Numbers 5–6
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is defiled by the dead. 3 Both male and female you will put out. You will put them outside the camp, so they do not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell. 4 The children of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp. As the Lord spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 6 Tell the children of Israel: When a man or woman commits any sin against another, acting unfaithfully against the Lord, that person is guilty, 7 and shall confess his sin which he has committed, and he will repay his offense with its principal, and add to it one-fifth, and give it to him who was wronged. 8 But if the man has no relative to repay the offense to, let the offense be repaid to the Lord, even to the priest, beside the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement will be made for him. 9 Every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring to the priest, will be his. 10 Every man’s holy things will be his. Whatever any man gives the priest, it will be his.
11 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: If any man’s wife goes astray, and acts treacherously against him, 13 and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, nor is she caught in the act, 14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and he shall bring her offering for her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it nor put frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
16 The priest will bring her near, and set her before the Lord. 17 And the priest will take holy water in an earthen vessel, and the priest will take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. 18 And the priest will set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the memorial offering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and the priest will have in his hand the bitter water that causes the curse. 19 And the priest will charge her by an oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to impurity with another instead of your husband, be free from this bitter water that causes the curse. 20 But if you have gone astray to another instead of your husband, and if you are defiled, and a man besides your husband has lain with you”— 21 then the priest will charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest will say to the woman, “The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh rot and your belly swell. 22 And this water that causes the curse will go into your bowels, to make your belly swell and your thigh rot.”
And the woman will say, “Amen, amen.”
23 The priest will write these curses in a book, and he will wash them out with the bitter water. 24 And he will cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causes the curse. And the water that causes the curse will enter into her and become bitter. 25 Then the priest will take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand and will wave the offering before the Lord and offer it on the altar. 26 And the priest will take a handful of the offering, the memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward will cause the woman to drink the water. 27 When he has made her to drink the water, then t will be that, if she is defiled and has acted treacherously against her husband, the water that causes the curse will enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly will swell, and her thigh will rot, and the woman will be a curse among her people. 28 If the woman is not defiled, but is clean, then she will be free and will conceive offspring.
29 This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goes astray to another instead of her husband, and is defiled, 30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous over his wife, and will set the woman before the Lord, and the priest will perform on her all this law. 31 Then the man will be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman will bear her iniquity.
Chapter 6
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When either a man or woman will make a hard vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate themselves to the Lord, 3 he will separate himself from wine and strong drink and will drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh or dry grapes. 4 All the days of his separation he will eat nothing that is made of the grapevine, from the seed to the skin.
5 All the days of the vow of his separation no razor will come on his head until the days are fulfilled in which he separates himself to the Lord. He will be holy and will let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he will not approach a dead body. 7 He will not defile himself for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister if they die because the separation of his God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.
9 If any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he has defiled his consecrated head, then he will shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day will he shave it. 10 On the eighth day he will bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting. 11 And the priest will offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering and make an atonement for him, since he sinned because of the dead, and will sanctify his head that same day. 12 He will consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a guilt offering. But the previous days will be lost because his separation was defiled.
13 This is the law of the Nazirite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he will be brought to the door of the tent of meeting. 14 And he will offer his offering to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15 a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings.
16 The priest will bring them before the Lord and will offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. 17 And he will offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest will offer also his grain offering and his drink offering.
18 The Nazirite will shave his consecrated head at the door of the tent of meeting, and will take the hair from his consecrated head and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.
19 The priest will take the cooked shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer and will put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved his consecrated hair. 20 And the priest will wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the breast waved and the shoulder offered. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21 This is the law of the Nazirite who has vowed to the Lord, his offering for his separation, besides whatever else his hand is able to provide. According to the vow which he spoke, so he must do, according to the law of his separation.
22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 23 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is how you will bless the children of Israel, saying to them,
24 The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
and be gracious unto you;
26 the Lord lift His countenance upon you,
and give you peace.
27 They will put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
Mark 4:1–20
1 Again He began to teach by the seaside. A large crowd was gathered before Him, so that He entered a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. 2 He taught them many things in parables and said to them in His teaching: 3 “Listen! And take note: A sower went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell beside the path, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 Some seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and soon it sprang up because it did not have deep soil. 6 But when the sun rose, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seed fell on good ground, and it yielded grain that sprang up and increased by thirty, sixty, or a hundred times as much.”
9 Then He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 When He was alone, those who were around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. 11 He said to them, “To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything is said in parables, 12 so that
‘seeing they may see, and not perceive,
and hearing they may hear and not understand;
lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.’”
13 Then He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are those beside the path, where the word is sown. But when they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word which is sown in their hearts. 16 Others, likewise, are seed sown on rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, 17 but have no root in themselves, and so endure for a time. Afterward, when affliction or persecution rises for the word’s sake, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are seed sown among thorns, the ones who hear the word. 19 But the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 Still others are seed sown on good ground, those who hear the word, and receive it, and bear fruit: thirty, sixty, or a hundred times as much.”