The Passover Reviewed^(A)

16 “Observe the ^(B)month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for ^(C)in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and ^(D)the herd, in the ^(E)place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it; ^(F)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may ^(G)remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ^4 (H)And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until ^(I)morning.

⁵ “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you; ⁶ but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover ^(J)at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. ⁷ And you shall roast and eat it ^(K)in the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. ⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(L)on the seventh day there shall be a ^[a]sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks Reviewed^(M)

⁹ “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. ¹⁰ Then you shall keep the ^(N)Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give ^(O)as the Lord your God blesses you. ^11 (P)You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. ^12 (Q)And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles Reviewed^(R)

^13 (S)“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. ¹⁴ And ^(T)you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your ^[b]gates. ^15 (U)Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

^16 (V)“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and ^(W)they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, ^(X)according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

Justice Must Be Administered

¹⁸ “You shall appoint ^(Y)judges and officers in all your ^[c]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. ^19 (Z)You shall not pervert justice; ^(AA)you shall not ^[d]show partiality, ^(AB)nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ^[e]twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may ^(AC)live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^21 (AD)“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a ^[f]wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God. ^22 (AE)You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

Various Instructions

17 “You ^(AF)shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any ^[g]blemish or defect, for that is an ^[h]abomination to the Lord your God.

^2 (AG)“If there is found among you, within any of your ^[i]gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(AH)in transgressing His covenant, ³ who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either ^(AI)the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(AJ)which I have not commanded, ^4 (AK)and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[j]abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and ^(AL)shall stone ^(AM)to death that man or woman with stones. ⁶ Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three ^(AN)witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among ^(AO)you.

^8 (AP)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(AQ)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(AR)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(AS)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(AT)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(AU)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (AV)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^(AW)‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you ^(AX)whom the Lord your God chooses; one ^(AY)from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ But he shall not multiply ^(AZ)horses for himself, nor cause the people ^(BA)to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^(BB)the Lord has said to you, ^(BC)‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^(BD)gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^(BE)before the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹ And ^(BF)it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not ^[k]be lifted above his brethren, that he ^(BG)may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ^[l]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Herod Seeks to See Jesus^(A)

^7 (B)Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, ⁸ and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. ⁹ Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” ^(C)So he sought to see Him.

Feeding the Five Thousand^(D)

^10 (E)And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. ^(F)Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. ¹¹ But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. ^12 (G)When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”

¹³ But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men.

Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” ¹⁵ And they did so, and made them all sit down.

¹⁶ Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He ^(H)blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. ¹⁷ So they all ate and were ^[a]filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ^(I)

^18 (J)And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

¹⁹ So they answered and said, ^(K)“John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”

²⁰ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

^(L)Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

Jesus Predicts His Death and Resurrection^(M)

^21 (N)And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, ²² saying, ^(O)“The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Take Up the Cross and Follow Him^(P)

^23 (Q)Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross ^[b]daily, and follow Me. ^24 (R)For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. ^25 (S)For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? ^26 (T)For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ^(U)ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. ^27 (V)But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

Glory and Universality of the Messiah’s Reign

A Psalm ^(A)of Solomon.