Bible Reading
April 4
The World English Bible
Apr.
4
Leviticus
25 – 27
Lev
25:1 Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
Lev
25:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you
come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a
Sabbath to Yahweh.
Lev
25:3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall
prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
Lev
25:4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest
for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or
prune your vineyard.
Lev
25:5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and
the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a
year of solemn rest for the land.
Lev
25:6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for
yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant,
and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
Lev
25:7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your
land, shall all its increase be for food.
Lev
25:8 " 'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven
times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven
Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
Lev
25:9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the
seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet
throughout all your land.
Lev
25:10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty
throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to
you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of
you shall return to his family.
Lev
25:11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall
not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the
undressed vines.
Lev
25:12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of
its increase out of the field.
Lev
25:13 " 'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to
his property.
Lev
25:14 " 'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from
your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
Lev
25:15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall
buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops
he shall sell to you.
Lev
25:16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its
price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish
its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.
Lev
25:17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God:
for I am Yahweh your God.
Lev
25:18 " 'Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my
ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
Lev
25:19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill,
and dwell therein in safety.
Lev
25:20 If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold,
we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;"
Lev
25:21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and
it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
Lev
25:22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old
store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat
the old store.
Lev
25:23 " 'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land
is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
Lev
25:24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a
redemption for the land.
Lev
25:25 " 'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his
possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and
redeem that which his brother has sold.
Lev
25:26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous
and finds sufficient means to redeem it;
Lev
25:27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the
surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his
property.
Lev
25:28 But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then what he
has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the
Year of Jubilee: and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he
shall return to his property.
Lev
25:29 " 'If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then
he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a
full year he shall have the right of redemption.
Lev
25:30 If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the
house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to
him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be
released in the Jubilee.
Lev
25:31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them
shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be
redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
Lev
25:32 " 'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses in
the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
Lev
25:33 The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city
of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the
houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the
children of Israel.
Lev
25:34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold;
for it is their perpetual possession.
Lev
25:35 " 'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't
support him among you; then you shall uphold him. As a stranger and a
sojourner he shall live with you.
Lev
25:36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that
your brother may live among you.
Lev
25:37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him
your food for profit.
Lev
25:38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of
Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
Lev
25:39 " 'If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells
himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.
Lev
25:40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you;
he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee:
Lev
25:41 then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him,
and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his
fathers.
Lev
25:42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land
of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
Lev
25:43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear
your God.
Lev
25:44 " 'As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may
have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male
and female slaves.
Lev
25:45 Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among
you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you,
which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your
property.
Lev
25:46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you,
to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever:
but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one
over another, with harshness.
Lev
25:47 " 'If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and
your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the
stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the
stranger's family;
Lev
25:48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may
redeem him;
Lev
25:49 or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who
is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has
grown rich, he may redeem himself.
Lev
25:50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he
sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee: and the price of his sale
shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a
hired servant shall he be with him.
Lev
25:51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give
back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought
for.
Lev
25:52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then
he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall
give back the price of his redemption.
Lev
25:53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall
not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
Lev
25:54 If he isn't redeemed by these means, then he shall be released
in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him.
Lev
25:55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my
servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh
your God.
Lev
26:1 " 'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall
you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place
any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh
your God.
Lev
26:2 " 'You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my
sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
Lev
26:3 " 'If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments,
and do them;
Lev
26:4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land
shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield
their fruit.
Lev
26:5 Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage
shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the
full, and dwell in your land safely.
Lev
26:6 " 'I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down,
and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove evil animals out
of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Lev
26:7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by
the sword.
Lev
26:8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall
chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the
sword.
Lev
26:9 " 'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and
multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
Lev
26:10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the
old because of the new.
Lev
26:11 I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you.
Lev
26:12 I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be
my people.
Lev
26:13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of
Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the
bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
Lev
26:14 " 'But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all
these commandments;
Lev
26:15 and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors
my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break
my covenant;
Lev
26:16 I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you,
even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the
soul to pine away; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your
enemies will eat it.
Lev
26:17 I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before
your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will
flee when no one pursues you.
Lev
26:18 " 'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me,
then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
Lev
26:19 I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky
like iron, and your soil like brass;
Lev
26:20 and your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won't
yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their
fruit.
Lev
26:21 " 'If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me,
then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your
sins.
Lev
26:22 I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of
your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number;
and your roads will become desolate.
Lev
26:23 " 'If by these things you won't be reformed to me, but
will walk contrary to me;
Lev
26:24 then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you,
even I, seven times for your sins.
Lev
26:25 I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance
of the covenant; and you will be gathered together within your
cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you will be
delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Lev
26:26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your
bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight:
and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Lev
26:27 " 'If you in spite of this won't listen to me, but walk
contrary to me;
Lev
26:28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will
chastise you seven times for your sins.
Lev
26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the
flesh of your daughters.
Lev
26:30 I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense
altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and
my soul will abhor you.
Lev
26:31 I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries
to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of
your offerings.
Lev
26:32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that
dwell therein will be astonished at it.
Lev
26:33 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the
sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities
shall be a waste.
Lev
26:34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies
desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Even then the land will
rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
Lev
26:35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest
which it didn't have in your sabbaths, when you lived on it.
Lev
26:36 " 'As for those of you who are left, I will send a
faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies: and the
sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee,
as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues.
Lev
26:37 They will stumble over one another, as it were before the
sword, when no one pursues: and you will have no power to stand
before your enemies.
Lev
26:38 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your
enemies will eat you up.
Lev
26:39 Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in
your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers
shall they pine away with them.
Lev
26:40 " 'If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of
their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me,
and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
Lev
26:41 I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land
of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and
they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;
Lev
26:42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my
covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will
remember the land.
