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17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 ‘Tell the Israelites this. I am bringing them into the land of Canaan. After they have gone into it, they must obey my rules. 19 When they first eat the food from that land, they must give a special offering to the Lord. 20 You must give a cake as a special offering from the first of your flour. You must do it as you give your special gift from your threshing floor. 21 From the first of your flour, you must give to the Lord a special offering. And your descendants must continue to do that.
22 The people might not obey a rule that the Lord told Moses about. But they might not know that they are not obeying a rule. 23 It might be any rule that the Lord gave to you by Moses. 24 Perhaps somebody does not know that they are not obeying one of my rules. When that happens, they must sacrifice a young bull as a burnt offering. The smell of the smoke from this sacrifice will please the Lord. Also, they must give a grain offering, a drink offering and a male goat as a sin offering. 25 Then the priest will make things right with God for all the Israelites. The Lord will forgive them. That is because their sin was a mistake. They have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord. And they have brought their sin offering to the Lord, for their mistake. 26 God will forgive all the Israelites and the foreign people who live among you. That is because your sin was a mistake. And also you offered the proper sacrifices to me.
27 Also, a person may not know that something is a sin. If he does that thing, he must sacrifice a female goat. The goat must be one year old. It will be a sin offering. 28 The priest will bring the gift to the Lord. That is to make things right. Then the Lord will forgive that person who did the sin. The person did not know that he had done a wrong thing. 29 The same rule is for the Israelites and for all the foreign people who live among them. That is when it was a mistake. 30 But a person might do something that he knows to be wrong. He does it because he wants to do it. That person is as bad as someone who insults the Lord. It does not matter whether he is an Israelite or a foreign person. You must make that person separate from all the people. 31 That person thought that the Lord's command was not important. He has not obeyed God's rules. So you must make that person completely separate from the people. He is a guilty person.’
A man does not obey the rules for the day of rest
32 When the Israelites were in the desert, a man was picking up sticks on the day of rest. 33 Some people found him while he was picking up the sticks. They took him to Moses and Aaron and to all the people. 34 They were not sure what to do with the man. So they put him by himself in a tent. Men stood at the door of the tent so that he could not leave it. 35 The Lord said to Moses, ‘This man must die. All the people must take him outside the camp. They must throw stones at him to kill him.’ 36 So the people took the man outside the camp. They threw stones at him until he died. That was what the Lord had told Moses to do.
Tassels
37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 ‘Tell the Israelites that they must put tassels on the corners of their clothes. They must fix the tassels on blue strings. They must do this now and for all future time. 39 You will be able to look at the tassels. They will help you to remember all the Lord's rules. Then you can obey them. Then you will not only do what you yourself want to do. You will not turn away from me. 40 When you see the tassels, you will remember to obey all my rules. You will be holy for your God. 41 I am the Lord your God. I brought you out from Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’
Korah and other people turn against Moses
16 Then Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, decided to speak against Moses. Eliab's sons, Dathan and Abiram, and Peleth's son, On, who were descendants of Reuben, were with him. 2 Together with 250 leaders of the Israelites, they all turned against Moses. Those were famous men that the people had chosen as their leaders. 3 They all came to Moses and Aaron and they said, ‘All the Israelites are special. The Lord has chosen all of us and he is with us all. So you should not say that you are better than the rest of the Lord's people.’
4 When Moses heard that, he threw himself onto the ground. 5 Moses said to Korah and to all the other men, ‘Tomorrow the Lord will show us who is truly special to him. He will show us who really belongs to him. He will make the person that he chooses come near to him. 6 Now do this: Get some pots for yourselves, Korah and your group of friends. 7 Put fire and incense in them, to burn in front of the Lord tomorrow. Then the Lord will choose the man who is holy. You make yourselves too important, you descendants of Levi!’
8 Then Moses said to Korah, ‘Listen, you descendants of Levi. 9 The God of Israel has caused you Levites to be separate from all the other Israelites. He has brought you near to himself, to work in the Lord's Tent. He has chosen you to stand in front of all the people to serve them. But it seems that this is not enough for you. 10 He has brought you, Korah, and all the other descendants of Levi near to himself. But it seems that you want to be priests as well. 11 You are not only speaking bad words against Aaron. You and all your group are complaining against the Lord!’
12 Then Moses called Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, to come to him. But they said, ‘No, we will not come. 13 You have brought us out of a country where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. You have brought us here, where we will die in the desert. But it seems that that is not enough for you. It seems that you want to be our master as well! 14 You have certainly not brought us into a land where there is plenty of food and drink. You have not given to us fields and vineyards, for us and for our descendants. You cannot deceive all these men. We will not come up to meet with you!’
