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The LORD said to Moses,
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"Command the people of Israel to expel from the camp everyone with a dreaded skin disease or a bodily discharge and everyone who is unclean by contact with a corpse.
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Send all these ritually unclean people out, so that they will not defile the camp, where I live among my people."
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The Israelites obeyed and expelled them all from the camp.
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the following instructions for the people of Israel. When any of you are unfaithful to the LORD and commit a wrong against someone,
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you must confess your sin and make full repayment, plus an additional 20 percent, to the person you have wronged.
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But if that person has died and has no near relative to whom payment can be made, it shall be given to the LORD for the priest. This payment is in addition to the ram used to perform the ritual of purification for the guilty person.
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Also every special contribution which the Israelites offer to the LORD belongs to the priest to whom they present it.
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Each priest shall keep the offerings presented to him.
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The LORD commanded Moses
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to give the Israelites the following instructions. It may happen that a man becomes suspicious that his wife is unfaithful to him and has defiled herself by having intercourse with another man. But the husband may not be certain, for his wife may have kept it secret---there was no witness, and she was not caught in the act. Or it may happen that a husband becomes suspicious of his wife, even though she has not been unfaithful.
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In either case the man shall take his wife to the priest. He shall also take the required offering of two pounds of barley flour, but he shall not pour any olive oil on it or put any incense on it, because it is an offering from a suspicious husband, made to bring the truth to light.
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The priest shall bring the woman forward and have her stand in front of the altar.
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He shall pour some holy water into a clay bowl and take some of the earth that is on the floor of the Tent of the LORD's presence and put it in the water to make it bitter.
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Then he shall loosen the woman's hair and put the offering of flour in her hands. In his hands the priest shall hold the bowl containing the bitter water that brings a curse.
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Then the priest shall make the woman agree to this oath spoken by the priest: "If you have not committed adultery, you will not be harmed by the curse that this water brings.
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But if you have committed adultery,
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may the LORD make your name a curse among your people. May he cause your genital organs to shrink and your stomach to swell up.
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May this water enter your stomach and cause it to swell up and your genital organs to shrink." The woman shall respond, "I agree; may the LORD do so."
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Then the priest shall write this curse down and wash the writing off into the bowl of bitter water.
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Before he makes the woman drink the water, which may then cause her bitter pain,
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the priest shall take the offering of flour out of the woman's hands, hold it out in dedication to the LORD, and present it on the altar.
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Then he shall take a handful of it as a token offering and burn it on the altar. Finally, he shall make the woman drink the water.
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If she has committed adultery, the water will cause bitter pain; her stomach will swell up and her genital organs will shrink. Her name will become a curse among her people.
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But if she is innocent, she will not be harmed and will be able to bear children.
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This is the law in cases where a man is jealous and becomes suspicious that his wife has committed adultery. The woman shall be made to stand in front of the altar, and the priest shall perform this ritual.
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The husband shall be free of guilt, but the woman, if guilty, must suffer the consequences.
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The LORD commanded Moses
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to give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Any of you, male or female, who make a special vow to become a nazirite and dedicate yourself to the LORD
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shall abstain from wine and beer. You shall not drink any kind of drink made from grapes or eat any grapes or raisins.
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As long as you are a nazirite, you shall not eat anything that comes from a grapevine, not even the seeds or skins of grapes.
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As long as you are under the nazirite vow, you must not cut your hair or shave. You are bound by the vow for the full time that you are dedicated to the LORD, and you shall let your hair grow.
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Your hair is the sign of your dedication to God, and so you must not defile yourself by going near a corpse, not even that of your father, mother, brother, or sister.
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As long as you are a nazirite, you are consecrated to the LORD.
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If your consecrated hair is defiled because you are right beside someone who suddenly dies, you must wait seven days and then shave your head; and so you become ritually clean.
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On the eighth day you shall bring two doves or two pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence.
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The priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, to perform the ritual of purification for you because of your contact with a corpse. On the same day you shall reconsecrate your hair
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and rededicate to the LORD your time as a nazirite. The previous period of time doesn't count, because your consecrated hair was defiled. As a repayment offering you shall bring a one-year-old lamb.
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When you complete your nazirite vow, you shall perform this ritual. You shall go to the entrance of the Tent
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and present to the LORD three animals without any defects: a one-year-old male lamb for a burnt offering, a one-year-old ewe lamb for a sin offering, and a ram for a fellowship offering.
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You shall also offer a basket of bread made without yeast: thick loaves made of flour mixed with olive oil and thin cakes brushed with olive oil, and in addition the required offerings of grain and wine.
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The priest shall present all these to the LORD and offer the sin offering and the burnt offering.
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He shall sacrifice the ram to the LORD as a fellowship offering, and offer it with the basket of bread; he shall also present the offerings of grain and wine.
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At the entrance of the Tent you nazirites shall shave off your hair and put it on the fire on which the fellowship offering is being burned.
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Then, when the shoulder of the ram is boiled, the priest shall take it and put it, together with one thick loaf of bread and one thin cake from the basket, into the hands of the nazirite.
