The Daily Audio Bible
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The Passover Festival[a]
16 The month Abib is a special month for you.[b] In this month, you must eat a meal to remember the Passover. Remember what the Lord your God did for you. In that month, he brought you out of Egypt during the night. 2 You must go to the special place that the Lord will choose for his people to worship him. There you must kill one of your animals as a sacrifice to remember the Passover. You may kill one of your cows or sheep. 3 At this feast, eat bread that you make without any yeast. For seven days, you must eat bread that you make without yeast. You ate that kind of bread when you had much trouble in Egypt. You had to leave Egypt in a hurry that night. You must eat that bread each year. Then you will always remember the day when you left Egypt. 4 During those seven days, no one may keep any yeast in their house. There must not be any yeast in the whole land. On the first day, you will kill your animal to eat in the evening. You must eat all the meat that same night, so that there is no meat left in the morning.
5 You must not kill the animal for the Passover sacrifice in any of the towns that the Lord your God gives to you. 6 You must go to the place that he will choose as his special home. You must kill the animal there, at sunset. That was the time of day when you came out of Egypt. 7 Cook the meat and eat it in the place that the Lord your God will choose. The next morning, you may return to your tents. 8 For the next six days, you must eat bread that you make without yeast. On the seventh day, you must all come together to worship the Lord your God. You must not do any work on that day.
The Festival of Weeks[c]
9 Count seven weeks from the first day that you bring in crops of grain from your fields. 10 Then eat the Feast of Weeks to worship the Lord your God. Bring the gifts that you want to offer to him. Bring gifts that show how much he has blessed you. 11 You and your family will be happy to worship the Lord your God, at the special place that he chooses. Enjoy time together with your children, your servants and the Levites who live in your town. Also join with the foreign people who live among you, with widows, and children who have no family. Worship God happily together. 12 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt. So be careful to obey these commands.
The Festival of Huts[d]
13 When you have prepared the grain and the grapes from your fields, eat the Feast of Huts for seven days. 14 Enjoy your feast with your children, your servants and the Levites. Join with the foreign people who live among you, and also with the widows and the children who have no family. 15 Eat this feast to worship the Lord your God at the special place that he chooses. Do it for seven days. He will bless you in everything that you do, so that you grow plenty of food. So you should all enjoy this feast!
16 Three times in every year, all your men must go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. They must go there for the Passover festival, the festival of Weeks and the festival of Huts. Each man must bring with him gifts to offer to the Lord. 17 Give to the Lord as much as you are able to. Your gifts may be large or small, as much as the Lord has blessed you.
Judges
18 Each tribe must choose judges and officers in every town that the Lord gives you. They must judge the people in a way that is fair. 19 Judges must do what is right for every person, rich or poor. They must not accept any bribes. A bribe may hide the truth even from a wise man. It can make honest people tell lies. 20 Make sure that there is justice for everyone in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. Then the land will belong to you and you will enjoy life in it.
Do not worship other gods
21 When you build an altar to offer sacrifices to the Lord your God, do not put any Asherah pole there. 22 Do not put up any stone pillar as an idol. The Lord your God hates everything like that.[e]
Animals for sacrifice
17 When you offer an animal as a sacrifice to the Lord your God, it must be perfect. Do not bring any sheep or bull that has something wrong with it. The Lord hates any gift like that.
Justice
2 The Lord your God will give you towns to live in. You may hear that a man or a woman who lives in one of your towns has done a bad thing. He has done a sin that is against the covenant of the Lord your God. 3 He may have started to worship false gods that I have commanded you not to worship. Perhaps he worships the sun, the moon or the stars. 4 If you hear news like that, you must check the report carefully. If it is true that a wicked thing like that has happened in Israel, 5 you must punish that person. Take the man or woman who has done that wicked thing to the gate of the town. Then you must throw stones at that person to kill them. 6 But two or three people must agree about what the person has done. You must never kill anyone because of the words of only one person. 7 The people who saw the wicked act must throw the first stones to kill the person. Then everyone else must also throw stones. In that way, you must remove evil acts from among you.
8 It may be difficult for the judges in your towns to decide what is true. This may happen when one person has attacked or killed another person. It may happen when people cannot agree about some land. It may be anything that people in your towns are arguing about. If you do not know who is right, you must take those people to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 You must go to the Levite priests and to the judge who has authority at that time. Ask them to decide what is right and true. 10 When they decide, you must do what they tell you to do. 11 Accept their teaching. Agree with what they have decided is right. Obey their words completely. Do not try to do anything that is different. 12 Someone might be too proud to obey the priest who has authority as the Lord's servant. He may not agree with what the judge says is right. You must punish any proud person like that with death. In that way you will remove evil things from Israel. 13 Then all the people will hear what has happened. They will be afraid. They will no longer be too proud to obey the judge.
Rules for a king
14 You are going into the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. You will take it for yourselves to be your home. Then you may say, ‘The other nations around us have kings. We must also have a king to rule us.’ 15 If that happens, you must only accept a king that the Lord your God chooses. Choose a king from among your own people. Do not choose anyone who is not an Israelite.
16 A king must not get a lot of horses for himself. He must not send his people back to Egypt to buy more horses. The Lord has said to you, ‘Never return to Egypt for any reason!’
17 A king must not marry many wives. They may turn his thoughts away from the Lord. He must not store a lot of silver and gold for himself.
18 When anyone starts to rule as king, he must copy this Law of God on a scroll. The scroll will be a copy of the one that belongs to the Levite priests. 19 He must keep this scroll with him all the time. He must continue to read it every day of his life. If he does that, he will learn to respect the Lord his God. He will learn to obey all the rules and commands of this Law. 20 If he does that, he will not become proud. He will not think that he is better than other Israelites. He will continue to obey the Lord's commands. Then he and his descendants will rule Israel as kings for many years.
