One Year Bible.

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

¹If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ²your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

³Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, ⁴bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. ⁶Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, ⁷and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.”

And the bloodshed will be atoned for. ⁹So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

Marrying a Captive Woman

¹⁰When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, ¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, ¹²then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, ¹³and put aside the clothing of her captivity.

After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

Inheritance Rights of the Firstborn

¹⁵If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, ¹⁶when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

¹⁷Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.

A Rebellious Son

¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, ¹⁹his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown, ²⁰and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

Cursed Is Anyone Hung on a Tree

²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, ²³you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Faith and Belief

¹O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ²I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

³Are you so foolish? After starting in the Spirit, are you now finishing in the flesh? ⁴Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? ⁵Does God lavish His Spirit on you and work miracles among you because you practice the law, or because you hear and believe?

⁶So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ⁷Understand, then, that those who have faith are sons of Abraham. ⁸The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” ⁹So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Christ Has Redeemed Us

¹⁰All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” ¹¹Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” ¹²The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” ¹⁴He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

The Purpose of the Law

¹⁵Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended. ¹⁶The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.

¹⁷What I mean is this: The law that came 430 years later does not revoke the covenant previously established by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God freely granted it to Abraham through a promise.

¹⁹Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator. ²⁰A mediator is unnecessary, however, for only one party; but God is one.

²¹Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law. ²²But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

²³Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. ²⁴So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

Sons through Faith in Christ

²⁶You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

Chambers for the Priests

¹Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side. ²The building with the door facing north was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide. ³Gallery faced gallery in three levels opposite the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court.

⁴In front of the chambers was an inner walkway ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long. Their doors were on the north.

⁵Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building. ⁶For they were arranged in three stories, and unlike the courts, they had no pillars. So the upper chambers were set back further than the lower and middle floors. ⁷An outer wall in front of the chambers was fifty cubits long and ran parallel to the chambers and the outer court. ⁸For the chambers on the outer court were fifty cubits long, while those facing the temple were a hundred cubits long. ⁹And below these chambers was the entrance on the east side as one enters them from the outer court.

¹⁰On the south side along the length of the wall of the outer court were chambers adjoining the courtyard and opposite the building, ¹¹with a passageway in front of them, just like the chambers that were on the north. They had the same length and width, with similar exits and dimensions. ¹²And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward.

¹³Then the man said to me, “The north and south chambers facing the temple courtyard are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD will eat the most holy offerings. There they will place the most holy offerings— the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings— for the place is holy. ¹⁴Once the priests have entered the holy area, they must not go out into the outer court until they have left behind the garments in which they minister, for these are holy. They are to put on other clothes before they approach the places that are for the people.”

The Outer Measurements

¹⁵Now when the man had finished measuring the interior of the temple area, he led me out by the gate that faced east, and he measured the area all around:

¹⁶With a measuring rod he measured the east side to be five hundred cubits long.

¹⁷He measured the north side to be five hundred cubits long.

¹⁸He measured the south side to be five hundred cubits long.

¹⁹And he came around and measured the west side to be five hundred cubits long.

²⁰So he measured the area on all four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits wide, to separate the holy from the common.

The Glory of the LORD Returns to the Temple

¹Then the man brought me back to the gate that faces east, ²and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of many waters, and the earth shone with His glory.

³The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown, ⁴and the glory of the LORD entered the temple through the gate facing east. ⁵Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.

⁶While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me from inside the temple, ⁷and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name — neither they nor their kings — by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths. ⁸When they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy name by the abominations they committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger. ⁹Now let them remove far from Me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will dwell among them forever.

¹⁰As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan, ¹¹and if they are ashamed of all they have done, then make known to them the design of the temple— its arrangement and its exits and entrances— its whole design along with all its statutes, forms, and laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out.

¹²This is the law of the temple: All its surrounding territory on top of the mountain will be most holy. Yes, this is the law of the temple.

The Altar of Sacrifice

¹³These are the measurements of the altar in long cubits (a cubit and a handbreadth): Its gutter shall be a cubit deep and a cubit wide, with a rim of one span around its edge.

And this is the height of the altar: ¹⁴The space from the gutter on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the ledge one cubit wide. The space from the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits, and the ledge one cubit wide.

¹⁵The altar hearth shall be four cubits high, and four horns shall project upward from the hearth. ¹⁶The altar hearth shall be square at its four corners, twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide. ¹⁷The ledge shall also be square, fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, with a rim of half a cubit and a gutter of a cubit all around it. The steps of the altar shall face east.”

¹⁸Then He said to me: “Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day it is constructed, so that burnt offerings may be sacrificed on it and blood may be splattered on it: ¹⁹You are to give a young bull from the herd as a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are of the family of Zadok, who approach Me to minister before Me, declares the Lord GOD. ²⁰You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and all around the rim; thus you will cleanse the altar and make atonement for it. ²¹Then you are to take away the bull for the sin offering and burn it in the appointed part of the temple area outside the sanctuary.

²²On the second day you are to present an unblemished male goat as a sin offering, and the altar is to be cleansed as it was with the bull. ²³When you have finished the purification, you are to present a young, unblemished bull and an unblemished ram from the flock. ²⁴You must present them before the LORD; the priests are to sprinkle salt on them and sacrifice them as a burnt offering to the LORD.

²⁵For seven days you are to provide a male goat daily for a sin offering; you are also to provide a young bull and a ram from the flock, both unblemished. ²⁶For seven days the priests are to make atonement for the altar and cleanse it; so they shall consecrate it. ²⁷At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Lord GOD.’”