15 Moses was angry. He said to the Lord, ‘Do not accept what these men offer to you. I did not take anything from them, not even one donkey! I did not do a wrong thing to any of them.’
16 Moses said to Korah, ‘Tomorrow, you and your men must come to the Tent of Meeting. You must come to stand in front of the Lord. Aaron will be there too. 17 Each of you must take a pot and you must put incense in it. You must put the pots on the altar in front of the Lord. That will be 250 pots. You yourself must do the same thing, as well as Aaron.’ 18 So each man took a pot. He put incense in it, and fire to burn it. They stood with Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
19 Korah brought all his group of people to stand against Moses and Aaron at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 20 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 21 ‘Stand away from these men so that I can kill them.’
22 But Moses and Aaron threw themselves on the ground. Their faces were touching the ground. They said, ‘You, our God, are the God who gives life to all people. When one man does a bad thing, will you be angry with all the people? Is that right?’
23 The Lord said to Moses, 24 ‘Tell the people to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’
25 Moses got up from the ground. He went to Dathan and Abiram. The leaders of the Israelites went with him. 26 Moses said to all the people, ‘Move away from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them. If you do not move away, God may destroy you together with them, because of all their sins.’
27 So the people moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram were standing with their wives, babies and children at the doors of their tents.
28 Then Moses said to the people, ‘Now you will know that the Lord has chosen me to lead you. He has told me to do this. It was not my own idea. This is how you will know. 29 If these men die in a usual way, as all men will die one day, then the Lord did not choose me. 30 But if the Lord causes something new to happen to these men, you will know that they have turned against him. For example, a hole might appear in the ground so that these men fall into it. They might fall down into their own graves while they are still alive. If that happens to them and to all that belongs to them, then you will know that the Lord has punished them.’
31 When Moses finished speaking, a hole opened in the ground. 32 Like a big mouth, it ate those men, their families and everything that belonged to them. The earth covered Korah, all his group and everything that belonged to them. 33 They all went down into the deep grave while they were still alive. The ground closed over them and they died, no longer part of God's people. 34 When the other Israelites heard those men shout, they ran away quickly. They were saying, ‘Help! The ground might eat us too!’
35 Then the Lord sent fire down. It killed the 250 men who were offering the incense to God.
36 The Lord said to Moses, 37 ‘Tell Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he must take the pots with incense out of the burning fire. That is because those pots are holy. Then you must throw away the coal over all the ground round that place. 38 Those men died because they did a bad thing. But the pots that they were holding are holy, because they were offering the incense to the Lord. So workers must use hammers to make the pots into thin metal. Then cover the altar with the metal. That will be like a sign to warn the Israelites.’ 39 So Eleazar took the 250 pots and he used the bronze metal to cover the altar. 40 Then the Israelites would remember not to do what Korah and his group did. Only people from the family of Aaron could burn incense on the Lord's altar. God would punish anyone else, like he punished Korah and his men. The Lord had given this command through Moses.
Pilate asks Jesus questions
15 Very early the next morning, all the Jewish leaders met together. The leaders of the priests met with the leaders, the teachers of God's Law, and the other important Jews. They decided what they would do. They tied Jesus' hands and feet and they took him to Pilate's house. They put him under Pilate's authority.[a]
2 Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’
Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’
3 Then the leaders of the priests told Pilate that Jesus had done many bad things. 4 So Pilate asked him again, ‘What is your answer? You should say something! Listen! They are saying that you have done many bad things.’
5 But Jesus still did not reply to what the men were saying against him. Pilate was very surprised about that.
6 During the Passover festival each year, Pilate let one person go free out of the prison. The people had to ask him for the person that they wanted. 7 A man called Barabbas was in the prison at that time. He and some other men had fought against the Roman rulers. And they had killed someone when they were fighting. 8 The crowd came to Pilate. They asked him to do what he usually did at this time.
9 Pilate asked the people, ‘Do you want me to let the king of the Jews go free?’ 10 Pilate knew why the leaders of the priests had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much. 11 But the leaders of the priests talked strongly to the people. They said, ‘Ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free instead of Jesus.’
12 Pilate asked the crowd again, ‘So what should I do to Jesus? He is the man that you call “the king of the Jews”.’
13 The people shouted back to Pilate: ‘Kill him on a cross!’
14 ‘Why should I kill him?’ Pilate asked. ‘What bad things has he done?’
But the people shouted even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross!’
15 Pilate decided to do what the crowd wanted.[b] So he let Barabbas go free. He said to his soldiers, ‘Hit Jesus many times with a whip.[c] Then take him and fix him on a cross to die.’
16 So the soldiers took Jesus to the yard at the ruler's house. They told all the soldiers in their group to come there. 17 Then they put a dark red coat on Jesus. They used some branches with thorns to make a crown for him.[d] They put it on his head.
