One Year Bible.

Aaron’s First Offerings

¹On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. ²He said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and present them before the LORD. ³Then speak to the Israelites and say, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb — both a year old and without blemish — for a burnt offering, ⁴an ox and a ram for a peace offering to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”

⁵So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the LORD. ⁶And Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

⁷Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to make atonement for yourself and for the people. And sacrifice the people’s offering to make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded.”

⁸So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. ⁹The sons of Aaron brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to the horns of the altar. And he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ¹⁰On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the sin offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses. ¹¹But he burned up the flesh and the hide outside the camp.

¹²Then Aaron slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar. ¹³They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. ¹⁴He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them atop the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵Aaron then presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and offered it for sin like the first one.

¹⁶He presented the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance.

¹⁷Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.

¹⁸Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people’s peace offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

¹⁹They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram— the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver— ²⁰and placed these on the breasts. Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar, ²¹but he waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.

²²Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having made the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down.

²³Moses and Aaron then entered the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. ²⁴Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

The Dispute over Circumcision

¹Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ²And after engaging these men in sharp debate, Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

³Sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers. ⁴On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and apostles and elders, to whom they reported all that God had done through them.

The Council at Jerusalem

⁵But some believers from the party of the Pharisees stood up and declared, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.” ⁶So the apostles and elders met to look into this matter.

⁷After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. ⁸And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? ¹¹On the contrary, we believe it is through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

¹²The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. ¹³When they had finished speaking, James declared, “Brothers, listen to me! ¹⁴Simon has told us how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people to be His own. ¹⁵The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

¹⁶‘After this I will return and rebuild

the fallen tent of David.

Its ruins I will rebuild,

and I will restore it,

¹⁷so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,

says the Lord who does these things

¹⁸that have been known for ages.’

¹⁹It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God. ²⁰Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. ²¹For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

The Letter to the Gentile Believers

²²Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to select men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, two leaders among the brothers, ²³and sent them with this letter:

The apostles and the elders, your brothers,

To the brothers among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia:

Greetings.

²⁴It has come to our attention that some went out from us without our authorization and unsettled you, troubling your minds by what they said. ²⁵So we all agreed to choose men to send to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, ²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁷Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to tell you in person the same things we are writing.

²⁸It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond these essential requirements: ²⁹You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

The Believers at Antioch Rejoice

³⁰So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they assembled the congregation and delivered the letter. ³¹When the people read it, they rejoiced at its encouraging message.

³²Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers. ³³After spending some time there, they were sent off by the brothers in peace to return to those who had sent them. ³⁵But Paul and Barnabas remained at Antioch, along with many others, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord.

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey Begins

³⁶Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the brothers in every town where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.” ³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark. ³⁸But Paul thought it best not to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

³⁹Their disagreement was so sharp that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, ⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹And he traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

The Potter and the Clay

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ²“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message.”

³So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel. ⁴But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

⁵Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁶“O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

⁷At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed. ⁸But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

⁹And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom, ¹⁰and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.

¹¹Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

¹²But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

¹³Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Inquire among the nations:

Who has ever heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon

ever leave its rocky slopes?

Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance

ever run dry?

¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me.

They burn incense to worthless idols

that make them stumble in their ways,

leaving the ancient roads

to walk on rutted bypaths

instead of on the highway.

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation,

a perpetual object of scorn;

all who pass by will be appalled

and shake their heads.

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemy

like the east wind.

I will show them My back and not My face

in the day of their calamity.”

Another Plot against Jeremiah

¹⁸Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”

¹⁹Attend to me, O LORD.

Hear what my accusers are saying!

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for me.

Remember how I stood before You

to speak good on their behalf,

to turn Your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine;

pour out the power of the sword upon them.

Let their wives become childless and widowed;

let their husbands be slain by disease,

their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses

when You suddenly bring raiders against them,

for they have dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden snares for my feet.

²³But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me.

Do not wipe out their guilt

or blot out their sin from Your sight.

Let them be overthrown before You;

deal with them in the time of Your anger.

The Broken Jar

¹This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests, ²and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.

Proclaim there the words I speak to you, ³saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, ⁴because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal — something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

⁶So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. ⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

¹⁰Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you, ¹¹and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹²This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth— all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people, ¹⁵“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

¹When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ²he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

³The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. ⁴For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵I will give away all the wealth of this city — all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah — to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried — you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

⁷You have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived.

You have overcome me and prevailed.

I am a laughingstock all day long;

everyone mocks me.

⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out;

I proclaim violence and destruction.

For the word of the LORD has become to me

a reproach and derision all day long.

⁹If I say, “I will not mention Him

or speak any more in His name,”

His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,

shut up in my bones,

and I become weary of holding it in,

and I cannot prevail.

¹⁰For I have heard the whispering of many:

“Terror is on every side!

Report him; let us report him!”

All my trusted friends

watch for my fall:

“Perhaps he will be deceived

so that we may prevail against him

and take our vengeance upon him.”

¹¹But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior.

Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.

Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame,

with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.

¹²O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous,

who sees the heart and mind,

let me see Your vengeance upon them,

for to You I have committed my cause.

¹³Sing to the LORD!

Praise the LORD!

For He rescues the life of the needy

from the hands of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day I was born!

May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,

saying, “A son is born to you,”

bringing him great joy.

¹⁶May that man be like the cities

that the LORD overthrew without compassion.

May he hear an outcry in the morning

and a battle cry at noon,

¹⁷because he did not kill me in the womb

so that my mother might have been my grave,

and her womb forever enlarged.

¹⁸Why did I come out of the womb

to see only trouble and sorrow,

and to end my days in shame?