One Year Bible.

Garments for the Priests

¹“Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests. ²Make holy garments for your brother Aaron, to give him glory and splendor.

³You are to instruct all the skilled craftsmen, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, to make garments for Aaron’s consecration, so that he may serve Me as priest. ⁴These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make these holy garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so that they may serve Me as priests. ⁵They shall use gold, along with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.

The Ephod

⁶They are to make the ephod of finely spun linen embroidered with gold, and with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn. ⁷It shall have two shoulder pieces attached at two of its corners, so it can be fastened. ⁸And the skillfully woven waistband of the ephod must be of one piece, of the same workmanship — with gold, with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and with finely spun linen.

⁹Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: ¹⁰six of their names on one stone and the remaining six on the other, in the order of their birth. ¹¹Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings. ¹²Fasten both stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear their names on his two shoulders as a memorial before the LORD.

¹³Fashion gold filigree settings ¹⁴and two chains of pure gold, made of braided cord work; and attach these chains to the settings.

The Breastpiece

¹⁵You are also to make a breastpiece of judgment with the same workmanship as the ephod. Construct it with gold, with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and with finely spun linen. ¹⁶It must be square when folded over double, a span long and a span wide.

¹⁷And mount on it a setting of gemstones, four rows of stones:

In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz, and an emerald;

¹⁸in the second row a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond;

¹⁹in the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

²⁰and in the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper.

Mount these stones in gold filigree settings. ²¹The twelve stones are to correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

²²For the breastpiece, make braided chains like cords of pure gold. ²³You are also to make two gold rings and fasten them to the two corners of the breastpiece. ²⁴Then fasten the two gold chains to the two gold rings at the corners of the breastpiece, ²⁵and fasten the other ends of the two chains to the two filigree settings, attaching them to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front.

²⁶Make two more gold rings and attach them to the other two corners of the breastpiece, on the inside edge next to the ephod.

²⁷Make two additional gold rings and attach them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, on its front, near its seam just above its woven waistband. ²⁸The rings of the breastpiece shall be tied to the rings of the ephod with a cord of blue yarn, so that the breastpiece is above the waistband of the ephod and does not swing out from the ephod.

²⁹Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he shall bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of judgment, as a continual reminder before the LORD.

³⁰And place the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece of judgment, so that they will also be over Aaron’s heart whenever he comes before the LORD. Aaron will continually carry the judgment of the sons of Israel over his heart before the LORD.

Additional Priestly Garments

³¹You are to make the robe of the ephod entirely of blue cloth, ³²with an opening at its top in the center. Around the opening shall be a woven collar with an opening like that of a garment, so that it will not tear.

³³Make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn all the way around the lower hem, with gold bells between them, ³⁴alternating the gold bells and pomegranates around the lower hem of the robe.

³⁵Aaron must wear the robe whenever he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he enters or exits the sanctuary before the LORD, so that he will not die.

³⁶You are to make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal:

HOLY TO THE LORD.

³⁷Fasten to it a blue cord to mount it on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban. ³⁸And it will be worn on Aaron’s forehead, so that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate with regard to all their holy gifts. It shall always be on his forehead, so that they may be acceptable before the LORD.

³⁹You are to weave the tunic with fine linen, make the turban of fine linen, and fashion an embroidered sash. ⁴⁰Make tunics, sashes, and headbands for Aaron’s sons, to give them glory and splendor.

⁴¹After you put these garments on your brother Aaron and his sons, anoint them, ordain them, and consecrate them so that they may serve Me as priests.

⁴²Make linen undergarments to cover their bare flesh, extending from waist to thigh. ⁴³Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die. This is to be a permanent statute for Aaron and his descendants.[’’]

Consecration of the Priests

¹“Now this is what you are to do to consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without blemish, ²along with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour, ³put them in a basket, and present them in the basket, along with the bull and the two rams.

⁴Then present Aaron and his sons at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. ⁵Take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastplate. Fasten the ephod on him with its woven waistband. ⁶Put the turban on his head and attach the holy diadem to the turban. ⁷Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.

⁸Present his sons as well and clothe them with tunics. ⁹Wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons and tie headbands on them. The priesthood shall be theirs by a permanent statute. In this way you are to ordain Aaron and his sons.

The Order of the Sacrifices

¹⁰You are to present the bull at the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. ¹¹And you shall slaughter the bull before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹²Take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; then pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ¹³Take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. ¹⁴But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

¹⁵Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. ¹⁶You are to slaughter the ram, take its blood, and splatter it on all sides of the altar. ¹⁷Cut the ram into pieces, wash the entrails and legs, and place them with its head and other pieces. ¹⁸Then burn the entire ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

¹⁹Take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. ²⁰Slaughter the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the remaining blood on all sides of the altar. ²¹And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, as well as on his sons and their garments. Then he and his garments will be consecrated, as well as his sons and their garments.

²²Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh (since this is a ram for ordination), ²³along with one loaf of bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD. ²⁴Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. ²⁵Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar atop the burnt offering as a pleasing aroma before the LORD; it is a food offering to the LORD.

