One Year Bible.

Aaron’s Staff Buds

¹And the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and take from them twelve staffs, one from the leader of each tribe. Write each man’s name on his staff, ³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi, because there must be one staff for the head of each tribe. ⁴Place the staffs in the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you.”

⁶So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff — one for each of the leaders of their tribes, twelve staffs in all. And Aaron’s staff was among them. ⁷Then Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the Tent of the Testimony.

⁸The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the LORD’s presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff.

¹⁰The LORD said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the Testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebellious, so that you may put an end to their grumbling against Me, lest they die.” ¹¹So Moses did as the LORD had commanded him.

¹²Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost! ¹³Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”

Duties of Priests and Levites

¹So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house must bear the iniquity involving the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity involving your priesthood. ²But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony. ³And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.

⁵And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting. ⁷But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”

Offerings for Priests and Levites

⁸Then the LORD said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute. ⁹A portion of the most holy offerings reserved from the fire will be yours. From all the offerings they render to Me as most holy offerings, whether grain offerings or sin offerings or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons. ¹⁰You are to eat it as a most holy offering, and every male may eat it. You shall regard it as holy.

¹¹And this is yours as well: the offering of their gifts, along with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given this to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat it. ¹²I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits. ¹³The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them.

¹⁴Every devoted thing in Israel belongs to you. ¹⁵The firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast, that is offered to the LORD belongs to you. But you must surely redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. ¹⁶You are to pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat; they are holy. You are to splatter their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ¹⁸And their meat belongs to you, just as the breast and right thigh of the wave offering belong to you.

¹⁹All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.”

²⁰Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

²¹Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting. ²²No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.

²³The Levites are to perform the work of the Tent of Meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites. ²⁴For I have given to the Levites as their inheritance the tithe that the Israelites present to the LORD as a contribution. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.”

²⁵And the LORD instructed Moses, ²⁶“Speak to the Levites and tell them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the LORD— a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. ²⁸So you are to present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, and from these you are to give the LORD’s offering to Aaron the priest. ²⁹You must present the offering due the LORD from all the best of every gift, the holiest part of it.’

³⁰Therefore say to the Levites, ‘When you have presented the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the produce of the threshing floor or winepress. ³¹And you and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere; it is the compensation for your work at the Tent of Meeting. ³²Once you have presented the best part of it, you will not incur guilt because of it. But you must not defile the sacred offerings of the Israelites, or else you will die.’”

Hurry, O LORD, to Help Me!

¹For the choirmaster. Of David. To bring remembrance.

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!

Hurry, O LORD, to help me!

²May those who seek my life

be ashamed and confounded;

may those who wish me harm

be repelled and humiliated.

³May those who say, “Aha, aha!”

retreat because of their shame.

⁴May all who seek You

rejoice and be glad in You;

may those who love Your salvation always say,

“Let God be magnified!”

⁵But I am poor and needy;

hurry to me, O God.

You are my help and my deliverer;

O LORD, do not delay.

The First Seal: The White Horse

¹Then I watched as the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”

²So I looked and saw a white horse, and its rider held a bow. And he was given a crown, and he rode out to overcome and conquer.

The Second Seal: War

³And when the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”

⁴Then another horse went forth. It was bright red, and its rider was granted permission to take away peace from the earth and to make men slay one another. And he was given a great sword.

The Third Seal: Famine

⁵And when the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!”

Then I looked and saw a black horse, and its rider held in his hand a pair of scales. ⁶And I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine.”

The Fourth Seal: Death

⁷And when the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”

⁸Then I looked and saw a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed close behind. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, by famine, by plague, and by the beasts of the earth.

The Fifth Seal: The Martyrs

⁹And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony they had upheld. ¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers, were killed, just as they had been killed.

The Sixth Seal: Terror

¹²And I watched as the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, ¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. ¹⁴The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. ¹⁷For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”