Deuteronomy 21 - 22, 1 Corinthians 15 - 16, Psalms 116 - 117

Atonement for Innocent Blood

21“If a slain person is found fallen in the open country in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to ¹possess, and it is not known who has struck him, ²then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. ³“And it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; ⁴and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. ⁵“Then ^athe priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for Yahweh your God has chosen them to minister for Him and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and every dispute and every ¹assault ²shall be settled by them. ⁶“And all the elders of that city ¹who are nearest to the slain man shall ^awash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; ⁷and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸‘Atone for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O Yahweh, and do not place the guilt of ^ainnocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be atoned for them. ⁹“^aSo you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

Statutes About Domestic Relations

¹⁰“If you go out to battle against your enemies, and ^aYahweh your God gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive, ¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on her and would take her as a wife for yourself, ¹²then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall ^ashave her head and ¹trim her nails. ¹³“She shall also ¹remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and ^aweep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴“And it will be that, if you do not desire her, then you shall let her go ¹wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money; you shall not ²mistreat her because you have ^ahumbled her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, the one loved and ^athe other ¹unloved, and both the loved and the ²unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the ³unloved, ¹⁶then it shall be in the day he ¹wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of the ²unloved, who is the firstborn. ¹⁷“But he shall recognize the firstborn, the son of the ¹unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that ²he has, for he is the ^afirst of his vigor; ^bthe legal judgment for the firstborn belongs to him.

¹⁸“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will ^anot obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city ¹at the gateway of his hometown. ²⁰“Then they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ ²¹“^aThen all the men of his city shall stone him, and he will die; so ^byou shall purge the evil from your midst, and ^call Israel will hear of it and fear.

A Man Hanged on a Tree Is Cursed

²²“And if a man has committed a sin, ^athe judgment of which is death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³^ahis corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (because ^bcursed of God is he who is hanged), so that you ^cdo not make unclean your land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance.

Various Statutes

22“^aYou shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep straying away and ¹ignore them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother. ²“And if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother searches for it; then you shall give it back to him. ³“Thus you shall do with his donkey, and you shall do likewise with his garment, and you shall do likewise with anything lost by your brother, which he has lost and you have found. You are not allowed to ¹ignore them. ⁴“You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way and ¹ignore them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up.

⁵“A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

⁶“If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, ^ayou shall not take the mother with the young; ⁷you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, ^ain order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹“^aYou shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest ¹all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard become defiled.

¹⁰“^aYou shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹“^aYou shall not wear a material mixed of wool and flax together.

¹²“^aYou shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

Statutes About Sexual Immorality

¹³“^aIf any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then ¹turns against her, ¹⁴and charges her with shameful deeds and brings forth against her a bad name and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ ¹⁵then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. ¹⁶“Then the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he ¹turned against her; ¹⁷and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, “I did not find your daughter a virgin.” But ¹this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸“So ^athe elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him ¹one hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father because he brought forth a bad name against a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife; he cannot ²divorce her all his days.

²⁰“But if this ¹^,^acharge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, ²¹then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her, and she will die because she has ^acommitted a disgraceful act in Israel by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus ^byou shall purge the evil from among you.

²²“^aIf a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“^aIf there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them, and they will die; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

²⁵“But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. ²⁶“But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. ²⁷“When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸“^aIf a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.

³⁰“¹^,^aA man shall not take his father’s wife so that he will not uncover his father’s skirt.

The Resurrection of Christ

15Now ^aI make known to you, brothers, the ^bgospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, ^cin which also you stand, ²by which also you are saved, ^aif you hold fast ¹the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, ^bunless you believed for nothing.

³For ^aI delivered to you ¹as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died ^bfor our sins ^caccording to the Scriptures, ⁴and that He was buried, and that He was ^araised on the third day ^baccording to the Scriptures, ⁵and that ^aHe appeared to ^bCephas, then ^cto the twelve. ⁶After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some ^ahave fallen asleep. ⁷After that, He appeared to ¹^,^aJames, then to ^ball the apostles, ⁸and last of all, as ¹to one untimely born, ^aHe appeared to me also. ⁹For I am ^athe least of the apostles, ¹and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I ^bpersecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by ^athe grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I ^blabored even more than all of them, yet ^cnot I, but the grace of God with me. ¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

The Resurrection of the Dead

¹²Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there ^ais no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And ^aif Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. ¹⁵Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness ¹against God that He ^araised ²Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; ^ayou are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who ^ahave fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are ^aof all men most to be pitied.

²⁰But now Christ ^ahas been raised from the dead, the ^bfirst fruits of those who have ^cfallen asleep. ²¹For since ^aby a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²²For ^aas in Adam all die, so also in ¹Christ all will be made alive. ²³But each in his own order: Christ ^athe first fruits, after that ^bthose who are Christ’s at ^cHis coming. ²⁴Then comes the end, when He hands over ^athe kingdom to the ^bGod and Father, when He has abolished ^call rule and all authority and power. ²⁵For He must reign ^auntil He has put all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶The last enemy to be ^aabolished is death. ²⁷For ^aHe has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “^bAll things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. ²⁸And when ^aall things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that ^bGod may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized ¹for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? ³⁰Why are we also ^ain danger every hour? ³¹I affirm, brothers, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, ^aI die daily. ³²If ¹from human motives I ^afought with wild beasts at ^bEphesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, ^clet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. ³³^aDo not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” ³⁴^aBecome righteously sober-minded, and stop sinning; for some have ^bno knowledge of God. ^cI speak this to your shame.

