Clean and Unclean Food
1 “You are the psons of the Lord your God. You shall not qcut yourselves or rmake any baldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 sFor you are a people tholy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, uout of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Tithes
22 y“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will zchoose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.
28 “At the end of devery three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, ethat the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
The Sabbatical Year
1 “At the end of every fseven years you shall grant a release. 2 And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. 3 gOf a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. 4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised you, and hyou shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.
7 i“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not jharden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and klend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. 9 Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly1 on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, land he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall mnot be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For nthere will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
12 “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold2 to you, he shall serve you six years, and oin the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. 14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 pYou shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God qredeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
The Parable of the Weeds
24 He put another parable before them, saying, r“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds1 among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants2 of the master of the house came and said to him, s‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, t“Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven
31 uHe put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, vso that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 wHe told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”
Prophecy and Parables
34 xAll these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. 35 This was yto fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:3
z“I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us athe parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the bsons of the cevil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The dharvest is the eend of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the ffiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the grighteous will hshine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
