Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17

New King James Version

Tithing Principles

²²^(A)“You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. ²³^(B)And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of ^(C)the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or ^(D)if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, ²⁵then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall ^(E)rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷You shall not ^[a]forsake the ^(F)Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

²⁸^(G)“At the end of every third year you shall bring out the ^(H)tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. ²⁹And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Debts Canceled Every Seven Years^(I)

15 “At the end of ^(J)every seven years you shall grant a ^[b]release of debts. ²And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall ^[c]release it; he shall not ^[d]require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the Lord’s release. ³Of a foreigner you may require it; but you shall give up your claim to what is owed by your brother, ⁴except when there may be no poor among you; for the Lord will greatly ^(K)bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance— ⁵only if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. ⁶For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; ^(L)you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Generosity to the Poor

⁷“If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the ^[e]gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^(M)you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, ⁸but ^(N)you shall ^[f]open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. ⁹Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your ^(O)eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and ^(P)he cry out to the Lord against you, and ^(Q)it become sin among you. ¹⁰You shall surely give to him, and ^(R)your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because ^(S)for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. ¹¹For ^(T)the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall ^[g]open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’

The Law Concerning Bondservants

¹²^(U)“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is ^(V)sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. ¹³And when you ^[h]send him away free from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed; ¹⁴you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord your God has ^(W)blessed you with, you shall give to him. ¹⁵^(X)You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today. ¹⁶And ^(Y)if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, ¹⁷then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. ¹⁸It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you; for he has been worth ^(Z)a double hired servant in serving you six years. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

The Law Concerning Firstborn Animals

¹⁹^(AA)“All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall ^[i]sanctify to the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰^(AB)You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord chooses. ²¹^(AC)But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²²You may eat it within your gates; ^(AD)the unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. ²³Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water.

The Passover Reviewed^(AE)

16 “Observe the ^(AF)month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for ^(AG)in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. ²Therefore you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, from the flock and ^(AH)the herd, in the ^(AI)place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³You shall eat no leavened bread with it; ^(AJ)seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may ^(AK)remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ⁴^(AL)And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until ^(AM)morning.

⁵“You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you; ⁶but at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover ^(AN)at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt. ⁷And you shall roast and eat it ^(AO)in the place which the Lord your God chooses, and in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. ⁸Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and ^(AP)on the seventh day there shall be a ^[j]sacred assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it.

The Feast of Weeks Reviewed^(AQ)

⁹“You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. ¹⁰Then you shall keep the ^(AR)Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give ^(AS)as the Lord your God blesses you. ¹¹^(AT)You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. ¹²^(AU)And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

The Feast of Tabernacles Reviewed^(AV)

¹³^(AW)“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. ¹⁴And ^(AX)you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your ^[k]gates. ¹⁵^(AY)Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

¹⁶^(AZ)“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and ^(BA)they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷Every man shall give as he is able, ^(BB)according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 14:27 neglect
Deuteronomy 15:1 remission
Deuteronomy 15:2 cancel the debt
Deuteronomy 15:2 exact it
Deuteronomy 15:7 towns
Deuteronomy 15:8 freely open
Deuteronomy 15:11 freely open
Deuteronomy 15:13 set him free
Deuteronomy 15:19 set apart or consecrate
Deuteronomy 16:8 Lit. restraint
Deuteronomy 16:14 towns

Numbers 28:26-31

New King James Version

Offerings at the Feast of Weeks^(A)

²⁶‘Also ^(B)on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. ²⁷You shall present a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: ^(C)two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, ²⁸with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, ²⁹and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; ³⁰also one kid of the goats, to make ^[a]atonement for you. ³¹^(D)Be sure they are without ^[b]blemish. You shall present them with their drink offerings, besides the regular burnt offering with its grain offering.

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Footnotes

Numbers 28:30 Lit. covering
Numbers 28:31 defect

Habakkuk 2:20-3:19

New King James Version

²⁰“But^(A) the Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

The Prophet’s Prayer

3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on ^[a]Shigionoth.

²O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

³God came from Teman,
The Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah

His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
⁴His brightness was like the light;
He had rays flashing from His hand,
And there His power was hidden.
⁵Before Him went pestilence,
And fever followed at His feet.

⁶He stood and measured the earth;
He looked and startled the nations.
^(B)And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
The perpetual hills bowed.
His ways are everlasting.
⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.

⁸O Lord, were You displeased with the rivers,
Was Your anger against the rivers,
Was Your wrath against the sea,
That You rode on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation?
⁹Your bow was made quite ready;
Oaths were sworn over Your ^[b]arrows. Selah

You divided the earth with rivers.
¹⁰The mountains saw You and trembled;
The overflowing of the water passed by.
The deep uttered its voice,
And ^(C)lifted its hands on high.
¹¹The ^(D)sun and moon stood still in their habitation;
At the light of Your arrows they went,
At the shining of Your glittering spear.

¹²You marched through the land in indignation;
You ^[c]trampled the nations in anger.
¹³You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For salvation with Your Anointed.
You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
By laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah

¹⁴You thrust through with his own arrows
The head of his villages.
They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me;
Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret.
¹⁵^(E)You walked through the sea with Your horses,
Through the heap of great waters.

¹⁶When I heard, ^(F)my body trembled;
My lips quivered at the voice;
Rottenness entered my bones;
And I trembled in myself,
That I might rest in the day of trouble.
When he comes up to the people,
He will invade them with his troops.

A Hymn of Faith

¹⁷Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
¹⁸Yet I will ^(G)rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

¹⁹^[d]The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like ^(H)deer’s feet,
And He will make me ^(I)walk on my high hills.

To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.

Footnotes

Habakkuk 3:1 Exact meaning unknown
Habakkuk 3:9 Lit. tribes or rods, cf. v. 14
Habakkuk 3:12 Or threshed
Habakkuk 3:19 Heb. YHWH Adonai

Acts 2:1-13

New King James Version

Coming of the Holy Spirit

2 When ^(A)the Day of Pentecost had fully come, ^(B)they were all ^[a]with one accord in one place. ²And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and ^(C)it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³Then there appeared to them ^[b]divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴And ^(D)they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began ^(E)to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The Crowd’s Response

⁵And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, ^(F)devout men, from every nation under heaven. ⁶And when this sound occurred, the ^(G)multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. ⁷Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak ^(H)Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each in our own ^[c]language in which we were born? ⁹Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and ^(I)Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and ^[d]Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” ¹²So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”