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God's 10 special commands
5 Moses called all the Israelites to come together. He said to them:
Listen, Israelites, to the rules and commands that I am teaching to you today. Learn them. Be careful to obey them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Sinai. 3 He did not make this agreement with our ancestors. He made it with all of us who are alive here today. 4 The Lord spoke clearly to you from the middle of the fire on the mountain. 5 (At that time, I stood between the Lord and you. I repeated the Lord's message to you. You were afraid of the fire, so you did not go up the mountain.)
God said this:
6 ‘I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt, the country where you were slaves.
7 You must not have any other gods except me.
8 You must not make any idol for yourself. Do not make a false god in the shape of anything that is in the sky above. Do not make one in the shape of anything on the earth or in the sea. 9 You must not bend down your head to any idol or worship it. I am the Lord your God and I want you to belong to me alone. I will punish children because of the bad things that their fathers have done. I will also punish their grandchildren and their children too. That is how I will punish everyone who hates me. 10 But I will truly love all those who love me. They are the people who obey my laws. I will continue to love them and their families for ever.
11 You must not speak the name of the Lord your God in a wrong way. The Lord will punish anyone who speaks his name in a wrong way.
12 Always make the Sabbath day a special day for God, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You have six days every week to do all your work. 14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath day. It is special for the Lord your God. You must not do any work on that day. Your son and your daughter must not work on that day. Your servants, male or female, must not work on that day. Your ox or your donkey or any of your animals must not work on that day, nor any foreign person who lives among you. Then your servants can rest in the same way as you rest. 15 You must remember that you were slaves in Egypt. But I, the Lord your God, brought you out by my powerful authority. So the Lord your God has told you to make the Sabbath day a special day.
16 Always respect your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Then you will live for many years in the land that the Lord your God will give to you. And you will be happy.
17 You must not murder anyone.
18 You must not have sex with another person's wife or husband.
19 You must not take another person's things for yourself.
20 You must not say false things against your neighbour.
21 You must not want to take your neighbour's wife for yourself. You must not want his house or his land, or his servants, male or female. You must not want his ox or his donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.’
22 These are the commands that the Lord spoke to you. You were all there together at the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the middle of a great fire. There was a cloud and it was very dark. He gave only those commands. Then he wrote them on two flat stones and he gave them to me.
23 The mountain was burning with fire and you heard God's voice speak from the darkness. Then the leaders and older men of your tribes came to speak to me. 24 They said, ‘The Lord our God has shown us how great and how powerful he is. We have heard his voice from the middle of the fire. We have learned this: People can continue to live, even after God has spoken to them. 25 But now we think that this great fire will kill us. We do not want to die! If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, we will surely die. 26 The God who lives for ever has spoken to us from the middle of the fire. Has anyone ever heard him speak like that and then continued to live? 27 We ask you to go near to the Lord our God. Listen to everything that he says. Then you should tell us what he says to you. We will listen carefully and we will obey him.’
28 The Lord heard what you said to me. He said to me, ‘I have heard what these people have said to you. What they said is right. 29 I really want them to respect me with fear. I want them to obey my commands in the future! If they do that, everything will be well for them and for their descendants for ever. 30 Now tell them to return to their tents. 31 But you should stay here with me. I will tell you all the commands, rules and laws that you must teach to the people. Then they can obey them in the land that I will give them to live in.’
32 So you must be careful to do everything that the Lord your God has commanded you to do. You must not refuse to obey any of his laws. 33 Live in the way that he has commanded you. If you do that, you will be happy in the land where you are going. You will live for a long time in the land that will be your home.
Love the Lord your God!
6 These are the commands, rules and laws that the Lord your God gave to me. He told me to teach them to you. You must obey them when you go across the Jordan River to live in that land. 2 You must respect the Lord your God with fear. You must obey his rules and his commands that I am teaching you. You, your children and your grandchildren must obey them all through your lives. If you do that, you will enjoy a long life.
