Deuteronomy 13 - 14, 1 Corinthians 7 - 8, Psalm 112

Stone Those Who Prophesy Against Yahweh

13“¹^,^aIf a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, ²and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘^aLet us walk after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ ³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is ^atesting you to find out if ^byou love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴“^aYou shall walk after Yahweh your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and ^bcling to Him. ⁵“But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be ^aput to death because he has ¹counseled ²rebellion against Yahweh your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of ³slavery, ^bto drive you from the way in which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk. ^cSo you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁶“^aIf your brother, your mother’s son, or your son or daughter, or the wife ¹you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘^bLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, ⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), ⁸^ayou shall not be willing to accept him or listen to him; ^band your eye shall not pity him; and you shall not spare him or conceal him. ⁹“^aBut you shall surely kill him; ^byour hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¹⁰“So you shall stone him ¹to death because he has sought ^ato drive you from Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ²slavery. ¹¹“Thus ^aall Israel will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

¹²“If you hear in one of your cities, which Yahweh your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that ¹³some vile men have gone out from among you and have driven the inhabitants of their city astray, saying, ‘^aLet us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), ¹⁴then you shall inquire and search out and ask thoroughly. Behold, if it is true and the matter is confirmed, that this abomination has been done among you, ¹⁵^ayou shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, ¹devoting it to destruction and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶“^aThen you shall gather all its spoil into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh your God; and it shall be a ¹^,^bruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. ¹⁷“Now nothing from that which is devoted to destruction shall cling to your hand, in order that Yahweh may turn from ^aHis burning anger and ^bgrant compassion to you and show compassion to you and ^cmake you multiply, just ^das He has sworn to your fathers, ¹⁸¹if you will listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, ²keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, ³and doing what is right in the sight of Yahweh your God.

Clean and Unclean Animals

14“You are ^athe sons of Yahweh your God; ^byou shall not gash yourselves nor ¹shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ²“For you are ^aa holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a ^bpeople for His ¹treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³“^aYou shall not eat any abominable thing. ⁴“^aThese are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵¹the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶“And any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in ¹two and ²chews the cud, among the animals, that one you may eat. ⁷“Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ¹chew the cud or among those that divide the hoof in ²two: the camel and the ³rabbit and the ⁴shaphan, for though they ⁵chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. ⁸“And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹“These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird. ¹²“But ^athese are the ones which you shall not eat: the ¹eagle and the vulture and the ²buzzard, ¹³and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵and the ostrich, the owl, the gull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶the little owl, the ¹great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹“And all the ¹teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰“You may eat any clean bird.

²¹“^aYou shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your gates, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are ^ba holy people to Yahweh your God. ^cYou shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²²“You ^ashall surely tithe all the produce from ¹what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³“And you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh your God, ^aat the place where He chooses for His name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may ^blearn to fear Yahweh your God all your days. ²⁴“And if the ¹distance is so great for you that you are not able to ²bring the tithe, since the place where Yahweh your God chooses ^ato set His name is too far away from you when Yahweh your God blesses you, ²⁵then you shall ¹exchange it for money and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which Yahweh your God chooses. ²⁶“And you may spend the money for whatever your ¹heart desires: for oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or whatever your ²heart ³desires; and ^athere you shall eat in the presence of Yahweh your God and be glad, you and your household. ²⁷“Also you shall not forsake ^athe Levite who is within your gates, ^bfor he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸“^aAt the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year and shall deposit it within your gates. ²⁹“And the Levite, ^abecause he has no portion or inheritance among you, and ^bthe sojourner, the ¹orphan, and the widow who are within your gates, shall come and ^ceat and be satisfied, in order that ^dYahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Concerning Marriage and Singleness

7Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is ^agood for a man not to touch a woman. ²But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. ³The husband must ¹fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. ⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ⁵^aStop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and ¹come together again so that ^bSatan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶But this I say as a concession, ^anot as a command. ⁷¹Yet I wish that all men were ^aeven as I myself am. However, ^beach man has his own gift from God, one this way, and another that.

⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is ^agood for them if they remain ^beven as I. ⁹But if they do not have self-control, ^alet them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁰But to the married I give instructions, ^anot I, but the Lord, that the wife should not ¹leave her husband ¹¹(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not ¹divorce his wife.

