1 And the Lord said to Aaron: “You, and your sons, and the house of your father with you, shall carry the iniquity of the Sanctuary. And you and your sons together shall bear the sins of your priesthood.
2 But take to yourselves also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, and the scepter of your father, and may they be prepared, and may they minister to you. Then you and your sons shall minister in the tabernacle of the testimony.
3 And the Levites shall stand watch by your precepts, and for all the works of the tabernacle; yet in such a manner that they shall not approach the vessels of the Sanctuary and of the altar, lest both they die, and you perish, at the same time.
4 But they may be with you, and they may watch over the care of the tabernacle and all its ceremonies. A foreigner shall not be mixed with you.
5 Watch over the care of the Sanctuary, and over the ministry of the altar, lest an indignation may rise over the sons of Israel.
6 I have given your brothers, the Levites, to you from the midst of the sons of Israel, and I have delivered them as a gift to the Lord, in order to serve in the ministries of his tabernacle.
7 But as for you and your sons: guard the priesthood. For all that pertains to the service of the altar and of what is beyond the veil shall be exercised by the priests. If any outsider will approach, he shall be killed.”
8 And the Lord said to Aaron: “Behold, I have given you custody of my first-fruits. Everything that is sanctified by the sons of Israel I have delivered to you and your sons, for the office of the priesthood, by everlasting ordinances.
9 Therefore, you shall receive these, from the things that are sanctified and offered to the Lord. Every offering, and sacrifice, and whatever is repaid to me, on behalf of sin and also for offenses, and which becomes the Holy of holies, shall be for you and for your sons.
10 You shall eat it in the Sanctuary. Only the males shall eat from it, because it has been consecrated for you.
11 But the first-fruits, which the sons of Israel shall vow and offer, I have given to you, and to your sons, as well as to your daughters, by a perpetual right. Whoever is clean in your house shall eat them.
12 All the innermost of the oil, and of the wine, and of the grain, whatever first-fruits they offer to the Lord, I have given to you.
13 All the first of the crops, which the soil produces and which are carried to the Lord, shall fall to your use. Whoever is clean in your house shall eat them.
14 All that the sons of Israel shall repay by vow shall be yours.
15 Whatever goes out first from the womb, of all flesh, which they offer to the Lord, whether from men or from cattle, shall be your right; yet only in so far as, for the firstborn of man, you shall accept a price. And every animal that is unclean you shall cause to be redeemed.
16 And its redemption shall be, after one month, five shekels of silver, by the weight of the Sanctuary. A shekel has twenty obols.
17 But the firstborn of a cow, or of a sheep, or of a goat, you shall not cause to be redeemed, because they have been sanctified to the Lord. Thus, their blood you shall pour out upon the altar, and their fat you shall burn as a most sweet odor to the Lord.
18 Yet truly, the flesh shall fall to your use, just as the consecrated breast and the right shoulder shall be yours.
19 All the first-fruits of the Sanctuary, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons as well as to your daughters, as a perpetual right. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord, for you and for your sons.”
20 And the Lord said to Aaron: “In their land, you shall possess nothing; neither shall you have a portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.
21 But I have given, to the sons of Levi, all the tithes of Israel as a possession, for the ministry by which they serve me in the tabernacle of the covenant,
22 so that the sons of Israel may no longer approach to the tabernacle, nor commit deadly sin.
23 Only the sons of Levi may serve me in the tabernacle and may carry the sins of the people. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. They shall possess nothing else;
24 being content with the oblation of tithes, which I have separated for their uses and necessities.”
25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
26 Instruct the Levites, and also declare to them: When you will receive, from the sons of Israel, the tithes, which I have given to you, offer their first-fruits to the Lord, that is, the tenth part of a tenth,
27 so that it may be accounted to you as an oblation of the first-fruits, as much from the threshing floors as from the oil and wine presses.
28 And offer the first-fruits of everything, from which you receive tithes, to the Lord, and give them to Aaron the priest.
29 Everything which you shall offer from the tithes, and which you shall separate as gifts to the Lord, shall be the finest and most select.
30 And you shall say to them: ‘If you offer the noble and the better of the tithes, it shall be accounted to you as if you had given from the first-fruits of the threshing floor and of the oil and wine presses.’
31 And you shall eat these in all your places, both you and your families, because it is your price for the ministry, by which you serve in the tabernacle of the testimony.
32 And you shall not sin in this way: by reserving the excellent and fat things for yourselves, lest you pollute the oblations of the sons of Israel, and lest you die.”
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
2 This is the ritual that the Lord has appointed for a victim. Instruct the sons of Israel, so that they may bring to you a red cow of full maturity, in which there is no blemish, and which has not carried a yoke.
3 And you shall deliver it to Eleazar the priest, who, having led it out beyond the camp, shall immolate it in the sight of all.
4 And dipping his finger in its blood, he shall sprinkle it seven times, opposite the door of the tabernacle.
5 And he shall burn it, while all are watching, delivering into the flame, not only its skin and flesh, but also the blood and dung.
6 Likewise, cedar wood, and hyssop, and twice-dyed scarlet he shall cast into the flame, by which the cow is consumed.
7 And then finally, having washed his garments and his body, he shall enter into the camp, and he shall be deeply stained until evening.
8 Then he also who had burned it shall wash his garments and his body, and he shall be unclean until evening.
9 Then a clean man shall gather the ashes of the cow, and he shall pour them out beyond the camp, in a very pure place, so that they may be preserved for the multitude of the sons of Israel, and for the water of aspersion, because the cow was burned for sin.
10 And when he who had carried the ashes of the cow will have washed his garments, he shall be unclean until evening. The sons of Israel, and the newcomers who live among them, shall have this as a holy and perpetual right.
