Deuteronomy 15 - 16, 1 Corinthians 9 - 10, Psalm 112

Remission of Debt Every Seven Years

15“^aAt the end of every seven years you shall ¹grant a remission of debts. ²“And this is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother because the remission from Yahweh has been proclaimed. ³“^aFrom a foreigner you may exact it, but your hand shall release whatever of yours is with your brother. ⁴“However, there will be no needy one among you, since ^aYahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, ⁵if only you listen obediently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today. ⁶“^aFor Yahweh your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

⁷“If there is ^aa needy one among you, one of your brothers, in any of your gates of the towns in your land which Yahweh your God is giving you, ^byou shall not harden your heart nor close your hand from your needy brother; ⁸but ^ayou shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. ⁹“Beware lest there be a vile ¹thought in your heart, saying, ‘^aThe seventh year, the year of the remission of debts, is near,’ and ^byour eye is hostile toward your needy brother, and you give him nothing; then he ^cmay cry to Yahweh against you, and it will be a sin in you. ¹⁰“You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because ^afor this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you send forth your hand to do. ¹¹“^aFor the needy will never cease to be ¹in the land; therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your afflicted and needy in your land.’

¹²“^aIf your brother, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you shall ¹let him go to be free from you. ¹³“When you ¹let him go to be free from you, you shall not ²let him go empty-handed. ¹⁴“You shall furnish him generously from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as Yahweh your God has blessed you. ¹⁵“And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you ¹this today. ¹⁶“And it will be that, ^aif he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; ¹⁷then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your maidservant.

¹⁸“It shall not seem hard in your sight when you ¹let him go to be free from you, for he has given you six years with ²double the service of a hired man; so Yahweh your God will bless you in whatever you do.

¹⁹“^aYou shall set apart as holy to Yahweh your God all the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock; you shall not work with the firstborn of your herd nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰“^aYou and your household shall eat it every year before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses. ²¹“^aBut if it has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. ²²“You shall eat it within your gates; ^athe unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as ^ba gazelle or a deer. ²³“Only ^ayou shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.

The Passover

16“Keep ^athe month of Abib and ¹^,^bcelebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²“And you shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where Yahweh chooses for His name to dwell. ³“^aYou shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt ^ball the days of your life. ⁴“For seven days no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory, and ^anone of the flesh which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning. ⁵“You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you; ⁶but ^aat the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening at sunset, at the appointed time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷“And you shall ^acook and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. ⁸“Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^aon the seventh day there shall be ^ba solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks

⁹“^aYou shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰“Then you shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give just as Yahweh your God blesses you; ¹¹and you shall ^abe glad before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and ^bthe Levite who is within your gates and ^cthe sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are in your midst, in the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell. ¹²“^aAnd you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths

¹³“^aYou shall ¹celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; ¹⁴and you shall ^abe glad in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slaves and the Levite and the sojourner and the ¹orphan and the widow who are within your gates. ¹⁵“Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh chooses, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether glad.

¹⁶“^aThree times in a year all your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and ^bthey shall not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. ¹⁷“Every man ¹shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which He has given you.

Do Not Distort Justice

¹⁸“You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates of the towns which Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. ¹⁹“^aYou shall not distort justice; ^byou shall not ¹be partial, and ^cyou shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. ²⁰“Righteousness! Righteousness, you shall pursue, that ^ayou may live and possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you.

²¹“^aYou shall not plant for yourself an ¹Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make for yourself. ²²“^aAnd you shall not set up for yourself a sacred pillar which Yahweh your God hates.

Paul Gives Up His Rights

9Am I not ^afree? Am I not an ^bapostle? Have I not ^cseen Jesus our Lord? Are you not ^dmy work in the Lord? ²If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the ^aseal of my ^bapostleship in the Lord.

³My defense to those who examine me is this: ⁴^aDo we not have authority to eat and drink? ⁵^aDo we not have authority to take along a ¹believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the ^bbrothers of the Lord and ^cCephas? ⁶Or do only ¹^,^aBarnabas and I not have authority to refrain from working? ⁷Who at any time serves ^aas a soldier at his own expense? Who ^bplants a vineyard and does not ¹consume the fruit of it? Or who shepherds a flock and does not ²consume the milk of the flock?