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Next, the priest shall present them as a special gift to the LORD; they are a sacred offering for the priest, in addition to the breast and the leg of the ram which by law belong to the priest. After that, the nazirite may drink wine.
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These are the regulations for you nazirites; but if you promise an offering beyond what your vow requires you to give, you must fulfill exactly the promise you made.
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The LORD commanded Moses
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to tell Aaron and his sons to use the following words in blessing the people of Israel:
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May the LORD bless you and take care of you;
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May the LORD be kind and gracious to you;
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May the LORD look on you with favor and give you peace.
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And the LORD said, "If they pronounce my name as a blessing upon the people of Israel, I will bless them."
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My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help, but still it does not come.
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During the day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer; I call at night, but get no rest.
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But you are enthroned as the Holy One, the one whom Israel praises.
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Our ancestors put their trust in you; they trusted you, and you saved them.
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They called to you and escaped from danger; they trusted you and were not disappointed.
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But I am no longer a human being; I am a worm, despised and scorned by everyone!
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All who see me make fun of me; they stick out their tongues and shake their heads.
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"You relied on the LORD," they say. "Why doesn't he save you? If the LORD likes you, why doesn't he help you?"
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It was you who brought me safely through birth, and when I was a baby, you kept me safe.
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I have relied on you since the day I was born, and you have always been my God.
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Do not stay away from me! Trouble is near, and there is no one to help.
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Many enemies surround me like bulls; they are all around me, like fierce bulls from the land of Bashan.
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They open their mouths like lions, roaring and tearing at me.
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My strength is gone, gone like water spilled on the ground. All my bones are out of joint; my heart is like melted wax.
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My throat is as dry as dust, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have left me for dead in the dust.
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An evil gang is around me; like a pack of dogs they close in on me; they tear at my hands and feet.
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All my bones can be seen. My enemies look at me and stare.
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They gamble for my clothes and divide them among themselves.
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O LORD, don't stay away from me! Come quickly to my rescue!
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Save me from the sword; save my life from these dogs.
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Rescue me from these lions; I am helpless before these wild bulls.
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I will tell my people what you have done; I will praise you in their assembly:
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"Praise him, you servants of the LORD! Honor him, you descendants of Jacob! Worship him, you people of Israel!
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He does not neglect the poor or ignore their suffering; he does not turn away from them, but answers when they call for help."
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In the full assembly I will praise you for what you have done; in the presence of those who worship you I will offer the sacrifices I promised.
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The poor will eat as much as they want; those who come to the LORD will praise him. May they prosper forever!
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All nations will remember the LORD. From every part of the world they will turn to him; all races will worship him.
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The LORD is king, and he rules the nations.
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All proud people will bow down to him; all mortals will bow down before him.
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Future generations will serve him; they will speak of the Lord to the coming generation.
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People not yet born will be told: "The Lord saved his people."
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Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak on your own behalf." Paul stretched out his hand and defended himself as follows:
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"King Agrippa! I consider myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you from all the things these Jews accuse me of,
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particularly since you know so well all the Jewish customs and disputes. I ask you, then, to listen to me with patience.
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"All the Jews know how I have lived ever since I was young. They know how I have spent my whole life, at first in my own country and then in Jerusalem.
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They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees.
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And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors---
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the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews!
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Why do you who are here find it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?
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"I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth.
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That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them.
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Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.
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"It was for this purpose that I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests.
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It was on the road at midday, Your Majesty, that I saw a light much brighter than the sun, coming from the sky and shining around me and the men traveling with me.
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All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner's stick.'
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'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. And the Lord answered, 'I am Jesus, whom you persecute.
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But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant. You are to tell others what you have seen of me today and what I will show you in the future.
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I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you.
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You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.'
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"And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision I had from heaven.
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First in Damascus and in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of Israel and among the Gentiles, I preached that they must repent of their sins and turn to God and do the things that would show they had repented.
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It was for this reason that these Jews seized me while I was in the Temple, and they tried to kill me.
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But to this very day I have been helped by God, and so I stand here giving my witness to all, to small and great alike. What I say is the very same thing which the prophets and Moses said was going to happen:
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that the Messiah must suffer and be the first one to rise from death, to announce the light of salvation to the Jews and to the Gentiles."
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As Paul defended himself in this way, Festus shouted at him, "You are mad, Paul! Your great learning is driving you mad!"
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Paul answered, "I am not mad, Your Excellency! I am speaking the sober truth.
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King Agrippa! I can speak to you with all boldness, because you know about these things. I am sure that you have taken notice of every one of them, for this thing has not happened hidden away in a corner.
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King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do!"
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Agrippa said to Paul, "In this short time do you think you will make me a Christian?"
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"Whether a short time or a long time," Paul answered, "my prayer to God is that you and all the rest of you who are listening to me today might become what I am---except, of course, for these chains!"
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Then the king, the governor, Bernice, and all the others got up,
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and after leaving they said to each other, "This man has not done anything for which he should die or be put in prison."
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And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been released if he had not appealed to the Emperor."