11 Whoever touches the corpse of a man, and is, because of this, unclean for seven days,
12 shall be sprinkled from this water on the third and seventh days, and so shall he be cleansed. But if he was not sprinkled on the third day, he is not able to be cleansed on the seventh.
13 Anyone who will have touched the dead body of a human life, and who has not been sprinkled with this mixture, pollutes the tabernacle of the Lord, and he shall perish out of Israel. For not having been sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his filth shall remain upon him.
14 This is the law of a man who dies in a tent. All who enter into his tent, and all the vessels which are there, shall be polluted for seven days.
15 The vessel that has no cover or binding over it shall be unclean.
16 If anyone in the field will have touched the corpse of a man, who was killed or who died on his own, or his bone, or his grave, he shall be unclean for seven days.
17 And they shall take some of the ashes from the burning and the sin offering, and they shall pour living waters over them into a vessel.
18 And into it a man who is clean shall dip hyssop, and he shall sprinkle from it the entire tent, and all its articles, and the men who were polluted by means of contact.
19 And so, in this manner, what is clean shall purify what is unclean, on the third and seventh days. And have been expiated on the seventh day, he shall wash both himself and his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening.
20 If anyone has not been expiated by this ritual, his soul shall perish from the midst of the Church. For he has polluted the Sanctuary of the Lord, and he has not been sprinkled with purifying waters.
21 This precept shall be an everlasting ordinance. Likewise, the one who has sprinkled the waters shall wash his garments. All who will have touched the waters of expiation shall be unclean until evening.
22 Whatever has been touched by something unclean will itself be made unclean. And the soul who touches any of these things shall become unclean until evening.”
&
1 And Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest who had been appointed leader in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words.
2 And Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and he sent him to the stocks, which were at the upper gate of Benjamin at the house of the Lord.
3 And when it had become light on the next day, Pashhur led Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said to him: “The Lord has not called your name: ‘Pashhur,’ but instead: ‘Fear all around.’ “
4 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will give you over to fear, you and all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will lead them away to Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword.
5 And I will give away the entire substance of this city, and all its labor, and every precious thing. And I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies. And they will plunder them, and take them away, and lead them into Babylon.
6 But you, Pashhur, and all the inhabitants of your house, will go into captivity. And you will go to Babylon. And there you shall die. And there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied a lie.”
7 You have led me away, O Lord, and I have been led away. You have been stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a derision all day long; everyone mocks me.
8 For I speak now as I have long spoken: crying out against iniquity and proclaiming devastation. And the word of the Lord has been made into a reproach against me and a derision, all day long.
9 Then I said: I will not call him to mind, nor will I speak any longer in his name. And my heart became like a raging fire, enclosed within my bones. And I became weary of continuing to bear it.
10 For I heard the insults of many, and terror all around: ‘Persecute him!’ and, ‘Let us persecute him!’ from all the men who had been at peace with me and who had kept watch by my side. ‘If only there were some way that he might be deceived, and we might prevail against him and obtain vengeance from him!’
11 But the Lord is with me, like a strong warrior. For this reason, those who persecute me will fall, and they will be ineffective. They will be greatly confounded. For they have not understood the everlasting disgrace that will never be wiped away.
12 And you, O Lord of hosts, the Tester of the just, who sees the temperament and the heart: I beg you to let me see your vengeance upon them. For I have revealed my case to you.
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he has freed the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked.
14 Cursed is the day on which I was born! The day on which my mother gave birth to me: let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed is the man who announced it to my father, saying, ‘A male child has been born to you,’ causing him to rejoice with gladness.
16 Let that man be like the cities that the Lord has overthrown without regret. Let him hear an outcry in the morning, and wailing at the time of midday!
17 So let him be, who did not put me to death from the womb, so that my mother would have been my sepulcher, and her womb would have been my eternal resting place!
18 Why did I depart from the womb, so that I would see hardship and sorrow, and so that my days would be consumed by trouble?”
1 Unto the end, a psalm for David himself.
2 With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me.
3 And he heard my prayers, and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. And he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps.
4 And he put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God. Many shall see, and shall fear: and they shall hope in the Lord.
5 Blessed is the man whose trust is in the name of the Lord; and who hath not had regard to vanities, and lying follies.
6 Thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, O Lord my God: and in thy thoughts there is no one like to thee. I have declared and I have spoken they are multiplied above number.
1 And Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. And he was urged by the Spirit into the wilderness
2 for forty days, and he was tested by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days. And when they were completed, he was hungry.
3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone, so that it may be made into bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ “
5 And the devil led him onto a high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
6 and he said to him: “To you, I will give all this power, and its glory. For they have been handed over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish.
7 Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.”
8 And in response, Jesus said to him: “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him alone.’ “
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and he set him on the parapet of the temple, and he said to him: “If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here.
10 For it is written that he has given his Angels charge over you, so that they may guard you,
11 and so that they may take you into their hands, lest perhaps you may hurt your foot against a stone.”
12 And in response, Jesus said to him, “It is said: ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ “
13 And when all the temptation was completed, the devil withdrew from him, until a time.
14 And Jesus returned, in the power of the Spirit, into Galilee. And his fame spread throughout the entire region.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, and he was magnified by everyone.
16 And he went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. And he entered into the synagogue, according to his custom, on the Sabbath day. And he rose up to read.
17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And as he unrolled the book, he found the place where it was written:
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because of this, he has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelize the poor, to heal the contrite of heart,
19 to preach forgiveness to captives and sight to the blind, to release the broken into forgiveness, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution.”
20 And when he had rolled up the book, he returned it to the minister, and he sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him.
21 Then he began to say to them, “On this day, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
