Deuteronomy 19 - 20
Statutes About Cities of Refuge
“When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall set apart three cities for yourself in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess. 3 You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three parts the territory of your land which Yahweh your God will give you to inherit, so that any manslayer may flee there. 4 “Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and live: when he strikes down his friend without premeditation, not hating him previously— 5 as when a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live; 6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer when his heart is angry, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike down his life, though he was not deserving of death, since he had not hated him previously. 7 Therefore, I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall set apart three cities for yourself.’ 8 “Now if Yahweh your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers— 9 if you be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love Yahweh your God and to walk in His ways all your days—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three. 10 So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, and bloodguiltiness be on you. 11 “But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes down his life so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and give him over into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you. Statutes About Boundaries and Witnesses
14 “You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary mark, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess. 15 “A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; at the mouth of two or three witnesses a matter shall be established. 16 If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, 17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. 18 And the judges shall inquire thoroughly, and behold, if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 20 And the rest will hear and be afraid and will never again do such an evil thing among you. 21 Thus your eye shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Statutes About Warfare
“If you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you. 2 Now it will be, when you are drawing near to the battle, the priest shall approach and speak to the people. 3 And he shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are drawing near to the battle against your enemies today. Do not let your heart be faint. Do not be afraid, nor be alarmed, nor be in dread before them, 4 for Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ 5 The officers also shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Who is the man that has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. 6 Who is the man that has planted a vineyard and has not begun to use its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man begin to use its fruit. 7 And who is the man that is engaged to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’ 8 Then the officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘Who is the man that is afraid and whose heart is faint? Let him go and return to his house, so that he might not make his brothers’ hearts melt like his heart.’ 9 Now it will be that when the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint commanders of armies at the head of the people. 10 “If you come near a city to fight against it, you shall call for terms of peace. 11 Now it will be that if it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you. 12 However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 And Yahweh your God shall give it into your hand, and you shall strike all the males in it with the edge of the sword. 14 Only the women and the little ones and the animals and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself; and you shall consume the spoil of your enemies which Yahweh your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations nearby. 16 Only in the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 But you shall devote them to destruction, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you, 18 so that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against Yahweh your God. 19 “If you besiege a city for many days, to make war against it in order to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them; for you may eat from them, and you shall not cut them down. For is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you shall destroy and cut down, that you may build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you until it falls.
1 Corinthians 13 - 14
The Excellence of Love
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; 5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child. When I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love—these three; but the greatest of these is love. Prophecy and Tongues
Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. 3 But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and encouragement. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 But I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates, so that the church may receive edification. 6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? 7 Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? 8 For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? 9 So also you, unless you utter by the tongue a word that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning. 11 If then I do not know the meaning of the sound, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. 12 So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. 13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may translate. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. 16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the uninformed say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all; 19 however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking; rather in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. 21 In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord. 22 So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe. 23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and uninformed men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that surely God is among you. Orderly Worship
26 What is the outcome then, brothers? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has a translation. Let all things be done for edification. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must translate; 28 but if there is no translator, he must keep silent in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. 29 And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. 30 But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted. 32 And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; 33 for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 34 The women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. 35 But if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church. 36 Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it arrived to you only? 37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. 38 But if anyone remains ignorant about this, he is ignored by God. 39 Therefore, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. 40 But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.
Psalm 115
To Yahweh’s Name Give Glory
Not to us, O Yahweh, not to us,
But to Your name give glory
Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.
2 Why should the nations say,
“Where, now, is their God?”
3 But our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
They have eyes, but they do not see;
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
They have noses, but they do not smell;
7 As for their hands, they do not feel;
As for their feet, they do not walk;
They do not make a sound with their throat.
8 Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.
9 O Israel, trust in Yahweh;
He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in Yahweh;
He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh;
He is their help and their shield.
12 Yahweh remembered us; He will bless!
He will bless the house of Israel.
He will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear Yahweh,
The small together with the great.
14 May Yahweh give you increase,
You and your children.
15 May you be blessed of Yahweh,
Who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh,
But the earth He has given to the sons of men.
17 It is not the dead that praise Yah,
And it is none of those who go down to silence;
18 But as for us, we will bless Yah
From now until forever.
Praise Yah!