A ruler hears about Jesus
7 People told the ruler, Herod, about all the things that were happening.[a] His mind was confused because people were saying lots of different things about Jesus. Some people were saying, ‘John the Baptist died but now he has become alive again.’ 8 Other people were saying, ‘It is Elijah that has come back.’ Some other people were saying, ‘This is one of God's prophets who lived a long time ago. Now he has become alive again.’[b]
9 Herod said, ‘I sent a soldier to cut off John's head.[c] So who is this man? I hear many things about him.’ After that, Herod was trying to meet Jesus.
Jesus feeds 5,000 men and their families
10 The 12 apostles that Jesus had sent out returned. They told him what they had done. Then he took them away from the crowd, so that he could be alone with them. They went to a town called Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds found out about this. So they went to find Jesus. When he saw the crowds coming, he welcomed them. He taught them about the kingdom of God. Some sick people were there and he made them well again.
12 When it was nearly evening, the 12 apostles came to Jesus. ‘There are no houses in this place,’ they said. ‘Send the crowd away now. Tell them to go to the villages and farms near here. Then they can get food to eat and they can find a place to sleep.’
13 Jesus said to them, ‘You should give them some food to eat.’
But the disciples said, ‘We have only five loaves of bread and two fish. Do you want us to go and buy food for all these people?’ 14 There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Tell the people that they should sit down on the ground in groups. There should be about 50 people in each group.’
15 So they did this. When the people had sat down, 16 Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. Then he looked up towards heaven and he thanked God for the food. He broke the bread into pieces. He gave the pieces of bread to the disciples, and they gave the bread to the crowd. 17 Everybody ate and they all had enough food. They were not hungry any more. Then the disciples picked up the bits of food that people had not eaten. They filled 12 baskets with all the little bits of food.[d]
Peter says who Jesus is
18 One day, Jesus was alone and he was praying. The disciples came to him. Jesus asked them, ‘When the crowds talk about me, who do they say that I am?’
19 They replied, ‘Some people say that you are John the Baptist. Other people say that you are Elijah. And some other people say that you are one of God's prophets from long ago. They think that this prophet has become alive again.’[e]
20 ‘But what do you think?’ Jesus then asked them. ‘Who do you say that I am?’
Peter replied, ‘You are the Messiah. God has sent you.’[f]
21 Jesus spoke very strongly to them. He told them that they must not tell anyone about this.[g]
22 Then he said, ‘The Son of Man will have to suffer in many ways. The important Jews, the leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law will turn against him. People will kill him, but three days later God will cause him to become alive again.’[h]
23 Then Jesus said to all the people that were there, ‘A person who wants to be my disciple must not think about himself. He must decide that his own life is not important. Every day he must be like someone who carries his own cross to go and die. Then he may come with me as my disciple.
24 Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. 25 A person may get everything in the whole world for himself. But if he loses his life, it would not be any good for him. He will have destroyed himself in the end. 26 You must not be ashamed of me and of my words. If you are, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you. One day he will return and everyone will see his power. He will come with God's holy angels and he will have the bright glory of his Father God. He will be ashamed of you on that day, if you are ashamed of him now.’
Three disciples see how great Jesus is
27 Then Jesus said, ‘What I tell you is true. Some people who are standing here will see clearly God begin to rule in his kingdom. They will see that before they die.’
This psalm is for Solomon.
A prayer for the king[a]
72 God, please help the king
to judge people in a right way.
Help the king's son to be honest and fair,
as you are.[b]
2 Then he will rule your people in a good way,
so that even poor people receive justice.
3 The mountains and the hills will bring peace,
so that the people can live honest lives.
4 Please help the king to judge poor people fairly.
May he save the children of weak people,
and destroy those cruel people who hurt them.
5 May people always respect your authority, God,
through all time,
as long as the sun and the moon remain in the sky.[c]
6 May the king be a blessing to his people,
like rain that falls on grass that lies in the fields.
May he be like rain
that brings water to the soil.
7 While he rules as king,
those people who serve God will do well.
There will be peace in all the land,
for as long as the moon remains in the sky.
8 May the king rule everywhere,
from sea to sea,
and from the Euphrates river to the ends of the earth.[d]
9 Then people who live in the desert
will bend down to respect him.
His enemies will fall down
with their faces in the dust.
10 Kings from Spain and from other far places
will pay taxes to him.
Kings from Sheba and from Seba
will bring gifts to him.
11 All kings will bend down in front of him.
People from all nations will serve him.
12 He will rescue the poor person
who calls out to him for help.
He will save weak people
who have nobody to help them.
13 He will be kind to people who are poor and weak.
He will save them from death.
14 He will rescue them from cruel people who hurt them.
Their lives are important to him.
15 Long live the king!
May people come from Sheba to give gold to him.
May people always pray for him.
May people praise him all the time.
16 May there always be plenty of grain
that grows in the land.
May the crops grow well
on the tops of the mountains.
May the fruit trees give a lot of fruit,
as they do in Lebanon.
May all the crops grow well,
like grass that grows in a field.
17 May the king be famous for ever!
May people remember him
for as long as the sun continues to shine.
May people from all nations use his name
when they bless one another.
May they all say that God has blessed the king!
18 Praise the Lord, Israel's God,
as he deserves.
Only he does such wonderful things.
19 Praise his great name for ever!
May his glory fill the whole earth!
Amen! May that all happen!
20 This is the end of the prayers of Jesse's son, David.[e]
8 People will praise a wise person, as much as his wisdom deserves.
But no one will respect a person who is stupid.
9 It is better to be a humble person who has a servant
than a proud person who has no food to eat.
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