18 Then the soldiers began to laugh at Jesus. They said, ‘Hello, King of the Jews, you are great!’ 19 They took a stick and they hit him on the head with it many times. They spat on him. Then they went down on their knees in front of him. They told him how great he was. 20 When they had stopped laughing at him, they took the dark red coat off him. They put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him away to the place where they would kill him on a cross.
The soldiers put Jesus on a cross
21 When the soldiers were taking Jesus out to that place, a man called Simon was there. He was coming in from outside the city. He was from the city of Cyrene, and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers told Simon that he must carry Jesus' cross. 22 The soldiers took Jesus to a place that is called Golgotha. (Golgotha means ‘the place of a skull’.)[e]
23 They tried to give Jesus some wine to drink. They had mixed some medicine called myrrh into the wine. But Jesus would not drink it. 24 Then the soldiers fixed Jesus onto the cross. They took his clothes for themselves. They played a game to decide which soldier would receive each of his clothes.
25 It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the soldiers fixed Jesus to the cross. 26 They put a notice there to show the reason why they were killing him. It said, ‘The King of the Jews’. 27 They also put two robbers on crosses near to Jesus. One robber was on Jesus' right side. The other robber was on his left side. 28 [The Bible says that this would happen.[f] It says, ‘People thought of him as someone who did not obey God's Law.’][g]
29 The people who walked near there insulted Jesus. They laughed at him and they said, ‘Oh! You said that you would destroy the temple. And you said that in three days you would build it again. 30 If you can really do that, save yourself. Come down from the cross!’
31 The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law laughed at him. They said to each other, ‘This man saved other people, did he? But he cannot save his own life! 32 If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross now. Then we would see it and we would believe in him.’ The two men who were on the crosses next to Jesus also insulted him.
Jesus dies
33 At midday, the whole country became dark for three hours. 34 At three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus shouted loudly, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ That means, ‘My God, my God, why have you left me alone?’
35 Some people who were standing near there heard him. They said to each other, ‘Look! He is shouting to Elijah.’
36 One man ran to get a piece of cloth. He poured cheap wine on it, and he put it on the end of a stick. Then he lifted it up to Jesus so that he could drink the wine from it. The man said, ‘Wait! Now we will see if Elijah comes to take him down from the cross.’
37 Then Jesus shouted loudly, and after that he died.
38 And the curtain inside the temple completely tore into two parts from the top down to the bottom.[h]
39 The captain of the soldiers was standing there in front of Jesus.[i] He saw how Jesus died. ‘It must be true!’ he said. ‘This man really was the Son of God.’
40 Some women were also there. They were watching these events from a long way away. Mary from Magdala was one of the women. Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses was also there. Salome was there too. 41 These women had travelled with Jesus when he was in Galilee and they had helped him. Many other women were also there near the cross. They had come to Jerusalem with Jesus.
Joseph buries Jesus' dead body
42 It was Friday and the Jews were preparing for their day of rest on the Sabbath. 43 That evening, a man called Joseph went to see Pilate. Joseph was from a town called Arimathea. He was a good man and he was one of the group of important Jewish leaders. He was waiting for the time when God would start to rule his people in his kingdom. Joseph bravely asked Pilate for the dead body of Jesus to bury it. 44 Pilate was surprised that Jesus had already died. He asked the captain of the soldiers to come to him. He asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 The captain told Pilate that Jesus was already dead. So then Pilate let Joseph go and take Jesus' dead body. 46 Joseph bought a piece of linen cloth. He took Jesus' body down from the cross and he put the cloth around it. Then he put the body in a large hole in a rock. People had made that hole to put dead bodies in. After this, Joseph rolled a big stone across the front of the hole to shut it.
47 Mary from Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching. They saw where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.
David wrote this special song for the music leader. He must use stringed instruments. It was when the men of Ziph went to Saul and they said, ‘David is hiding with us.’
God keeps me safe[a]
54 God, you are great, so please help me!
Use your power to show that I am right.
2 God, hear my prayer,
and listen carefully to what I am saying.
3 Strangers are attacking me!
Cruel people want to kill me.
They do not respect you, God.[b]
Selah.
4 But I know that God is the one who gives me help.
My Lord takes care of me.
5 Pay back my enemies with their own evil.
Please do what you have promised
and destroy them.
6 I choose to offer a sacrifice to thank you.
Lord, you are always good,
so I want to praise your name.
7 Yes, God has saved me from all my trouble.
When I looked at my enemies,
I see that I have won against them.[c]
5 An honest man who is righteous has a straight path to walk on.
But the sins of a wicked person will cause him to fall down.
6 When honest people are righteous, that will keep them safe.
But the bad things that wicked people want will catch them in a trap.
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