⁸Am I speaking these things ^aaccording to ¹human judgment? Or does not the Law also say these things? ⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses, “^aYou shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing.” Is God merely concerned about ^boxen? ¹⁰Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, ^afor our sake it was written, because ^bthe plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. ¹¹^aIf we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹²If others share this authority over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we ^adid not use this authority, but we endure all things ^bso that we will cause no hindrance to the ^cgospel of Christ. ¹³^aDo you not know that those who ^bperform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share ¹from the altar? ¹⁴So also ^athe Lord directed those who proclaim the ^bgospel to ^cget their living from the gospel.

¹⁵But I have ^aused none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case, for it would be better for me to die than have anyone make ^bmy boast an empty one. ¹⁶For if I proclaim the gospel, I have nothing to boast, for ^aI am under compulsion. For woe is me if I do not proclaim ^bthe gospel. ¹⁷For if I do this voluntarily, I have a ^areward; but if against my will, I have a ^bstewardship entrusted to me. ¹⁸What then is my ^areward? That, when I proclaim the gospel, I may offer the gospel ^bwithout charge, so as ^cnot to make full use of my authority in the gospel.

¹⁹For though I am ^afree from all, I have made myself ^ba slave to all, so that I may ^cwin more. ²⁰^aAnd to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews. To those who are under ¹the Law, as under ²the Law though ^bnot being myself under ³the Law, so that I might win those who are under ⁴the Law. ²¹To those who are ^awithout law, ^bas without law, though not being without the law of God but ^cunder the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. ²²To the ^aweak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become ^ball things to all men, ^cso that I may by all means save some. ²³So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

²⁴^aDo you not know that those who run in a ¹race all run, but only one receives ^bthe prize? ^cRun in such a way that you may win. ²⁵Now everyone who ^acompetes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a corruptible ^bcrown, but we an incorruptible. ²⁶Therefore I ^arun in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not ^bbeating the air; ²⁷but I ¹discipline ^amy body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Temptation and God’s Faithfulness

10For ^aI do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all ^bunder the cloud and all ^cpassed through the sea; ²and all were ^abaptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³and all ^aate the same spiritual food; ⁴and all ^adrank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was ¹Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased. For ^athey were ¹struck down in the wilderness. ⁶Now these things happened as ^aexamples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as ^bthey also craved.

⁷Do not be ^aidolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “^bThe people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to ^cplay.” ⁸Nor let us act in sexual immorality, as ^asome of them ¹did, and ^btwenty-three thousand fell in one day. ⁹Nor let us put Christ to the test, as ^asome of them ¹did, and were destroyed by the serpents. ¹⁰Nor ^agrumble, as some of them ¹did, and ^bwere destroyed by the ^cdestroyer. ¹¹Now these things happened to them as an ^aexample, and ^bthey were written for our instruction, upon whom ^cthe ends of the ages have arrived. ¹²Therefore let him who ^athinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. ¹³No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but ^aGod is faithful, who will not allow you to be ^btempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my ^abeloved, flee from ^bidolatry. ¹⁵I speak as to prudent people. You judge what I say. ¹⁶Is not the ^acup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the ¹^,^bbread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Since there is one ¹bread, we ^awho are many are one body, for we all partake of the one ²bread. ¹⁸Look at ¹the nation ^aIsrael. Are not those who ^beat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? ¹⁹What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or ^athat an idol is anything? ²⁰No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they ^asacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. ²¹^aYou cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and ^bthe table of demons. ²²Or do we ^aprovoke the ¹Lord to jealousy? Are we ^bstronger than He?

²³^aAll things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things ^bbuild up. ²⁴Let no one ^aseek his own good, but that of the other person. ²⁵^aEat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience’ sake. ²⁶^aFor the earth is the ¹Lord’s, as well as its fullness. ²⁷If ^aone of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, ^beat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. ²⁸But ^aif anyone says to you, “This is meat consecrated to idols,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake. ²⁹I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For ^awhy is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? ³⁰If I partake with gratefulness, ^awhy am I slandered concerning that for which I ^bgive thanks?

³¹Whether, then, you eat or drink or ^awhatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³²^aGive no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to ^bthe church of God; ³³just as I also ^aplease all men in all things, ^bnot seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, ^cso that they may be saved.

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.