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the following regulations for the religious festivals, when the people of Israel are to gather for worship.
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You have six days in which to do your work, but remember that the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a day of rest. On that day do not work, but gather for worship. The Sabbath belongs to the LORD, no matter where you live.
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Proclaim the following festivals at the appointed times.
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The Passover, celebrated to honor the LORD, begins at sunset on the fourteenth day of the first month.
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On the fifteenth day the Festival of Unleavened Bread begins, and for seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast.
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On the first of these days you shall gather for worship and do none of your daily work.
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Offer your food offerings to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day you shall again gather for worship, but you shall do none of your daily work.
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When you come into the land that the LORD is giving you and you harvest your grain, take the first sheaf to the priest.
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He shall present it as a special offering to the LORD, so that you may be accepted. The priest shall present it the day after the Sabbath.
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On the day you present the offering of grain, also sacrifice as a burnt offering a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects.
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With it you shall present four pounds of flour mixed with olive oil as a food offering. The odor of this offering is pleasing to the LORD. You shall also present with it an offering of one quart of wine.
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Do not eat any of the new grain, whether raw, roasted, or baked into bread, until you have brought this offering to God. This regulation is to be observed by all your descendants for all time to come.
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Count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath on which you bring your sheaf of grain to present to the LORD.
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On the fiftieth day, the day after the seventh Sabbath, present to the LORD another new offering of grain.
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Each family is to bring two loaves of bread and present them to the LORD as a special gift. Each loaf shall be made of four pounds of flour baked with yeast and shall be presented to the LORD as an offering of the first grain to be harvested.
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And with the bread the community is to present seven one-year-old lambs, one bull, and two rams, none of which may have any defects. They shall be offered as a burnt offering to the LORD, along with a grain offering and a wine offering. The odor of this offering is pleasing to the LORD.
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Also offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a fellowship offering.
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The priest shall present the bread with the two lambs as a special gift to the LORD for the priests. These offerings are holy.
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On that day do none of your daily work, but gather for worship. Your descendants are to observe this regulation for all time to come, no matter where they live.
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When you harvest your fields, do not cut the grain at the edges of the fields, and do not go back to cut the heads of grain that were left; leave them for poor people and foreigners. The LORD is your God.
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On the first day of the seventh month observe a special day of rest, and come together for worship when the trumpets sound.
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Present a food offering to the LORD and do none of your daily work.
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The tenth day of the seventh month is the day when the annual ritual is to be performed to take away the sins of the people. On that day do not eat anything at all; come together for worship, and present a food offering to the LORD.
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Do no work on that day, because it is the day for performing the ritual to take away sin.
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Any who eat anything on that day will no longer be considered God's people.
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And if any do any work on that day, the LORD himself will put them to death.
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This regulation applies to all your descendants, no matter where they live.
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From sunset on the ninth day of the month to sunset on the tenth observe this day as a special day of rest, during which nothing may be eaten.
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The Festival of Shelters begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continues for seven days.
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On the first of these days come together for worship and do none of your daily work.
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Each day for seven days you shall present a food offering. On the eighth day come together again for worship and present a food offering. It is a day for worship, and you shall do no work.
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(These are the religious festivals on which you honor the LORD by gathering together for worship and presenting food offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and wine offerings, as required day by day.
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These festivals are in addition to the regular Sabbaths, and these offerings are in addition to your regular gifts, your offerings as fulfillment of vows, and your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD.)
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When you have harvested your fields, celebrate this festival for seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The first day shall be a special day of rest.
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On that day take some of the best fruit from your trees, take palm branches and limbs from leafy trees, and begin a religious festival to honor the LORD your God.
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Celebrate it for seven days. This regulation is to be kept by your descendants for all time to come.
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All the people of Israel shall live in shelters for seven days,
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so that your descendants may know that the LORD made the people of Israel live in simple shelters when he led them out of Egypt. He is the LORD your God.
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So in this way Moses gave the people of Israel the regulations for observing the religious festivals to honor the LORD.
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to give the following orders to the people of Israel: Bring pure olive oil of the finest quality for the lamps in the Tent, so that a light might be kept burning regularly.
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Each evening Aaron shall light them and keep them burning until morning, there in the LORD's presence outside the curtain in front of the Covenant Box, which is in the Most Holy Place. This regulation is to be observed for all time to come.
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Aaron shall take care of the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold and must see that they burn regularly in the LORD's presence.
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Take twenty-four pounds of flour and bake twelve loaves of bread.
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Put the loaves in two rows, six in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, which is in the LORD's presence.
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Put some pure incense on each row, as a token food offering to the LORD to take the place of the bread.
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Every Sabbath, for all time to come, the bread must be placed in the presence of the LORD. This is Israel's duty forever.
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The bread belongs to Aaron and his descendants, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because this is a very holy part of the food offered to the LORD for the priests.
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There was a man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan. There in the camp this man quarreled with an Israelite. During the quarrel he cursed the LORD, so they took him to Moses,
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put him under guard, and waited for the LORD to tell them what to do with him.
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The LORD said to Moses,
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"Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death.
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Then tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses God must suffer the consequences
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and be put to death. Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the LORD shall be stoned to death by the whole community.
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"Any who commit murder shall be put to death,
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and any who kill an animal belonging to someone else must replace it. The principle is a life for a life.