3 Listen, Israelites! Be careful to obey God's rules. If you do that, everything will be well for you. You will have many children. You will live in a land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised that this will happen.
4 Listen, Israelites! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other true God. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him with all that you are. 6 Always think about these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Teach them to your children at all times. Talk about them when you sit together at home. Talk about them as you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as signs on your arms and on your heads, so that you remember them. 9 Write them on the wood beside the doors of your houses and on your gates.
10 The Lord your God will soon bring you into a land that has large, beautiful cities that you did not build. That is the land that he promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 11 It has houses that are full of good things that you did not put into them. There are wells of water that you did not dig. There are fields with grapes and olive trees that you did not plant. You will be able to eat as much as you want. 12 But be careful that you do not forget the Lord. He rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves.
13 You must respect and obey the Lord your God. Serve only him. If you make a serious promise, only use his name to make it strong. 14 Do not try to serve other gods. They are the gods that the people who live around you worship. 15 The Lord your God lives among you. He wants you to belong to him alone. If you worship other gods, he will be very angry with you. He will completely destroy you from the whole earth.
16 Do not test the Lord your God, to see what he will do. That is what you did at Massah. 17 Be careful to obey his commands. Remember the laws and the rules that he has told you to obey. 18 Do things that the Lord says are right and good. If you do that, you will be happy in everything that you do. You will go into the good land that he promised to your ancestors, and that will be your home. 19 You will be able to chase out all your enemies, as the Lord has promised.
20 One day, your children may say to you, ‘Please tell us about the rules and laws that the Lord our God commanded us to obey.’
21 Then you must tell them, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. But the Lord used his great power to rescue us. 22 We saw him do great and powerful miracles that brought trouble to the Egyptians, and to Pharaoh himself and his family. 23 The Lord rescued us from Egypt so that he could give us another land to live in. That is the land that he promised to our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to obey all these rules and to respect him with fear. If we do that, we will always live happily and the Lord will keep us safe, as he has done until now. 25 We must be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord our God. If we do what he has told us, he will be pleased with us as people who do what is right.’
Jesus makes a dead man alive again
11 The next day, Jesus went to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large group of other people went with him. 12 When he had almost reached the gate of the town, lots of people were coming out. They were carrying a dead man on a wooden board. They were taking him to bury him. His mother had no other sons and her husband was also dead. A large crowd of people from the town was going with her.
13 When the Lord Jesus saw her, he felt very sorry for her. He said to her, ‘Do not cry.’ 14 He went to the board and he touched it. The people who were carrying the dead man stopped. Jesus said, ‘Young man, I am telling you, get up!’ 15 Immediately, the dead man sat up and he began to talk. Jesus then gave him back to his mother.
16 Everyone there was very afraid. They praised God and said, ‘A great prophet of God has appeared among us. God has come to save his people!’
17 This news about Jesus went everywhere in Judea. The people in the places that were near there also heard about it.
Jesus talks about John the Baptist
18 Then some disciples of John the Baptist went to visit him in prison. They told him about all the things that Jesus was doing. So John chose two of them to go to the Lord Jesus for him. 19 He said to them, ‘I want you to ask Jesus, “Are you the special person that God is sending to us? If not, should we still look for someone else?” ’
20 So the two men came to Jesus. They said to him, ‘John the Baptist has sent us to you. He wants us to ask you, “Are you the special person that God has promised to send to us? If not, should we still look for someone else?” ’
21 At that time, Jesus was making many people well. They had many different illnesses. Some had bad spirits in them. Jesus also caused many blind people to see again. 22 Then he said to the two men that John had sent, ‘Go back to John. Tell him what you have seen. Tell him what you have heard. Blind people can now see again. People that could not walk can now walk again. People who had a bad disease of the skin are now well again. Deaf people can now hear again. People who had died now live again. Poor people are hearing God's good news. 23 If anyone believes in me and does not turn away, he will be really happy.’[a]
24 The two disciples of John then left. Jesus spoke to the crowd about John. He said to them, ‘You went out to the wilderness. What did you go there to see? Was it a tall piece of grass which the wind was blowing this way and that? No, you did not go to see that. 25 Did you go to see a man who was wearing expensive clothes? No! People like that do not live in the wilderness. They have many beautiful things and they live in great houses. 26 So what did you go to see? Did you go to see a prophet sent by God? Yes! But I tell you, John was even more important than a prophet. 27 This is what they wrote about him a long time ago in the Bible, when God said:
“Listen! I will send someone to go in front of you.
