The Sabbatical Year

1 “At the end of ^jevery seven 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 ^kOf a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. 4 ^lBut there will be no poor among you; ^mfor the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— 5 ⁿif 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, ^oas he promised you, and ^pyou shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and ^qyou shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

7 “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, ^ryou shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but ^syou shall open your hand to him and lend 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 ^teye look grudgingly¹ on your poor brother, and you give him nothing, and he ^ucry to the Lord against you, and ^vyou be guilty of sin. 10 You shall give to him freely, and ^wyour heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because ^xfor this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11 For ^ythere will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ^s‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

12 ^z“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold² to you, he shall serve you six years, and in 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. ^aAs the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15 ^bYou shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today. 16 But ^cif he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you, 17 then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave³ forever. And to your female slave⁴ you shall do the same. 18 It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired worker he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

19 ^d“All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 ^eYou shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. 21 ^fBut if it has any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 You shall eat it within your towns. ^gThe unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as though it were a gazelle or a deer. 23 ^hOnly you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

Passover

1 “Observe the ⁱmonth of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for ^jin the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or ^kthe herd, ^lat the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. 3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. ^mSeven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt ⁿin haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 ^oNo leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, ^pnor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. 5 You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice, in the evening at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. 8 For ^qsix days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be ^ra solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks

9 ^s“You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 Then you shall keep ^tthe Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with ^uthe tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give ^vas the Lord your God blesses you. 11 And ^wyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. 12 ^xYou shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt; and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Booths

13 ^y“You shall keep the Feast of Booths seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 ^zYou shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For ^aseven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

16 ^b“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. ^cThey shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man ^dshall give as he is able, ^vaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.

Justice

18 “You shall appoint ^ejudges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 ^fYou shall not pervert justice. ^gYou shall not show partiality, ^hand you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Forbidden Forms of Worship

21 “You shall not plant any tree as ⁱan Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make. 22 And you shall not set up a pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

1 ^j“You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

2 ^k“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, ^lin transgressing his covenant, 3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or ^mthe sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, ⁿwhich I have forbidden, 4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire ^odiligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you ^pshall stone that man or woman to death with stones. 6 ^qOn the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. 7 ^rThe hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So ^syou shall purge⁵ the evil⁶ from your midst.

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

8 “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to ^tthe place that the Lord your God will choose. 9 ^uAnd you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and ^vthey shall declare to you the decision. 10 Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. 11 According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. 12 The man who ^wacts presumptuously by not obeying the priest ^xwho stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So ^syou shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people ^yshall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again.

Laws Concerning Israel’s Kings

14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ^z‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you ^awhom the Lord your God will choose. One ^bfrom among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many ^chorses for himself or cause the people ^dto return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ^e‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he ^fshall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, ^gnor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, ^hhe shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, ⁱapproved by⁷ the Levitical priests. 19 And ^jit shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, ^kthat he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he ^lmay not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, ^mso that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

A Maskil¹ of ^hEthan the Ezrahite.

James Killed and Peter Imprisoned

1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed ^fJames the brother of John ^gwith the sword, 3 and when he saw ^hthat it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during ⁱthe days of Unleavened Bread. 4 And when he had seized him, he put him ^jin prison, delivering him over to four ^ksquads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. 5 So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest ^lprayer for him was made to God by the church.

Peter Is Rescued

6 Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, ^mbound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, ⁿan angel of the Lord ^ostood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. ^pHe struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And ^qthe chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and ^rput on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but ^sthought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. ^tIt opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. 11 When Peter ^ucame to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that ^vthe Lord has sent his angel and ^wrescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of ^xJohn whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and ^ywere praying. 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, ^za servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, ^ain her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is ^bhis angel!” 16 But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But ^cmotioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to ^dJames and to ^ethe brothers.”¹ Then he departed and went to another place.

18 Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19 And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ^fordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

The Death of Herod

20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and ^ghaving persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain,² they asked for peace, because ^htheir country depended on the king’s country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately ⁱan angel of the Lord struck him down, because ^jhe did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

24 But ^kthe word of God increased and multiplied.

25 ^lAnd Barnabas and Saul returned from³ Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them ^mJohn, whose other name was Mark.