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"If any of you injure another person, whatever you have done shall be done to you.
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If you break a bone, one of your bones shall be broken; if you put out an eye, one of your eyes shall be put out; if you knock out a tooth, one of your teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury you cause another person shall be done to you in return.
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Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death.
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This law applies to all of you, to Israelites and to foreigners living among you, because I am the LORD your God."
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When Moses had said this to the people of Israel, they took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death. In this way the people of Israel did what the LORD had commanded Moses.
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The world and all that is in it belong to the LORD; the earth and all who live on it are his.
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He built it on the deep waters beneath the earth and laid its foundations in the ocean depths.
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Who has the right to go up the LORD's hill? Who may enter his holy Temple?
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Those who are pure in act and in thought, who do not worship idols or make false promises.
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The LORD will bless them and save them; God will declare them innocent.
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Such are the people who come to God, who come into the presence of the God of Jacob.
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Fling wide the gates, open the ancient doors, and the great king will come in.
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Who is this great king? He is the LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, victorious in battle.
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Fling wide the gates, open the ancient doors, and the great king will come in.
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Who is this great king? The triumphant LORD ---he is the great king!
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We said good-bye to them and left. After sailing straight across, we came to Cos; the next day we reached Rhodes, and from there we went on to Patara.
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There we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia, so we went aboard and sailed away.
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We came to where we could see Cyprus, and then sailed south of it on to Syria. We went ashore at Tyre, where the ship was going to unload its cargo.
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There we found some believers and stayed with them a week. By the power of the Spirit they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
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But when our time with them was over, we left and went on our way. All of them, together with their wives and children, went with us out of the city to the beach, where we all knelt and prayed.
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Then we said good-bye to one another, and we went on board the ship while they went back home.
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We continued our voyage, sailing from Tyre to Ptolemais, where we greeted the believers and stayed with them for a day.
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On the following day we left and arrived in Caesarea. There we stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen as helpers in Jerusalem.
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He had four unmarried daughters who proclaimed God's message.
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We had been there for several days when a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea.
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He came to us, took Paul's belt, tied up his own feet and hands with it, and said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says: The owner of this belt will be tied up in this way by the Jews in Jerusalem, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles."
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When we heard this, we and the others there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
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But he answered, "What are you doing, crying like this and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be tied up in Jerusalem but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."
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We could not convince him, so we gave up and said, "May the Lord's will be done."
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After spending some time there, we got our things ready and left for Jerusalem.
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Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us and took us to the house of the man we were going to stay with ---Mnason, from Cyprus, who had been a believer since the early days.
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When we arrived in Jerusalem, the believers welcomed us warmly.
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The next day Paul went with us to see James; and all the church elders were present.
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Paul greeted them and gave a complete report of everything that God had done among the Gentiles through his work.
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After hearing him, they all praised God. Then they said, "Brother Paul, you can see how many thousands of Jews have become believers, and how devoted they all are to the Law.
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They have been told that you have been teaching all the Jews who live in Gentile countries to abandon the Law of Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or follow the Jewish customs.
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They are sure to hear that you have arrived. What should be done, then?
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This is what we want you to do. There are four men here who have taken a vow.
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Go along with them and join them in the ceremony of purification and pay their expenses; then they will be able to shave their heads. In this way everyone will know that there is no truth in any of the things that they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in accordance with the Law of Moses.
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But as for the Gentiles who have become believers, we have sent them a letter telling them we decided that they must not eat any food that has been offered to idols, or any blood, or any animal that has been strangled, and that they must keep themselves from sexual immorality."
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So Paul took the men and the next day performed the ceremony of purification with them. Then he went into the Temple and gave notice of how many days it would be until the end of the period of purification, when a sacrifice would be offered for each one of them.
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But just when the seven days were about to come to an end, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and grabbed Paul.
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"People of Israel!" they shouted. "Help! This is the man who goes everywhere teaching everyone against the people of Israel, the Law of Moses, and this Temple. And now he has even brought some Gentiles into the Temple and defiled this holy place!"
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(They said this because they had seen Trophimus from Ephesus with Paul in the city, and they thought that Paul had taken him into the Temple.)
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Confusion spread through the whole city, and the people all ran together, grabbed Paul, and dragged him out of the Temple. At once the Temple doors were closed.
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The mob was trying to kill Paul, when a report was sent up to the commander of the Roman troops that all of Jerusalem was rioting.
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At once the commander took some officers and soldiers and rushed down to the crowd. When the people saw him with the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
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The commander went over to Paul, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked, "Who is this man, and what has he done?"
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Some in the crowd shouted one thing, others something else. There was such confusion that the commander could not find out exactly what had happened, so he ordered his men to take Paul up into the fort.
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They got as far as the steps with him, and then the soldiers had to carry him because the mob was so wild.
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They were all coming after him and screaming, "Kill him!"
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As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the fort, he spoke to the commander: "May I say something to you?" "You speak Greek, do you?" the commander asked.
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"Then you are not that Egyptian fellow who some time ago started a revolution and led four thousand armed terrorists out into the desert?"
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Paul answered, "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Please let me speak to the people."
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The commander gave him permission, so Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand for the people to be silent. When they were quiet, Paul spoke to them in Hebrew:
