, and then the rest of the people are to stone that person; in this way you will get rid of this evil.

₈“It may be that some cases will be too difficult for the local judges to decide, such as certain cases of property rights or of bodily injury or those cases that involve a distinction between murder and manslaughter. When this happens, go to the one place of worship chosen by the LORD your God, ₉and present your case to the levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time, and let them decide the case. ₁₀They will give their decision, and you are to do exactly as they tell you. ₁₁Accept their verdict and follow their instructions in every detail. ₁₂Anyone who dares to disobey either the judge or the priest on duty is to be put to death; in this way you will remove this evil from Israel. ₁₃Then everyone will hear of it and be afraid, and no one else will dare to act in such a way.

₁₄“After you have taken possession of the land that the LORD your God is going to give you and have settled there, then you will decide you need a king like all the nations round you. ₁₅Make sure that the man you choose to be king is the one whom the LORD has chosen. He must be one of your own people; do not make a foreigner your king. ₁₆The king is not to have a large number of horses for his army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to buy horses, because the LORD has said that his people are never to return there. ₁₇The king is not to have many wives, because this would make him turn away from the LORD; and he is not to make himself rich with silver and gold. ₁₈When he becomes king, he is to have a copy of the book of God's laws and teachings made from the original copy kept by the levitical priests. ₁₉He is to keep this book near him and read from it all his life, so that he will learn to honour the LORD and to obey faithfully everything that is commanded in it. ₂₀This will keep him from thinking that he is better than his fellow-Israelites and from disobeying the LORD's commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years, and his descendants will rule Israel for many generations.

₁“The priestly tribe of Levi is not to receive any share of land in Israel; instead, they are to live on the offerings and other sacrifices given to the LORD. ₂They are to own no land, as the other tribes do; their share is the privilege of being the LORD's priests, as the LORD has promised.

₃“Whenever cattle or sheep are sacrificed, the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jaw, and the stomach. ₄They are to receive the first share of the corn, wine, olive oil, and wool. ₅The LORD chose from all your tribes the tribe of Levi to serve him as priests for ever.

₆“Any Levite who wants to may come from any town in Israel to the one place of worship ₇and may serve there as a priest of the LORD his God, like the other Levites who are serving there. ₈He is to receive the same amount of food as the other priests, and he may keep whatever his family sends him.

₉“When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, don't follow the disgusting practices of the nations that are there. ₁₀Don't sacrifice your children in the fires on your altars; and don't let your people practise divination or look for omens or use spells ₁₁or charms, and don't let them consult the spirits of the dead. ₁₂The LORD your God hates people who do these disgusting things, and that is why he is driving those nations out of the land as you advance. ₁₃Be completely faithful to the LORD.”

₁₄Then Moses said, “In the land you are about to occupy, people follow the advice of those who practise divination and look for omens, but the LORD your God does not allow you to do this. ₁₅Instead, he will send you a prophet like me from among your own people, and you are to obey him.

₁₆“On the day that you were gathered at Mount Sinai, you begged not to hear the LORD speak again or to see his fiery presence any more, because you were afraid you would die. ₁₇So the LORD said to me, ‘They have made a wise request. ₁₈I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command. ₁₉He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him. ₂₀But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it, and so must any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods.’

₂₁“You may wonder how you can tell when a prophet's message does not come from the LORD. ₂₂If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and what he says does not come true, then it is not the LORD's message. That prophet has spoken on his own authority, and you are not to fear him.

₁“After the LORD your God has destroyed the people whose land he is giving you and after you have taken their cities and houses and settled there, _2-3divide the territory into three parts, each with a city that can be easily reached. Then anyone who kills someone will be able to escape to one of them for protection. ₄If someone accidentally kills someone who is not an enemy, he may escape to any of these cities and be safe. ₅For example, if two men go into the forest together to cut wood and if, as one of them is chopping down a tree, the head of the axe comes off the handle and kills the other, he can run to one of those three cities and be safe. ₆If there were only one city, the distance to it might be too great, and the relative who is responsible for taking revenge for the killing might catch him and in his anger kill an innocent neighbour. After all, it was by accident that he killed his neighbour who was not his enemy. ₇This is why I order you to set aside three cities.

₈“When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he told your ancestors he would, and gives you all the land he has promised, ₉then you are to select three more cities. (He will give you this land if you do everything that I command you today and if you love the LORD your God and live according to his teachings.) ₁₀Do this, so that innocent people will not die and so that you will not be guilty of putting them to death in the land that the LORD is giving you.

₁₁“But suppose someone deliberately murders an enemy in cold blood and then escapes to one of those cities for protection. ₁₂In that case, the leaders of his own town are to send for him and hand him over to the relative responsible for taking revenge for the murder, so that he may be put to death. ₁₃Show him no mercy. Rid Israel of this murderer, so that all will go well with you.

₁₄“Do not move your neighbour's boundary mark, established long ago in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

₁₅“One witness is not enough to convict a man of a crime; at least two witnesses are necessary to prove that a man is guilty. ₁₆If someone tries to harm someone else by false accusation, ₁₇both are to go to the one place of worship and be judged by the priests and judges who are then in office. ₁₈The judges will investigate the case thoroughly; and if someone has made a false accusation against a fellow-Israelite, ₁₉that person is to receive the punishment the accused would have received. In this way you will get rid of this evil. ₂₀Then everyone else will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing. ₂₁In such cases show no mercy; the punishment is to be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot.