131 If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship; 3 Then give no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God is testing you, to see if all the love of your heart and soul is given to him. 4 But keep on in the ways of the Lord your God, fearing him and keeping his orders and hearing his voice, worshipping him and being true to him. 5 And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put to death; for his words were said with the purpose of turning you away from the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; and of forcing you out of the way in which the Lord your God has given you orders to go. So you are to put away the evil from among you.
6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers; 7 Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other; 8 Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover; 9 But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. 11 And all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and no one will again do such evil as this among you.
12 And if word comes to you, in one of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you for your resting-place, 13 That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from among you, turning the people of their town from the right way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of whom you have no knowledge; 14 Then let a full search be made, and let questions be put with care; and if it is true and certain that such a disgusting thing has been done among you; 15 Then take up arms against the people of that town and give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it. 16 And take all the goods into the middle of its open space, burning the town and all its property with fire as an offering to the Lord your God; it is to be a waste for ever; there is to be no more building there. 17 Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his oath to your fathers: 18 So long as you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep all his orders which I give you today, and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
141 You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your brows in honour of the dead; 2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.
3 No disgusting thing may be your food. 4 These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; 5 The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep. 6 Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food. 7 But even among these, there are some which may not be used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two. 8 And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back; their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies touched by you. 9 And of the things living in the waters, you may take all those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of thin plates. 10 But any which have no skin-plates or wings for swimming, you may not take; they are unclean for you. 11 All clean birds may be used for food. 12 But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray; 13 The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort; 14 Every raven, and all birds of that sort; 15 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort; 16 The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen; 17 And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant; 18 The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat. 19 Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is unclean to you and may not be used as food. 20 But all clean birds you may take. 21 You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.
22 Put on one side a tenth of all the increase of your seed, produced year by year. 23 And make a feast before the Lord your God, in the place which is to be marked out, where his name will be for ever, of the tenth part of your grain and your wine and your oil, and the first births of your herds and your flocks; so that you may have the fear of the Lord your God in your hearts at all times. 24 And if the way is so long that you are not able to take these things to the place marked out by the Lord your God for his name, when he has given you his blessing, because it is far away from you; 25 Then let these things be exchanged for money, and, taking the money in your hand, go to the place marked out by the Lord your God for himself; 26 And with the money get whatever you have a desire for, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your soul's desire may be: and make a feast there before the Lord your God, and be glad, you and all your house; 27 And give a thought to the Levite who is living among you, for he has no part or heritage in the land. 28 At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls: 29 And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
151 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt. 2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord. 3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go; 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage; 5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today. 6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers.
7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him; 8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of. 9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you. 10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand. 11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land.
12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free. 13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands: 14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him. 15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today. 16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you; 17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl. 18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
19 All the first males to come to birth in your herd and your flock are to be holy to the Lord your God: the first birth of your ox is not to be used for work, the wool of your first lamb is not to be cut. 20 But year by year you and all your house are to take a meal of it before the Lord, in the place of his selection. 21 But if it has any mark on it, if it is blind or has damaged legs, or if there is anything wrong with it, it may not be offered to the Lord your God. 22 It may be used for food in your houses: the unclean and the clean may take of it, as of the gazelle and the roe. 23 Only do not take its blood for food, but let it be drained out on the earth like water.
28 And one of the scribes came, and hearing their argument together, and seeing that he had given them a good answer, put the question to him, Which law is the first of all? 29 Jesus said in answer, The first is, Give ear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 And you are to have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. There is no other law greater than these. 32 And the scribe said to him, Truly, Master, you have well said that he is one, and there is no other but he: 33 And to have love for him with all the heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and to have the same love for his neighbour as for himself, is much more than all forms of offerings. 34 And when Jesus saw that he gave a wise answer, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And every man after that was in fear of questioning him any more.
35 And Jesus, when he was teaching in the Temple, said, How do the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? 36 David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put those who are against you under your feet. 37 David himself gives him the name of Lord; and how then is he his son? And the common people gave ear to him gladly.
38 And in his teaching he said, Be on your watch against the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes and be respected in the market-places, 39 And to have the chief seats in the Synagogues and the first places at feasts; 40 Who take away the property of widows, and before the eyes of men make long prayers; these will be judged more hardly.
41 And he took a seat by the place where the money was kept, and saw how the people put money into the boxes: and a number who had wealth put in much. 42 And there came a poor widow, and she put in two little bits of money, which make a farthing. 43 And he made his disciples come to him, and said to them, Truly I say to you, This poor widow has put in more than all those who are putting money into the box: 44 Because they all put in something out of what they had no need for; but she out of her need put in all she had, even all her living.
(Read Mark 12:28-34)
Those who sincerely desire to be taught their duty, Christ will guide in judgment, and teach his way. He tells the scribe that the great commandment, which indeed includes all, is, that of loving God with all our hearts. Wherever this is the ruling principle in the soul, there is a disposition to every other duty. Loving God with all our heart, will engage us to every thing by which he will be pleased. The sacrifices only represented the atonements for men's transgressions of the moral law; they were of no power except as they expressed repentance and faith in the promised Saviour, and as they led to moral obedience. And because we have not thus loved God and man, but the very reverse, therefore we are condemned sinners; we need repentance, and we need mercy. Christ approved what the scribe said, and encouraged him. He stood fair for further advance; for this knowledge of the law leads to conviction of sin, to repentance, to discovery of our need of mercy, and understanding the way of justification by Christ.
(Read Mark 12:35-40)
When we attend to what the Scriptures declare, as to the person and offices of Christ, we shall be led to confess him as our Lord and God; to obey him as our exalted Redeemer. If the common people hear these things gladly, while the learned and distinguished oppose, the former are happy, and the latter to be pitied. And as sin, disguised with a show of piety, is double iniquity, so its doom will be doubly heavy.
(Read Mark 12:41-44)
Let us not forget that Jesus still sees the treasury. He knows how much, and from what motives, men give to his cause. He looks at the heart, and what our views are, in giving alms; and whether we do it as unto the Lord, or only to be seen of men. It is so rare to find any who would not blame this widow, that we cannot expect to find many who will do like to her; and yet our Saviour commends her, therefore we are sure that she did well and wisely. The feeble efforts of the poor to honour their Saviour, will be commended in that day, when the splendid actions of unbelievers will be exposed to contempt.
