Exodus 12

• 1. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
• 2. "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.
• 3. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.
• 4. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.
• 5. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
• 6. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
• 7. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
• 8. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.
• 9. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire-head, legs and inner parts.
• 10. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
• 11. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.
• 12. "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-both men and animals-and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
• 13. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
• 14. "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance.
• 15. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
• 16. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-that is all you may do.
• 17. "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
• 18. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
• 19. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.
• 20. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
• 21. Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
• 22. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
• 23. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
• 24. "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
• 25. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
• 26. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?'
• 27. then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
• 28. The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron.
• 29. At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.
• 30. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
• 31. During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.
• 32. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me."
• 33. The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"
• 34. So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.
• 35. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.
• 36. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
• 37. The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.
• 38. Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
• 39. With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
• 40. Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
• 41. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD's divisions left Egypt.
• 42. Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.
• 43. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it.
• 44. Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him,
• 45. but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
• 46. "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
• 47. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
• 48. "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it.
• 49. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."
• 50. All the Israelites did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
• 51. And on that very day the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

Luke 16

• 1. Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
• 2. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
• 3. "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg--
• 4. I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
• 5. "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
• 6. "'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
• 7. "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'"'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
• 8. "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
• 9. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
• 10. "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
• 11. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
• 12. And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
• 13. "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
• 14. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.
• 15. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
• 16. "The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
• 17. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
• 18. "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• 19. "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
• 20. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores
• 21. and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
• 22. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.
• 23. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
• 24. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
• 25. "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
• 26. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
• 27. "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house,
• 28. for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
• 29. "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
• 30. "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
• 31. "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Job 31

• 1. "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.
• 2. For what is man's lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high?
• 3. Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong?
• 4. Does he not see my ways and count my every step?
• 5. "If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit-
• 6. let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless-
• 7. if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,
• 8. then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
• 9. "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,
• 10. then may my wife grind another man's grain, and may other men sleep with her.
• 11. For that would have been shameful, a sin to be judged.
• 12. It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest.
• 13. "If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants when they had a grievance against me,
• 14. what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
• 15. Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
• 16. "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
• 17. if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless-
• 18. but from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my birth I guided the widow-
• 19. if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a garment,
• 20. and his heart did not bless me for warming him with the fleece from my sheep,
• 21. if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
• 22. then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
• 23. For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.
• 24. "If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,'
• 25. if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained,
• 26. if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,
• 27. so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,
• 28. then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.
• 29. "If I have rejoiced at my enemy's misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him-
• 30. I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against his life-
• 31. if the men of my household have never said, 'Who has not had his fill of Job's meat?'-
• 32. but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler-
• 33. if I have concealed my sin as men do, by hiding my guilt in my heart
• 34. because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside
• 35. ("Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense-let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
• 36. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown.
• 37. I would give him an account of my every step; like a prince I would approach him.)-
• 38. "if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears,
• 39. if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,
• 40. then let briers come up instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.

New International Version

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