One Year Bible.

Various Laws

¹If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother. ²If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him. ³And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

⁴If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

⁵A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD your God.

⁶If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. ⁷You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

⁹Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled — both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

¹⁰Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

¹¹Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

¹²You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

Marriage Violations

¹³Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, ¹⁴and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

¹⁵Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate ¹⁶and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her. ¹⁷And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him. ¹⁹They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, ²¹she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²²If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, ²⁴you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death— the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

²⁵But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die. ²⁶Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. ²⁷When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, ²⁹then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

Exclusion from the Congregation

¹No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

²No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation. ⁴For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you. ⁵Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you. ⁶You are not to seek peace or prosperity from them as long as you live.

⁷Do not despise an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. ⁸The third generation of children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD.

Uncleanness in the Camp

⁹When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing. ¹⁰If any man among you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he must leave the camp and stay outside. ¹¹When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may return to the camp.

¹²You must have a place outside the camp to go and relieve yourself. ¹³And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.

¹⁴For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

Miscellaneous Laws

¹⁵Do not return a slave to his master if he has taken refuge with you. ¹⁶Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.

¹⁷No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute. ¹⁸You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.

¹⁹Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan. ²⁰You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.

²¹If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to keep it, because He will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ²²But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty of sin. ²³Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

²⁴When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

²⁵When you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

The East Gate Assigned to the Prince

¹The man then brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary that faced east, but it was shut. ²And the LORD said to me, “This gate is to remain shut. It shall not be opened, and no man shall enter through it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it. Therefore it will remain shut. ³Only the prince himself may sit inside the gateway to eat in the presence of the LORD. He must enter by way of the portico of the gateway and go out the same way.”

⁴Then the man brought me to the front of the temple by way of the north gate. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling His temple, and I fell facedown. ⁵The LORD said to me: “Son of man, pay attention; look carefully with your eyes and listen closely with your ears to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes and laws of the house of the LORD. Take careful note of the entrance to the temple, along with all the exits of the sanctuary.

Reproof of the Levites

⁶Tell the rebellious house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I have had enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel. ⁷In addition to all your other abominations, you brought in foreigners uncircumcised in both heart and flesh to occupy My sanctuary; you defiled My temple when you offered My food— the fat and the blood; you broke My covenant. ⁸And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but have appointed others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.’

⁹This is what the Lord GOD says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh may enter My sanctuary — not even a foreigner who lives among the Israelites.

¹⁰Surely the Levites who wandered away from Me when Israel went astray, and who wandered away from Me after their idols, will bear the consequences of their iniquity. ¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and ministering there. They shall slaughter the burnt offerings and other sacrifices for the people and stand before them to minister to them.

¹²Because they ministered before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I swore with an uplifted hand concerning them that they would bear the consequences of their iniquity, declares the Lord GOD. ¹³They must not approach Me to serve Me as priests or come near any of My holy things or the most holy things. They will bear the shame of the abominations they have committed. ¹⁴Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of all the work for the temple and everything to be done in it.

The Duties of the Priests

¹⁵But the Levitical priests, who are descended from Zadok and who kept charge of My sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from Me, are to approach Me to minister before Me. They will stand before Me to offer Me fat and blood, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁶They alone shall enter My sanctuary and draw near to My table to minister before Me. They will keep My charge.

¹⁷When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen garments; they must not wear anything made of wool when they minister at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple. ¹⁸They are to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire.

¹⁹When they go out to the outer court, to the people, they are to take off the garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and dress in other clothes so that they do not transmit holiness to the people with their garments.

²⁰They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair. ²¹No priest may drink wine before he enters the inner court. ²²And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but must marry a virgin of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow of a priest. ²³They are to teach My people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to discern between the clean and the unclean.

²⁴In any dispute, they shall officiate as judges and judge according to My ordinances. They must keep My laws and statutes regarding all My appointed feasts, and they must keep My Sabbaths holy.

²⁵A priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person. However, for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or an unmarried sister, he may do so, ²⁶and after he is cleansed, he must count off seven days for himself. ²⁷And on the day he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he must present his sin offering, declares the Lord GOD.

²⁸In regard to their inheritance, I am their inheritance. You are to give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession.

²⁹They shall eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Everything in Israel devoted to the LORD will belong to them. ³⁰The best of all the firstfruits and of every contribution from all your offerings will belong to the priests. You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest, so that a blessing may rest upon your homes. ³¹The priests may not eat any bird or animal found dead or torn by wild beasts.[’’]

The River of Life

¹Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

³No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will worship Him. ⁴They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

Jesus Is Coming

⁶Then the angel said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place.”

⁷“Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of prophecy in this book.”

⁸And I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. ⁹But he said to me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

¹⁰Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book, because the time is near. ¹¹Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.”

¹²“Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates. ¹⁵But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.

Nothing May Be Added or Removed

¹⁸I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book.

²⁰He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.

Amen.