Lev
26:43 The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its
sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept
the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected
my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
Lev
26:44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies,
I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them
utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their
God;
Lev
26:45 but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their
ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight
of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.' "
Lev
26:46 These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made
between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
Lev
27:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev
27:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When a
man makes a vow, the persons shall be for Yahweh by your valuation.
Lev
27:3 Your valuation shall be of a male from twenty years old even to
sixty years old, even your valuation shall be fifty shekels of
silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
Lev
27:4 If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.
Lev
27:5 If the person is from five years old even to twenty years old,
then your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a
female ten shekels.
Lev
27:6 If the person is from a month old even to five years old, then
your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a
female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.
Lev
27:7 If the person is from sixty years old and upward; if it is a
male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female
ten shekels.
Lev
27:8 But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set
before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the
ability of him who vowed shall the priest value him.
Lev
27:9 " 'If it is an animal, of which men offer an offering to
Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy.
Lev
27:10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a
bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then
both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy.
Lev
27:11 If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an
offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest;
Lev
27:12 and the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad. As
you the priest values it, so shall it be.
Lev
27:13 But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth
part of it to its valuation.
Lev
27:14 " 'When a man dedicates his house to be holy to Yahweh,
then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the
priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand.
Lev
27:15 If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall
add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall
be his.
Lev
27:16 " 'If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his
possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for
it: the sowing of a homer of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels
of silver.
Lev
27:17 If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according
to your valuation it shall stand.
Lev
27:18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the
priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that
remain to the Year of Jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from
your valuation.
Lev
27:19 If he who dedicated the field will indeed redeem it, then he
shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it
shall remain his.
Lev
27:20 If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field
to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more;
Lev
27:21 but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy
to Yahweh, as a field devoted; it shall be owned by the priests.
Lev
27:22 " 'If he dedicates to Yahweh a field which he has bought,
which is not of the field of his possession,
Lev
27:23 then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your
valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and he shall give your valuation
on that day, as a holy thing to Yahweh.
Lev
27:24 In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom
it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land
belongs.
Lev
27:25 All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the
sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.
Lev
27:26 " 'Only the firstborn among animals, which is made a
firstborn to Yahweh, no man may dedicate it; whether an ox or sheep,
it is Yahweh's.
Lev
27:27 If it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back
according to your valuation, and shall add to it the fifth part of
it: or if it isn't redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your
valuation.
Lev
27:28 " 'Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall
devote to Yahweh of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of
the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted
thing is most holy to Yahweh.
Lev
27:29 " 'No one devoted, who shall be devoted from among men,
shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.
Lev
27:30 " 'All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the
land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh's. It is holy to Yahweh.
Lev
27:31 If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth
part to it.
Lev
27:32 All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes
under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.
Lev
27:33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall
he change it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and that for
which it is changed shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.' "
Lev
27:34 These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for
the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
Apr. 4, 5
Luke 4
Luk 4:1 Jesus, full of
the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness
Luk 4:2 for forty days,
being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward,
when they were completed, he was hungry.
Luk 4:3 The devil said
to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become
bread."
Luk 4:4 Jesus answered
him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.' "
Luk 4:5 The devil,
leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the
world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6 The devil said
to him, "I will give you all this authority, and their glory,
for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want.
Luk 4:7 If you
therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours."
Luk 4:8 Jesus answered
him, "Get behind me Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship
the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.' "
Luk 4:9 He led him to
Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to
him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here,
Luk 4:10 for it is
written, 'He will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you;'
Luk 4:11 and, 'On their
hands they will bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against
a stone.' "
Luk 4:12 Jesus
answering, said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt
the Lord your God.' "
Luk 4:13 When the devil
had completed every temptation, he departed from him until another
time.
Luk 4:14 Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and news about him spread
through all the surrounding area.
Luk 4:15 He taught in
their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Luk 4:16 He came to
Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his
custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
Luk 4:17 The book of
the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found
the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18 "The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to
proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind,
to deliver those who are crushed,
Luk 4:19 and to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Luk 4:20 He closed the
book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in
the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21 He began to
tell them, "Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing."
Luk 4:22 All testified
about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth, and they said, "Isn't this Joseph's son?"
Luk 4:23 He said to
them, "Doubtless you will tell me this parable, 'Physician, heal
yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in
your hometown.' "
Luk 4:24 He said, "Most
certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
Luk 4:25 But truly I
tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah,
when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great
famine came over all the land.
Luk 4:26 Elijah was
sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a
woman who was a widow.
Luk 4:27 There were
many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one
of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian."
Luk 4:28 They were all
filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things.
Luk 4:29 They rose up,
threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that
their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.
Luk 4:30 But he,
passing through the midst of them, went his way.
Luk 4:31 He came down
to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath
day,
Luk 4:32 and they were
astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
Luk 4:33 In the
synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and
he cried out with a loud voice,
Luk 4:34 saying, "Ah!
what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to
destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!"
Luk 4:35 Jesus rebuked
him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" When the
demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having
done him no harm.
Luk 4:36 Amazement came
on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, "What
is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean
spirits, and they come out!"
Luk 4:37 News about him
went out into every place of the surrounding region.
Luk 4:38 He rose up
from the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. Simon's
mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him
for her.
Luk 4:39 He stood over
her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up
and served them.
Luk 4:40 When the sun
was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought
them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed
them.
Luk 4:41 Demons also
came out from many, crying out, and saying, "You are the Christ,
the Son of God!" Rebuking them, he didn't allow them to speak,
because they knew that he was the Christ.
Luk 4:42 When it was
day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the
multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so
that he wouldn't go away from them.
Luk 4:43 But he said to
them, "I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the
other cities also. For this reason I have been sent."
Luk 4:44 He was
preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
If there is an all-knowing, all-powerful God (and there is, see