Matthew 26:1-25; Numbers 35; Numbers 36; Job 3

Matthew 26:1-25

1 When Jesus had finished saying all this, He told His disciples,

2 "You know that the Passover takes place after two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,

4 and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill Him.

5 "Not during the festival," they said, "so there won't be rioting among the people."

6 While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had a serious skin disease,

7 a woman approached Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive fragrant oil. She poured it on His head as He was reclining at the table.

8 When the disciples saw it, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked.

9 "This might have been sold for a great deal and given to the poor."

10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a noble thing for Me.

11 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.

12 By pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she has prepared Me for burial.

13 I assure you: Wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her."

14 Then one of the Twelve-the man called Judas Iscariot-went to the chief priests

15 and said, "What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?" So they weighed out 30 pieces of silver for him.

16 And from that time he started looking for a good opportunity to betray Him.

17 On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare the Passover so You may eat it?"

18 "Go into the city to a certain man," He said, "and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My time is near; I am celebrating the Passover at your place with My disciples. ' "

19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

20 When evening came, He was reclining at the table with the Twelve.

21 While they were eating, He said, "I assure you: One of you will betray Me."

22 Deeply distressed, each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?"

23 He replied, "The one who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl-he will betray Me.

24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."

25 Then Judas, His betrayer, replied, "Surely not I, Rabbi?" "You have said it," He told him.

Numbers 35

1 The Lord again spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan [across from] Jericho:

2 "Command the Israelites to give cities out of their hereditary property for the Levites to live in and pastureland around the cities.

3 The cities will be for them to live in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds, flocks, and all their [other] animals.

4 The pasturelands of the cities you are to give the Levites [will extend] from the city wall 500 yards on every side.

5 Measure 1,000 yards outside the city for the east side, 1,000 yards for the south side, 1,000 yards for the west side, and 1,000 yards for the north side, with the city in the center. This will belong to them as pasturelands for the cities.

6 "The cities you give the Levites will include six cities of refuge, which you must provide so that the one who kills someone may flee there; in addition to these, give 42 [other] cities.

7 The total number of cities you give the Levites will be 48, along with their pasturelands.

8 Of the cities that you give from the Israelites' territory, you should take more from a larger [tribe] and less from a smaller one. Each [tribe] is to give some of its cities to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance it receives."

9 The Lord said to Moses,

10 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

11 designate cities to serve as cities of refuge for you, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there.

12 You will have the cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills someone will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

13 The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge.

14 Select three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge.

15 These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

16 "If anyone strikes a person with an iron object and death results, he is a murderer; the murderer must be put to death.

17 If a man has in his hand a stone capable of causing death and strikes another man and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

18 If a man has in his hand a wooden object capable of causing death and he dies, the murderer must be put to death.

19 The avenger of blood himself is to kill the murderer; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

20 Likewise, if anyone in hatred pushes a person or throws [an object] at him with malicious intent and he dies,

21 or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood is to kill the murderer when he finds him.

22 "But if anyone suddenly pushes a person without hostility or throws any object at him without malicious intent

23 or drops a stone without looking that could kill a person and he dies, but he was not his enemy and wasn't trying to harm him,

24 the assembly is to judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances.

25 The assembly is to protect the one who kills someone from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge he fled to, and he must live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

26 "If the one who kills someone ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge he fled to,

27 and the avenger of blood finds him outside the border of his city of refuge and kills him, the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed,

28 for the one who killed a person was supposed to live in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may the one who has killed a person return to the land he possesses.

29 These [instructions] will be a statutory ordinance for you throughout your generations wherever you live.

30 "If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death based on the word of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of one witness.

31 You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of killing someone; he must be put to death.

32 Neither should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to his city of refuge, allowing him to return and live in the land before the death of the [high] priest.

33 "Do not defile the land where you are, for bloodshed defiles the land, and there can be no atonement for the land because of the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

34 Do not make the land unclean where you live and where I reside; for I, the Lord, reside among the Israelites."

Numbers 36

1 The family leaders from the clan of the descendants of Gilead-the son of Machir, son of Manasseh-one of the clans of the sons of Joseph approached and addressed Moses and the leaders who were over the Israelite families.

2 They said, "The Lord commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites. My lord was further commanded by the Lord to give our brother Zelophehad's inheritance to his daughters.

3 If they marry any of the men from the [other] Israelite tribes, their inheritance will be taken away from our fathers' inheritance and added to that of the tribe into which they marry. Therefore, part of our allotted inheritance would be taken away.

4 When the Jubilee comes for the Israelites, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe."

5 So Moses commanded the Israelites at the word of the Lord, "What the tribe of Joseph's descendants says is right.

6 This is what the Lord has commanded concerning Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they like provided they marry within a clan of their ancestral tribe.

7 An inheritance belonging to the Israelites must not transfer from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of his ancestral tribe.

8 Any daughter who possesses an inheritance from an Israelite tribe must marry someone from the clan of her ancestral tribe, so that each of the Israelites will possess the inheritance of his fathers.

9 No inheritance is to transfer from one tribe to another, because each of the Israelite tribes is to retain its inheritance."

10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses.

11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married cousins on their father's side.

12 They married [men] from the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained within the tribe of their father's clan.

13 These are the commands and ordinances the Lord commanded the Israelites through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan [across from] Jericho.

Job 3

1 After this Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born.

2 He said:

3 May the day I was born perish, and the night when they said, "A boy is conceived."

4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it.

5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May an eclipse of the sun terrify it.

6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.

7 Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it.

8 Let those who curse [certain] days cast a spell on it, those who are skilled in rousing Leviathan.

9 May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

10 For that night did not shut the doors of my [mother's] womb, and hide sorrow from my eyes.

11 Why was I not stillborn; [why] didn't I die as I came from the womb?

12 Why did the knees receive me, and why were there breasts for me to nurse?

13 For then I would have laid down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest

14 with the kings and counselors of the earth, who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,

15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or [why] was I not hidden like a miscarried child, like infants who never see daylight?

17 There the wicked cease to make trouble, and there the weary find rest.

18 The captives are completely at ease; they do not hear the voice of [their] oppressor.

19 Both the small and the great are there, and the slave is set free from his master.

20 Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose existence is bitter,

21 who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure,

22 who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave?

23 [Why is life given] to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24 I sigh when food is [put] before me, and my groans pour out like water.

25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I cannot relax or be still; I have no rest, for trouble comes.