¹²But to the rest ^aI say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not ¹divorce her. ¹³And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. ¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through ¹her believing husband. For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are ^aholy. ¹⁵Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or the sister is not enslaved in such cases, but God has called ¹us ²^,^ato peace. ¹⁶For how do you know, O wife, whether you will ^asave your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁷Only, ^aas the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And ^bso I direct in ^call the churches. ¹⁸Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? ^aHe is not to be circumcised. ¹⁹^aCircumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is ^bthe keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰^aEach man must remain in that ¹condition in which he was called.

²¹Were you called while a slave? ¹Do not worry about it. But if you are able also to become free, rather ²do that. ²²For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is ^athe Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who was called while free, is ^bChrist’s slave. ²³^aYou were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. ²⁴Brothers, ^aeach one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.

²⁵Now concerning virgins I have ^ano command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who ¹^,^bby the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy. ²⁶I think then that this is good because of the ¹present ^adistress, that ^bit is good for a man ²to remain as he is. ²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. ²⁸But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have ¹trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. ²⁹But this I say, brothers, ^athe time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; ³⁰and those who cry, as though they did not cry; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; ³¹and those who use the world, as though they did not ^amake full use of it. For ^bthe form of this world is passing away.

³²But I want you to be free from concern. One who is ^aunmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. ³³But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, ³⁴and his interests have been divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. ³⁵Now this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but ¹to promote propriety and undistracted devotion to the Lord.

³⁶But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let ¹her marry. ³⁷But he who stands firm in his heart, ¹being under no compulsion, but has authority ²over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well. ³⁸So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

³⁹^aA wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has ¹fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only ^bin the Lord. ⁴⁰But ^ain my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Take Care with Your Liberty

8Now concerning ^athings sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have ^bknowledge. Knowledge ^cpuffs up, but love ^dbuilds up. ²^aIf anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet ^bknown as he ought to know; ³but if anyone loves God, he ^ahas been known by Him.

⁴Therefore, concerning the eating of ^athings sacrificed to idols, we know that ¹an idol is ^bnothing in the world, and that ^cthere is no God but one. ⁵For even if ^athere are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, ⁶yet for us ^athere is one God, ^bthe Father, ^cfrom whom are all things and we exist for Him, and ^done Lord, Jesus Christ, ^eby whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

⁷However, not all men ^ahave this knowledge; but ^bsome, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸But ^afood will not ¹commend us to God. We neither lack if we do not eat, nor abound if we do eat. ⁹But ^asee to it that this ¹authority of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the ^bweak. ¹⁰For if someone sees you, who have ^aknowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be built up to eat ^bthings sacrificed to idols? ¹¹For through ^ayour knowledge he who is weak ^bis ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. ¹²^aAnd in that way, by sinning against the brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin ^bagainst Christ. ¹³Therefore, ^aif food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again—ever, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

The Righteous Will Be Remembered Forever

112

א Aleph

¹Praise Yah!How ^ablessed is the man who ²fears Yahweh,Who greatly ^bdelights in His commandments.

ג Gimel

²His ^aseed will be mighty ¹on earth;The generation of the ^bupright will be blessed.

ה He

³^aWealth and riches are in his house,And his righteousness stands forever.

ז Zayin

⁴Light arises in the darkness ^afor the upright;He is ^bgracious and compassionate and righteous.

ט Teth

⁵It is well with the man who ^ais gracious and lends;Who sustains his ¹works with justice.

כ Kaph

⁶For he will ^anever be shaken;The ^brighteous will be ¹remembered forever.

מ Mem

⁷He will not fear an ^aevil report;His ^bheart is set, ^ctrusting in Yahweh.

ס Samekh

⁸His ^aheart is upheld, he ^bwill not fear,Until he ^clooks in triumph on his adversaries.

פ Pe

⁹¹He ^ahas given freely to the needy,His righteousness stands forever;His ^bhorn will be raised in glory.

ר Resh

¹⁰The ^awicked will see it and be ¹vexed,He will ^bgnash his teeth and ^cmelt away;The ^ddesire of the wicked will perish.