He will speak my message.
He will prepare a way for you.” ’[b]
28 Jesus also said to the people, ‘I tell you, John is greater than any person who has ever lived up to now. But now anyone who belongs in the kingdom of God is greater than John, even the least important of them.’[c]
29 Many people heard what Jesus said. Even the men who took taxes from people agreed with his message. They had gone to John to baptize them. They all said, ‘What God says about us is right.’ 30 But the Pharisees and the men that studied God's Law had not asked John to baptize them. They did not believe the message that God was giving to them.
31 Jesus continued to teach. He said, ‘I will talk to you about the people that are alive today. I will tell you what they are like. 32 They are like children who are sitting in the market place. They are playing games. They shout to other children,
“We made happy music on a flute for you,
but you did not dance.
Then we sang a sad song but you did not cry.”
33 You are like those children. When John the Baptist came to you, he did not eat ordinary food. He never drank wine. So you say that John has a bad spirit in him. 34 Then I, the Son of Man, came. I eat meals with other people and I drink wine. So you say about me, “Look at this man! He eats too much and he drinks too much. He is a friend of bad people and men who take taxes from people.” 35 But God is wise and good. Wise people understand and they show that God is right.’[d]
19 Praise the Lord, as he deserves!
Every day he helps us with our troubles.
He is the God who keeps us safe!
Selah.
20 Our God is the God who rescues people.
The Almighty Lord saves us from death.
21 He will knock down the heads of his enemies.
He will destroy their skulls and their long hair,
if they continue to turn against him.
22 The Lord says, ‘I will bring my enemies back from Bashan,
even from deep down in the sea.
23 Then you can wash your feet in their blood.
Your dogs can have as much as they want!’[a]
24 God, you are my God and my King.
People will see the great crowd that goes with you,
as you go to your holy temple.
25 The singers will march in front.
The musicians will follow them.
Young women will be with them
as they beat their tambourines.
26 They all sing,
‘Praise God, all you crowd of people!
All you people of Israel,
praise the Lord!’
27 Benjamin, the smallest tribe, will lead them all.
The leaders of Judah, with their big group, will follow.
Then will come the leaders of Zebulun and Naphtali.[b]
28 God has commanded that you should be strong.
God, please show again how strong you are,
as you have used your strength to help us in past times.
29 As you live in your temple in Jerusalem,
kings will bring gifts to you.
30 Speak against your enemies!
Some are like wild animals that live in the reeds.[c]
Some are proud nations,
like bulls among their young cows.
They must be humble and offer to you
gifts of valuable silver things.
Chase away those nations that like to fight wars.
31 Egypt's leaders will come with gifts.
People will come from Cush
and they will agree to serve God.[d]
32 All you kingdoms of the earth,
sing to God!
Yes, sing to praise the Lord!
Selah.
33 He is the one who rides in the sky,
as he has done from the beginning of time.
Listen! He shouts with a powerful voice.
34 Agree that God is very powerful!
He is the King who rules over Israel.
He shows his power in the skies.
35 God, how great you are,
as you come from your holy temple!
He is the God of Israel.
He gives power to his people,
and he makes them strong.
Praise God as he deserves!
29 Anyone who causes trouble for his family will not receive any good thing from them.
A foolish person like that will become the servant of a wise person.
30 The good things that a righteous person does bring life.
A person who saves people's lives shows that he is wise.
31 Righteous people receive what they deserve, here on this earth.
So you can be sure that cruel and wicked people will receive their punishment.
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