One Year Bible.

Israel’s Rebellion

¹Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept. ²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! ³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.

⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷and said to the whole congregation of Israel, “The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land. ⁸If the LORD delights in us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and He will give it to us. ⁹Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

¹⁰But the whole congregation threatened to stone Joshua and Caleb.

Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting. ¹¹And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them? ¹²I will strike them with a plague and destroy them — and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they are.”

Moses Intercedes for Israel

¹³But Moses said to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear of it, for by Your strength You brought this people from among them. ¹⁴And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have already heard that You, O LORD, are in the midst of this people, that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stands over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵If You kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard of Your fame will say, ¹⁶‘Because the LORD was unable to bring this people into the land He swore to give them, He has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared: ¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation.’

¹⁹Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.”

God’s Forgiveness and Judgment

²⁰“I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied. ²¹“Yet as surely as I live and as surely as the whole earth is filled with the glory of the LORD, ²²not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness — yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times — ²³not one will ever see the land that I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have treated Me with contempt will see it.

²⁴But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.

²⁵Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ²⁷“How long will this wicked congregation grumble against Me? I have heard the complaints that the Israelites are making against Me. ²⁸So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹Your bodies will fall in this wilderness— all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older— because you have grumbled against Me.

³⁰Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. ³¹But I will bring your children, whom you said would become plunder, into the land you have rejected — and they will enjoy it. ³²As for you, however, your bodies will fall in this wilderness.

³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and they will suffer for your unfaithfulness until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years — a year for each day — and you will experience My alienation.

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this entire wicked congregation, which has conspired against Me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”

The Plague on the Ten Spies

³⁶So the men Moses had sent to spy out the land, who had returned and made the whole congregation grumble against him by bringing out a bad report about the land— ³⁷those men who had brought out the bad report about the land— were struck down by a plague before the LORD. ³⁸Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

³⁹And when Moses relayed these words to all the Israelites, the people mourned bitterly.

The Defeat at Hormah

⁴⁰Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country. “We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.”

⁴¹But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed! ⁴²Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you. ⁴³For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”

⁴⁴But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp. ⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

Laws about Offerings

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home ³and you present a food offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to produce a pleasing aroma to the LORD — either a burnt offering or a sacrifice, for a special vow or freewill offering or appointed feast— ⁴then the one presenting his offering to the LORD shall also present a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter hin of olive oil. ⁵With the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb, you are to prepare a quarter hin of wine as a drink offering.

⁶With a ram you are to prepare a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of olive oil, ⁷and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

⁸When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the LORD, ⁹present with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of olive oil. ¹⁰Also present half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It is a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ¹¹This is to be done for each bull, ram, lamb, or goat. ¹²This is how you must prepare each one, no matter how many.

¹³Everyone who is native-born shall prepare these things in this way when he presents a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ¹⁴And for the generations to come, if a foreigner residing with you or someone else among you wants to prepare a food offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he is to do exactly as you do. ¹⁵The assembly is to have the same statute both for you and for the foreign resident; it is a permanent statute for the generations to come. You and the foreigner shall be the same before the LORD. ¹⁶The same law and the same ordinance will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing with you.”

¹⁷Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land to which I am bringing you ¹⁹and you eat the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the LORD. ²⁰From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor. ²¹Throughout your generations, you are to give the LORD an offering from the first of your dough.

Offerings for Unintentional Sins

²²Now if you stray unintentionally and do not obey all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses— ²³all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come— ²⁴and if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, then the whole congregation is to prepare one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and drink offering according to the regulation, and one male goat as a sin offering.

²⁵The priest is to make atonement for the whole congregation of Israel, so that they may be forgiven; for the sin was unintentional and they have brought to the LORD a food offering and a sin offering, presented before the LORD for their unintentional sin. ²⁶Then the whole congregation of Israel and the foreigners residing among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.

²⁷Also, if one person sins unintentionally, he is to present a year-old female goat as a sin offering. ²⁸And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the person who erred by sinning unintentionally; and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. ²⁹You shall have the same law for the one who acts in error, whether he is a native-born Israelite or a foreigner residing among you.

³⁰But the person who sins defiantly, whether a native or foreigner, blasphemes the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹He shall certainly be cut off, because he has despised the word of the LORD and broken His commandment; his guilt remains on him.”

A Sabbath-Breaker Stoned

³²While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³Those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation, ³⁴and because it had not been declared what should be done to him, they placed him in custody.

³⁵And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”

³⁶So the whole congregation took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

The Law of Tassels

³⁷And the LORD said to Moses, ³⁸“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout the generations to come they are to make for themselves tassels for the corners of their garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. ³⁹These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

⁴⁰Then you will remember and obey all My commandments, and you will be holy to your God. ⁴¹I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.”

Idolatrous Elders Condemned

¹Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me. ²And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ³“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

⁴Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him according to his great idolatry, ⁵so that I may take hold of the hearts of the people of Israel. For because of their idols, they are all estranged from Me.’

⁶Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations. ⁷For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the LORD will answer him Myself. ⁸I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb; I will cut him off from among My people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

⁹But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the LORD who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel. ¹⁰They will bear their punishment— the punishment of the inquirer will be the same as that of the prophet— ¹¹in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions. Then they will be My people and I will be their God, declares the Lord GOD.’”

Four Dire Judgments

¹²And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹³“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast, ¹⁴then even if these three men— Noah, Daniel, and Job— were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁵Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts, ¹⁶then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.

¹⁷Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast, ¹⁸then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered.

¹⁹Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast, ²⁰then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.

²¹For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments— sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague— in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

²²Yet , behold, some survivors will be left in it — sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their conduct and actions, you will be comforted regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem — all that I have brought upon it. ²³They will bring you consolation when you see their conduct and actions, and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done all these things within it,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

The Lamb Takes the Scroll

¹Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One seated on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. ²And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look inside it. ⁴And I began to weep bitterly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it.

⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷And He came and took the scroll from the right hand of the One seated on the throne.

⁸When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹And they sang a new song:

“Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals,

because You were slain,

and by Your blood You purchased for God

those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

¹⁰You have made them to be a kingdom

and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign upon the earth.”

The Lamb Exalted

¹¹Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels encircling the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. ¹²In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and riches

and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and blessing!”

¹³And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To Him who sits on the throne

and to the Lamb

be praise and honor and glory and power

forever and ever!”

¹⁴And the four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.