Today's Reading

¹"Thus says the Lord God: 'The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

²The prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate outside, and shall stand by the post of the gate; and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

³The people of the land shall worship at the door of that gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.

⁴The burnt offering that the prince shall offer to the Lord shall be on the Sabbath day six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish;

⁵and the meal offering shall be an ephah for the ram, and the meal offering for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

⁶On the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish:

⁷and he shall prepare a meal offering, an ephah for the bull, and an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs according as he is able, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

⁸When the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by its way.

⁹"'But when the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the appointed feasts, he who enters by the way of the north gate to worship shall go forth by the way of the south gate; and he who enters by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate by which he came in, but shall go forth straight before him.

¹⁰The prince, when they go in, shall go in with of them; and when they go out, he shall go out.

¹¹"'In the feasts and in the solemnities the meal offering shall be an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

¹²When the prince shall prepare a freewill offering, a burnt offering or peace offerings as a freewill offering to the Lord, one shall open for him the gate that looks toward the east; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, as he does on the Sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.

¹³"'You shall prepare a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to the Lord daily: morning by morning you shall prepare it.

¹⁴You shall prepare a meal offering with it morning by morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour; a meal offering to the Lord continually by a perpetual ordinance.

¹⁵Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meal offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering.'

¹⁶"Thus says the Lord God: 'If the prince give a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance.

¹⁷But if he give of his inheritance a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons.

¹⁸Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession; he shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not be scattered every man from his possession.'"

¹⁹Then he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy rooms for the priests, which looked toward the north: and behold, there was a place on the hinder part westward.

²⁰He said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the meal offering; that they not bring them forth into the outer court, to sanctify the people."

²¹Then he brought me forth into the outer court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.

²²In the four corners of the court there were courts enclosed, forty cubits long and thirty broad: these four in the corners were of one measure.

²³There was a wall around in them, around the four, and boiling places were made under the walls all around.

²⁴Then he said to me, "These are the boiling houses, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people."

¹He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.

²Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east; and behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

³When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.

⁴Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the waist.

⁵Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

⁶He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.

⁷Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

⁸Then he said to me, "These waters issue forth toward the eastern region, and shall go down into the Arabah; and they shall go toward the sea; into the sea shall the waters go which were made to issue forth; and the waters shall be healed.

⁹It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.

¹⁰It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En Gedi even to En Eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

¹¹But the miry places of it, and its marshes, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt.

¹²By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither, neither shall its fruit fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary; and its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing."

¹³"Thus says the Lord God: 'This shall be the border, by which you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph shall have two portions.

¹⁴You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.

¹⁵"'This shall be the border of the land: On the north side, from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad;

¹⁶Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer Hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.

¹⁷The border from the sea, shall be Hazar Enon at the border of Damascus; and on the north northward is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.

¹⁸The east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the north border to the east sea you shall measure. This is the east side.

¹⁹The south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth Kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the great sea. This is the south side southward.

²⁰The west side shall be the great sea, from the south border as far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.

²¹"'So you shall divide this land to you according to the tribes of Israel.

²²It shall happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the aliens who live among you, who shall father children among you; and they shall be to you as the native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.

²³It shall happen, that in what tribe the stranger lives, there you shall give him his inheritance,' says the Lord God."

¹"Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar Enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath (and they shall have their sides east and west), Dan, one portion.

²By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one portion.

³By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali, one portion.

⁴By the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one portion.

⁵By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one portion.

⁶By the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben, one portion.

⁷By the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one portion.

⁸"By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the offering which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in its midst.

⁹The offering that you shall offer to the Lord shall be twenty-five thousand reeds in length, and ten thousand in breadth.

¹⁰For these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering: toward the north twenty-five thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in its midst.

¹¹It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept my instruction, who didn't go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

¹²It shall be to them an offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the Levites.

¹³"Answerable to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.

¹⁴They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy to the Lord.

¹⁵"The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in its midst.

¹⁶These shall be its measures: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.

¹⁷The city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty.

¹⁸The remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable to the holy offering; and its increase shall be for food to those who labor in the city.

¹⁹Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall cultivate it.

²⁰All the offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall offer the holy offering foursquare, with the possession of the city.

²¹"The residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in its midst.

²²Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince.

²³"As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one portion.

²⁴By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one portion.

²⁵By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one portion.

²⁶By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one portion.

²⁷By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one portion.

²⁸By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath Kadesh, to the brook of Egypt, to the great sea.

²⁹This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, says the Lord God.

³⁰"These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure;

³¹and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.

³²At the east side four thousand and five hundred reeds, and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one.

³³At the south side four thousand and five hundred reeds by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.

³⁴At the west side four thousand and five hundred reeds, with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one.

³⁵It shall be eighteen thousand reeds around: and the name of the city from that day shall be, 'The Lord is there.'"

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Diaspora in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy became our father again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that does not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,

⁵who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,

⁷that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ-

⁸whom not having seen you love; in whom, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory-

⁹receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

¹¹searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.

¹²To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be sober and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ-

¹⁴as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,

¹⁵but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;

¹⁶because it is written, "You shall be holy; for I am holy."

¹⁷If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear:

¹⁸knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

¹⁹but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;

²⁰who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake,

²¹who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²²Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from a pure heart fervently:

²³having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding Word of God.

²⁴For, "All flesh is like grass, and all it's glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever." This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.

¹My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

²You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

⁷which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

⁸provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

¹¹so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

¹³who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

¹⁴in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things which the Lord hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp, and the Law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

²⁴to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.

²⁵Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

²⁶For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

³⁰Men do not despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

³¹but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

³²He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵He won't regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.