1
Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan, put live coals in it, added incense, and presented it to the LORD. But this fire was not holy, because the LORD had not commanded them to present it.
2
Suddenly the LORD sent fire, and it burned them to death there in the presence of the LORD.
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Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD was speaking about when he said, 'All who serve me must respect my holiness; I will reveal my glory to my people.' " But Aaron remained silent.
4
Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and said to them, "Come here and carry your cousins' bodies away from the sacred Tent and put them outside the camp."
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So they came and took hold of the clothing on the corpses and carried them outside the camp, just as Moses had commanded.
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Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not leave your hair uncombed or tear your clothes to show that you are in mourning. If you do, you will die, and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But all other Israelites are allowed to mourn this death caused by the fire which the LORD sent.
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Do not leave the entrance of the Tent or you will die, because you have been consecrated by the anointing oil of the LORD." So they did as Moses said.
8
The LORD said to Aaron,
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"You and your sons are not to enter the Tent of my presence after drinking wine or beer; if you do, you will die. This is a law to be kept by all your descendants.
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You must distinguish between what belongs to God and what is for general use, between what is ritually clean and what is unclean.
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You must teach the people of Israel all the laws which I have given to you through Moses."
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Moses said to Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the grain offering that is left over from the food offered to the LORD, make unleavened bread with it and eat it beside the altar, because this offering is very holy.
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Eat it in a holy place; it is the part that belongs to you and your sons from the food offered to the LORD. That is what the LORD commanded me.
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But you and your families may eat the breast and the hind leg that are presented as the special gift and the special contribution to the LORD for the priests. You may eat them in any ritually clean place. These offerings have been given to you and your children as the part that belongs to you from the fellowship offerings of the people of Israel.
15
They shall bring the hind leg and the breast at the time the fat is presented as a food offering to the LORD. These parts belong to you and your children forever, just as the LORD commanded."
16
Moses asked about the goat for the sin offering and learned that it had already been burned. This made him angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, and he demanded,
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"Why didn't you eat the sin offering in a sacred place? It is very holy, and the LORD has given it to you in order to take away the sin of the community.
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Since its blood was not brought into the sacred Tent, you should have eaten the sacrifice there, as I commanded."
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Aaron answered, "If I had eaten the sin offering today, would the LORD have approved? The people presented their sin offering to the LORD today, and they brought their burnt offering, but still these terrible things have happened to me."
20
When Moses heard this, he was satisfied.
1
The LORD gave Moses and Aaron the following regulations
2
for the people of Israel. You may eat any land animal
3
that has divided hoofs and that also chews the cud,
4
but you must not eat camels, rock badgers, or rabbits. These must be considered unclean; they chew the cud, but do not have divided hoofs.
7
Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs, but do not chew the cud.
8
Do not eat these animals or even touch their dead bodies; they are unclean.
9
You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales,
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but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales must not be eaten.
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Such creatures must be considered unclean. You must not eat them or even touch their dead bodies.
12
You must not eat anything that lives in the water and does not have fins and scales.
13
You must not eat any of the following birds: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants; hoopoes; or bats.
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All winged insects are unclean,
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except those that hop.
22
You may eat locusts, crickets, or grasshoppers.
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But all other small things that have wings and also crawl must be considered unclean.
24
If you touch the dead bodies of the following animals, you will be unclean until evening: all animals with hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and they chew the cud, and all four-footed animals with paws. If you carry their dead bodies, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.
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Moles, rats, mice, and lizards must be considered unclean.
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Whoever touches them or their dead bodies will be unclean until evening.
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And if their dead bodies fall on anything, it will be unclean. This applies to any article of wood, cloth, leather, or sacking, no matter what it is used for. It shall be dipped in water, but it will remain unclean until evening.
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And if their bodies fall into a clay pot, everything that is in it shall be unclean, and you must break the pot.
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Any food which could normally be eaten, but on which water from such a pot has been poured, will be unclean, and anything drinkable in such a pot is unclean.
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Anything on which the dead bodies fall is unclean; a clay stove or oven shall be broken,
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but a spring or a cistern remains clean, although anything else that touches their dead bodies is unclean.
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If one of them falls on seed that is going to be planted, the seed remains clean.
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But if the seed is soaking in water and one of them falls on it, the seed is unclean.
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If any animal that may be eaten dies, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.
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And if any of you eat any part of the animal, you must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening; any of you who carry the dead body must wash your clothes, but you will still be unclean until evening.
