Warning Against Worldliness

[1] What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? [2] You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. [3] You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. [4] You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. [5] Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? [6] But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

[11] Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. [12] There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

[13] Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—[14] yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. [15] Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” [16] As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. [17] So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Laws About Sacrifices

[1] The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [2] “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, [3] and you offer to the LORD from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the LORD, [4] then he who brings his offering shall offer to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil; [5] and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb. [6] Or for a ram, you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. [7] And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. [8] And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the LORD, [9] then one shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil. [10] And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

[11] “Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. [12] As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. [13] Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. [14] And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he shall do as you do. [15] For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. [16] One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

[17] The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [18] “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you [19] and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. [20] Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. [21] Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations.

Laws About Unintentional Sins

[22] “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses, [23] all that the LORD has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the LORD gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, [24] then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male goat for a sin offering. [25] And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD for their mistake. [26] And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

[27] “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. [28] And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. [29] You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. [30] But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. [31] Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

A Sabbathbreaker Executed

[32] While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. [33] And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. [34] They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. [35] And the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” [36] And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Tassels on Garments

[37] The LORD said to Moses, [38] “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. [39] And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. [40] So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. [41] I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”

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