1 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD's food offerings as their inheritance.2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.3 And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.5 For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time.6 “And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires —to the place that the LORD will choose,7 and ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD,8 then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.9 “When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God,14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
Isaiah 3
1 For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;2 the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.4 And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.5 And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.6 For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule”;7 in that day he will speak out, saying: “I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.”8 For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.10 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.12 My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.13 The LORD has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples.14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses.15 What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.16 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet,17 therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;19 the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves;20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;21 the signet rings and nose rings;22 the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags;23 the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.24 Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.25 Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle.26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.
Leviticus 19
1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the LORD your God.5 “When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire.7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is tainted; it will not be accepted,8 and everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned what is holy to the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from his people.9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.10 And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.14 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material.20 “If a man lies sexually with a woman who is a slave, assigned to another man and not yet ransomed or given her freedom, a distinction shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free;21 but he shall bring his compensation to the LORD, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering.22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the LORD for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.23 “When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it must not be eaten.24 And in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD.25 But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit, to increase its yield for you: I am the LORD your God.26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the LORD.29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.31 “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.32 “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.33 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the LORD.”