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You must not eat any of the small animals that move on the ground,
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whether they crawl, or walk on four legs, or have many legs.
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Do not make yourselves unclean by eating any of these.
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I am the LORD your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy.
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I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy.
46
This, then, is the law about animals and birds, about everything that lives in the water, and everything that moves on the ground.
47
You must be careful to distinguish between what is ritually clean and unclean, between animals that may be eaten and those that may not.
1
The LORD gave Moses the following regulations
2
for the people of Israel. For seven days after a woman gives birth to a son, she is ritually unclean, as she is during her monthly period.
3
On the eighth day, the child shall be circumcised.
4
Then it will be thirty-three more days until she is ritually clean from her loss of blood; she must not touch anything that is holy or enter the sacred Tent until the time of her purification is completed.
5
For fourteen days after a woman gives birth to a daughter, she is ritually unclean, as she is during her monthly period. Then it will be sixty-six more days until she is ritually clean from her loss of blood.
6
When the time of her purification is completed, whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence a one-year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.
7
The priest shall present her offering to the LORD and perform the ritual to take away her impurity, and she will be ritually clean. This, then, is what a woman must do after giving birth.
8
If the woman cannot afford a lamb, she shall bring two doves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall perform the ritual to take away her impurity, and she will be ritually clean.
1
Paul traveled on to Derbe and Lystra, where a Christian named Timothy lived. His mother, who was also a Christian, was Jewish, but his father was a Greek.
2
All the believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy.
3
Paul wanted to take Timothy along with him, so he circumcised him. He did so because all the Jews who lived in those places knew that Timothy's father was Greek.
4
As they went through the towns, they delivered to the believers the rules decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and they told them to obey those rules.
5
So the churches were made stronger in the faith and grew in numbers every day.
6
They traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message in the province of Asia.
7
When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
8
So they traveled right on through Mysia and went to Troas.
9
That night Paul had a vision in which he saw a Macedonian standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"
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As soon as Paul had this vision, we got ready to leave for Macedonia, because we decided that God had called us to preach the Good News to the people there.
11
We left by ship from Troas and sailed straight across to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis.
12
From there we went inland to Philippi, a city of the first district of Macedonia; it is also a Roman colony. We spent several days there.
13
On the Sabbath we went out of the city to the riverside, where we thought there would be a place where Jews gathered for prayer. We sat down and talked to the women who gathered there.
14
One of those who heard us was Lydia from Thyatira, who was a dealer in purple cloth. She was a woman who worshiped God, and the Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying.
15
After she and the people of her house had been baptized, she invited us, "Come and stay in my house if you have decided that I am a true believer in the Lord." And she persuaded us to go.
16
One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a young servant woman who had an evil spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.
17
She followed Paul and us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!"
18
She did this for many days, until Paul became so upset that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!" The spirit went out of her that very moment.
19
When her owners realized that their chance of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the authorities in the public square.
20
They brought them before the Roman officials and said, "These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city.
21
They are teaching customs that are against our law; we are Roman citizens, and we cannot accept these customs or practice them."
22
And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped.
23
After a severe beating, they were thrown into jail, and the jailer was ordered to lock them up tight.
24
Upon receiving this order, the jailer threw them into the inner cell and fastened their feet between heavy blocks of wood.
25
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
26
Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, which shook the prison to its foundations. At once all the doors opened, and the chains fell off all the prisoners.
27
The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he thought that the prisoners had escaped; so he pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself.
28
But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, "Don't harm yourself ! We are all here!"
29
The jailer called for a light, rushed in, and fell trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas.
30
Then he led them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31
They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved---you and your family."
32
Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house.
33
At that very hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; and he and all his family were baptized at once.
34
Then he took Paul and Silas up into his house and gave them some food to eat. He and his family were filled with joy, because they now believed in God.
35
The next morning the Roman authorities sent police officers with the order, "Let those men go."
36
So the jailer told Paul, "The officials have sent an order for you and Silas to be released. You may leave, then, and go in peace."
37
But Paul said to the police officers, "We were not found guilty of any crime, yet they whipped us in public---and we are Roman citizens! Then they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Not at all! The Roman officials themselves must come here and let us out."
38
The police officers reported these words to the Roman officials; and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid.
39
So they went and apologized to them; then they led them out of the prison and asked them to leave the city.
40
Paul and Silas left the prison and went to Lydia's house. There they met the believers, spoke words of encouragement to them, and left.