The Resurrection Body

³⁵But ^asomeone will say, “How are ^bthe dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶^aYou fool! That which you ^bsow does not come to life unless it dies; ³⁷and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of ¹something else. ³⁸But God gives it a body just as He wished, and ^ato each of the seeds a body of its own. ³⁹All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. ⁴⁰There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

⁴²^aSo also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown ¹^,^ba corruptible body, it is raised ²^,^can incorruptible body; ⁴³it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in ^aglory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴it is sown a ^anatural body, it is raised a ^bspiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵So also it is written, “The first ^aman, Adam, became a living soul.” The ^blast Adam became a ^clife-giving spirit. ⁴⁶However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man is ^afrom the earth, ¹^,^bearthy; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, ^aso also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹And just as we have ^aborne the image of the earthy, ¹we ^bwill also bear the image of the heavenly.

⁵⁰Now I say this, brothers, that ^aflesh and blood cannot ^binherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit ^cthe incorruptible. ⁵¹Behold, I tell you a ^amystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be ^bchanged, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For ^athe trumpet will sound, and ^bthe dead will be raised incorruptible, and ^cwe will be changed. ⁵³For this corruptible must put on ^athe incorruptible, and this ^bmortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴But when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, “^aDeath is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵“^aO death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶Now the sting of ^adeath is sin, and ^bthe power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷but ^athanks be to God, who gives us the ^bvictory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁵⁸^aTherefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in ^bthe work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The Collection of Gifts

16Now concerning ^athe collection for ^bthe saints, as ^cI directed the churches of ^dGalatia, so do you also. ²On ^athe first day of every week each one of you is to ¹set something aside, saving whatever he has prospered, so that ^bno collections be made when I come. ³And when I arrive, ^awhomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gracious gift to Jerusalem, ⁴and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

⁵But I ^awill come to you after I go through ^bMacedonia, for I ^cam going through Macedonia; ⁶and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may ^asend me on my way wherever I may go. ⁷For I do not wish to see you now ^ajust in passing, for I hope to remain with you for some time, ^bif the Lord permits. ⁸But I will remain in ^aEphesus until ^bPentecost, ⁹for a ^awide and effective door has opened to me, and ^bthere are many adversaries.

¹⁰Now if ^aTimothy comes, take care that he is with you without fear, for he is doing ^bthe Lord’s work, as I also am. ¹¹^aSo let no one despise him. But ^bsend him on his way ^cin peace, so that he may come to me, for I expect him with the brothers.

¹²Now concerning ^aApollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brothers, and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.

Final Instructions and Greetings

¹³^aBe watchful, ^bstand firm in the faith, ^cact like men, ^dbe strong. ¹⁴Let all that you do be done ^ain love.

¹⁵Now I exhort you, brothers (you know the ^ahousehold of Stephanas, that ¹they were the ^bfirst fruits of ^cAchaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ^dservice to ^ethe saints), ¹⁶that ^ayou also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. ¹⁷And I rejoice over the ¹^,^acoming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have ²supplied ^bwhat was lacking on your part. ¹⁸For they ^ahave refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore ^brecognize such men.

¹⁹The churches of ^aAsia greet you. ^bAquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with ^cthe church that is in their house. ²⁰All the brothers greet you. ^aGreet one another with a holy kiss.

²¹The greeting is in ^amy own hand—¹Paul. ²²If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be ¹^,^aaccursed. ²^,^bMaranatha. ²³^aThe grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. ²⁴My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

I Love Yahweh

116^aI love Yahweh, because He ^bhearsMy voice and my supplications.²Because He has ^ainclined His ear to me,So I shall call upon Him in all my days.³The ^acords of death encompassed meAnd the ¹distresses of Sheol found me;I found distress and sorrow.⁴Then ^aI called upon the name of Yahweh:“O Yahweh, I beseech You, ¹^,^bprovide my soul escape!”⁵^aGracious is Yahweh, and ^brighteous;And our God is ^ccompassionate.⁶Yahweh keeps ^athe simple;I was ^bbrought low, and He saved me.⁷Return to your ^arest, O my soul,For Yahweh has ^bdealt bountifully with you.⁸For You have ^arescued my soul from death,My eyes from tears,My feet from stumbling.⁹I shall walk before YahwehIn the ¹^,^aland of the living.¹⁰I ^abelieved when I said,“I am ^bgreatly afflicted.”¹¹I ^asaid in my alarm,“^bAll men are liars.”¹²What shall I ^agive to Yahweh in returnFor all His ^bbountiful dealings ¹with me?¹³I shall lift up the ^acup of ¹salvationAnd ^bcall upon the name of Yahweh.¹⁴I shall ^apay my vows to Yahweh,Oh may it be ^bin the presence of all His people.¹⁵^aPrecious in the sight of YahwehIs the death of His holy ones.¹⁶O Yahweh, ¹surely I am ^aYour slave,I am Your slave, the ^bson of Your maidservant,You have ^cloosed my bonds.¹⁷To You I shall offer ^aa sacrifice of thanksgiving,And ^bcall upon the name of Yahweh.¹⁸I shall ^apay my vows to Yahweh,Oh may it be in the presence of all His people,¹⁹In the ^acourts of the house of Yahweh,In the midst of you, O ^bJerusalem.¹Praise Yah!

Yahweh’s Lovingkindness Prevails

117^aPraise Yahweh, all nations;Laud Him, all peoples!²For His ^alovingkindness prevails over us,And the ¹^,^btruth of Yahweh is everlasting.²Praise Yah!