The Prince and the Feasts

1 “Thus says the Lord God: ^pThe gate of ^qthe inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and ^ron the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 2 ^sThe prince shall enter by the vestibule of the gate from outside, and shall take his stand by ^tthe post of the gate. ^uThe priests shall offer his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at ^vthe threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out, but the gate shall not be shut until evening. 3 ^wThe people of the land shall bow down at the entrance of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons. 4 ^xThe burnt offering that the prince offers to the Lord ^yon the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. 5 And ^zthe grain offering with the ram shall be an ephah,¹ and the grain offering with the lambs shall be ^aas much as he is able, together with a hin² of oil to each ephah. 6 On the day of the new moon he shall offer a bull from the herd without blemish, and six lambs and a ram, which shall be without blemish. 7 As a grain offering he shall provide an ephah with the bull and an ephah with the ram, and with the lambs ^bas much as he is able, together with a hin of oil to each ephah. 8 ^cWhen the prince enters, he shall enter by the vestibule of the gate, and he shall go out by the same way.

9 ^d“When the people of the land ^ecome before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead. 10 When they enter, ^fthe prince shall enter with them, and when they go out, he shall go out.

11 “At the feasts and the appointed festivals, ^zthe grain offering with a young bull shall be an ephah, and with a ram an ephah, and with the lambs ^bas much as one is able to give, together with a hin of oil to an ephah. 12 When the prince provides ^ga freewill offering, either a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, ^hthe gate facing east shall be opened for him. And he shall offer his burnt offering or his peace offerings ⁱas he does on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.

13 ^j“You shall provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily; morning by morning you shall provide it. 14 And ^kyou shall provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, one sixth of an ephah, and one third of a hin of oil to moisten the flour, as a grain offering to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute. 15 Thus the lamb and the meal offering and the oil shall be provided, morning by morning, for ^la regular burnt offering.

16 “Thus says the Lord God: If the prince makes a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. It is their property by inheritance. 17 But if he makes a gift ^mout of his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his to ⁿthe year of liberty. Then it shall revert to the prince; surely it is his inheritance—it shall belong to his sons. 18 ^oThe prince shall not take any of the inheritance of the people, ^pthrusting them out of their property. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people shall be ^qscattered from his property.”

Boiling Places for Offerings

19 Then he brought me through the entrance, which was ^rat the side of the gate, to the north row of ^sthe holy chambers for the priests, and behold, a place was there at the extreme western end of them. 20 And he said to me, “This is the place where the priests ^tshall boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, and where ^uthey shall bake the grain offering, in order not to bring them out into the outer court and so ^vtransmit holiness to the people.”

21 Then he brought me out to the outer court and led me around to the four corners of the court. And behold, in each corner of the court there was another court— 22 in the four corners of the court were small³ courts, forty cubits⁴ long and thirty broad; the four were of the same size. 23 On the inside, around each of the four courts was a row of masonry, with hearths made at the bottom of the rows all around. 24 Then he said to me, “These are the kitchens where those who ^wminister at the temple ^tshall boil the sacrifices of the people.”

Water Flowing from the Temple

1 Then he brought me back to ^xthe door of the temple, and behold, ^ywater was issuing from below ^zthe threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of ^athe altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of ^bthe north gate and led me around on the outside to ^cthe outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.

3 Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, ^dthe man measured a thousand cubits,⁵ and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. 4 Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. 5 Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. 6 And he said to me, ^e“Son of man, ^fhave you seen this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river ^gvery many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into ^hthe Arabah, and enters the sea;⁶ when the water flows into ⁱthe sea, the water will become fresh.⁷ 9 And wherever the river goes,⁸ every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea⁹ may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. 10 Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From ^jEngedi to ^kEneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of ^lthe Great Sea.¹⁰ 11 But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. 12 And on the banks, ^mon both sides of the river, there will grow ⁿall kinds of trees for food. ^oTheir leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, ^pbut they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and ^ptheir leaves for healing.”

Division of the Land

13 Thus says the Lord God: “This is the boundary¹¹ by which ^qyou shall divide the land for inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. ^rJoseph shall have two portions. 14 And you shall divide equally what ^sI swore ^tto give to your fathers. ^uThis land shall fall to you as your inheritance.

15 “This shall be the boundary of the land: On the north side, from ^lthe Great Sea ^vby way of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, and on to ^wZedad,¹² 16 ^xBerothah, Sibraim (which lies on the border between ^yDamascus and ^vHamath), as far as Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran. 17 So the boundary shall run from the sea to ^zHazar-enan, which is on the northern border of Damascus, with the border of Hamath to the north.¹³ This shall be the north side.¹⁴

18 “On the east side, the boundary shall run between Hauran and Damascus; along the Jordan between ^aGilead and the land of Israel; to ^bthe eastern sea and as far as Tamar.¹⁵ This shall be the east side.

19 “On the south side, it shall run from ^cTamar as far as ^dthe waters of Meribah-kadesh, from there along ^ethe Brook of Egypt¹⁶ to ^fthe Great Sea. This shall be the south side.

20 “On the west side, the Great Sea shall be the boundary to a point ^vopposite Lebo-hamath. This shall be the west side.

21 ^g“So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. 22 ^hYou shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and ⁱfor the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. ^jThey shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord God.

Saul Ravages the Church

1 And ^bSaul ^capproved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and ^dthey were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But ^eSaul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he ^fdragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria

4 Now ^gthose who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 ^hPhilip went down to the city¹ of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 ⁱAnd the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him ^jand saw the signs that he did. 7 For ^kunclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So ^lthere was much joy in that city.

Simon the Magician Believes

9 But there was a man named Simon, ^mwho had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, ⁿsaying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, ^o“This man is the power of God that is called ^pGreat.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had ^qamazed them with his magic. 12 But when ^rthey believed Philip as he preached good news ^sabout the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, ^rthey were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And ^tseeing signs and ^ugreat miracles² performed, ^vhe was amazed.

14 Now when ^wthe apostles at Jerusalem heard that ^xSamaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them ^ythat they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for ^zhe had not yet ^afallen on any of them, but ^bthey had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then ^cthey laid their hands on them and ^dthey received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, ^e“May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God ^fwith money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for ^gyour heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, ^hif possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in ⁱthe gall³ of bitterness and in ^jthe bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, ^k“Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, ^lpreaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

26 Now ^man angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south⁴ to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an ⁿEthiopian, a ^oeunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, ^pwho was in charge of all her treasure. ^qHe had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, ^r“How can I, unless someone ^sguides me?” And ^the invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and ^wbeginning with this Scripture ^xhe told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! ^yWhat prevents me from being baptized?”⁵ 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, ^zthe Spirit of the Lord ^acarried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.