Numbers 19

• 1. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron:
• 2. "This is a requirement of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke.
• 3. Give it to Eleazar the priest; it is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
• 4. Then Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting.
• 5. While he watches, the heifer is to be burned-its hide, flesh, blood and offal.
• 6. The priest is to take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet wool and throw them onto the burning heifer.
• 7. After that, the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. He may then come into the camp, but he will be ceremonially unclean till evening.
• 8. The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean till evening.
• 9. "A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from sin.
• 10. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he too will be unclean till evening. This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the aliens living among them.
• 11. "Whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days.
• 12. He must purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean.
• 13. Whoever touches the dead body of anyone and fails to purify himself defiles the LORD's tabernacle. That person must be cut off from Israel. Because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.
• 14. "This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent: Anyone who enters the tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days,
• 15. and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.
• 16. "Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
• 17. "For the unclean person, put some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them.
• 18. Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there. He must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave or someone who has been killed or someone who has died a natural death.
• 19. The man who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third and seventh days, and on the seventh day he is to purify him. The person being cleansed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and that evening he will be clean.
• 20. But if a person who is unclean does not purify himself, he must be cut off from the community, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. The water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on him, and he is unclean.
• 21. This is a lasting ordinance for them. "The man who sprinkles the water of cleansing must also wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water of cleansing will be unclean till evening.
• 22. Anything that an unclean person touches becomes unclean, and anyone who touches it becomes unclean till evening."

Psalms 56

• 1. Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack.
• 2. My slanderers pursue me all day long; many are attacking me in their pride.
• 3. When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
• 4. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?
• 5. All day long they twist my words; they are always plotting to harm me.
• 6. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, eager to take my life.
• 7. On no account let them escape; in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.
• 8. Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll - are they not in your record?
• 9. Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.
• 10. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise-
• 11. in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
• 12. I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you.
• 13. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Psalms 57

• 1. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
• 2. I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills {his purpose} for me.
• 3. He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me; Selah God sends his love and his faithfulness.
• 4. I am in the midst of lions; I lie among ravenous beasts- men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
• 5. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.
• 6. They spread a net for my feet- I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path- but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
• 7. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
• 8. Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
• 9. I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.
• 10. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
• 11. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

Isaiah 8

• 1. The LORD said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
• 2. And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me."
• 3. Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
• 4. Before the boy knows how to say 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."
• 5. The LORD spoke to me again:
• 6. "Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
• 7. therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the River - the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks
• 8. and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!"
• 9. Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
• 10. Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
• 11. The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said:
• 12. "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
• 13. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread,
• 14. and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.
• 15. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured."
• 16. Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples.
• 17. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.
• 18. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
• 19. When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
• 20. To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
• 21. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.
• 22. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

New International Version

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