²⁶Take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it before the LORD as a wave offering, and it will be your portion. ²⁷Consecrate for Aaron and his sons the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the heave offering that is lifted up from the ram of ordination. ²⁸This will belong to Aaron and his sons as a regular portion from the Israelites, for it is the heave offering the Israelites will make to the LORD from their peace offerings.

²⁹The holy garments that belong to Aaron will belong to his sons after him, so they can be anointed and ordained in them. ³⁰The son who succeeds him as priest and enters the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place must wear them for seven days.

Food for the Priests

³¹You are to take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. ³²At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. ³³They must eat those things by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no outsider may eat them, because these things are sacred. ³⁴And if any of the meat of ordination or any bread is left until the morning, you are to burn up the remainder. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.

³⁵This is what you are to do for Aaron and his sons based on all that I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. ³⁶Sacrifice a bull as a sin offering each day for atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. ³⁷For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will become most holy; whatever touches the altar will be holy.

The Daily Offerings

³⁸This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old. ³⁹Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight. ⁴⁰With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives, and a drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. ⁴¹And offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

⁴²For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you. ⁴³I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by My glory. ⁴⁴So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests.

God Will Dwell among the People

⁴⁵Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. ⁴⁶And they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them.

I am the LORD their God.[’’]

Josiah Restores the Passover

¹Then Josiah kept the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.

³To the Levites who taught all Israel and were holy to the LORD, Josiah said: “Put the holy ark in the temple built by Solomon son of David king of Israel. It is not to be carried around on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel. ⁴Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and Solomon his son.

⁵Moreover, stand in the Holy Place by the divisions of the families of your kinsmen the lay people, and by the divisions of the families of the Levites. ⁶Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your fellow countrymen to carry out the word of the LORD given by Moses.”

⁷From his own flocks and herds Josiah contributed 30,000 lambs and goats plus 3,000 bulls for the Passover offerings for all the people who were present.

⁸His officials also contributed willingly to the people and priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 bulls. ⁹Additionally, Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, as well as Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, contributed to the Levites 5,000 Passover offerings and 500 bulls.

¹⁰So the service was prepared; the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their divisions according to the king’s command. ¹¹And they slaughtered the Passover lambs, while the priests splattered the blood handed to them and the Levites skinned the animals. ¹²They set aside the burnt offerings to be given to the divisions of the families of the people to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And they did the same with the bulls.

¹³They roasted the Passover animals on the fire according to the regulation, and they boiled the other holy offerings in pots, kettles, and bowls and quickly brought them to all the people. ¹⁴Afterward, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, since the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were offering up burnt offerings and fat until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the priests, the descendants of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. And the gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made preparations for them.

¹⁶So on that day the entire service of the LORD was carried out for celebrating the Passover and offering burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷The Israelites who were present also observed the Passover at that time, as well as the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. ¹⁸No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁹In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed.

The Death of Josiah

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him. ²¹But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, “What is the issue between you and me, O king of Judah? I have not come against you today, but I am fighting another dynasty, and God has told me to hurry. So stop opposing God, who is with me, or He will destroy you!”

²²Josiah, however, did not turn away from him; instead, in order to engage him in battle, he disguised himself. He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to fight him on the Plain of Megiddo. ²³There the archers shot King Josiah, who said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am badly wounded!”

²⁴So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.

Laments over Josiah

²⁵Then Jeremiah lamented over Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers recite laments over Josiah. They established them as a statute for Israel, and indeed they are written in the Book of Laments.

²⁶As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of loving devotion according to what is written in the Law of the LORD— ²⁷his acts from beginning to end— they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

¹After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him. ²However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near. ³So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing. ⁴For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “Although your time is always at hand, My time has not yet come. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil. ⁸Go up to the feast on your own. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet come.”

⁹Having said this, Jesus remained in Galilee. ¹⁰But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, He also went — not publicly, but in secret.

¹¹So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”

¹²Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”

¹³Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴About halfway through the feast, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man attain such learning without having studied?”

¹⁶“My teaching is not My own,” Jesus replied. “It comes from Him who sent Me. ¹⁷If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. ¹⁸He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; in Him there is no falsehood. ¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

²⁰“You have a demon,” the crowd replied. “Who is trying to kill You?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.) ²³If a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken, why are you angry with Me for making the whole man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

²⁵Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶Yet here He is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying anything to Him. Have the rulers truly recognized that this is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this man is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where He is from.”

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him, ²⁹but I know Him, because I am from Him and He sent Me.”

³⁰So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. ³¹Many in the crowd, however, believed in Him and said, “When the Christ comes, will He perform more signs than this man?”

³²When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him. ³³So Jesus said, “I am with you only a little while longer, and then I am going to the One who sent Me. ³⁴You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

³⁵At this, the Jews said to one another, “Where does He intend to go that we will not find Him? Will He go where the Jews are dispersed among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶What does He mean by saying, ‘You will look for Me, but you will not find Me,’ and, ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

Living Water

³⁷On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” ³⁹He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Division over Jesus

⁴⁰On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.”

⁴¹Others declared, “This is the Christ.”

But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? ⁴²Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

⁴³So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

The Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

⁴⁶“Never has anyone spoken like this man!” the officers answered.

⁴⁷“Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees. ⁴⁸“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? ⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the law— they are under a curse.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked, ⁵¹“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

⁵²“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

⁵³Then each went to his own home.