Deuteronomy 22; Deuteronomy 23; Deuteronomy 24; Mark 14:1-26

Deuteronomy 22

1 "If you see an Israelite's cow or sheep running loose, do not ignore it; take it back.

2 But if its owner lives a long way off or if you don't know who owns it, then take it home with you. When its owner comes looking for it, give it to him.

3 Do the same thing if you find a donkey, a piece of clothing, or anything else that an Israelite may have lost.

4 "If an Israelite's donkey or cow has fallen down, don't ignore it; help him get the animal to its feet again.

5 "Women are not to wear men's clothing, and men are not to wear women's clothing; the Lord your God hates people who do such things.

6 "If you happen to find a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with the mother bird sitting either on the eggs or with her young, you are not to take the mother bird.

7 You may take the young birds, but you must let the mother bird go, so that you will live a long and prosperous life.

8 "When you build a new house, be sure to put a railing around the edge of the roof. Then you will not be responsible if someone falls off and is killed.

9 "Do not plant any crop in the same field with your grapevines; if you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes or the produce of the other crop.

10 "Do not hitch an ox and a donkey together for plowing.

11 "Do not wear cloth made by weaving wool and linen together.

12 "Sew tassels on the four corners of your clothes.

13 "Suppose a man marries a young woman and later he decides he doesn't want her.

14 So he makes up false charges against her, accusing her of not being a virgin when they got married.

15 "If this happens, the young woman's parents are to take the blood-stained wedding sheet that proves she was a virgin, and they are to show it in court to the town leaders.

16 Her father will say to them, "I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, and now he doesn't want her.

17 He has made false charges against her, saying that she was not a virgin when he married her. But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin; look at the bloodstains on the wedding sheet!'

18 Then the town leaders are to take the husband and beat him.

19 They are also to fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give the money to the young woman's father, because the man has brought disgrace on an Israelite woman. Moreover, she will continue to be his wife, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.

20 "But if the charge is true and there is no proof that she was a virgin,

21 then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father's house, where the men of her city are to stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father's house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

22 "If a man is caught having intercourse with another man's wife, both of them are to be put to death. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

23 "Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a young woman who is engaged to someone else.

24 You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. She is to die because she did not cry out for help, although she was in a town, where she could have been heard. And the man is to die because he had intercourse with someone who was engaged. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

25 "Suppose a man out in the countryside rapes a young woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the man is to be put to death;

26 nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy of death. This case is the same as when one man attacks another man and murders him.

27 The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although she cried for help, there was no one to help her.

28 "Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged.

29 He is to pay her father the bride price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

30 "No man is to disgrace his father by having intercourse with any of his father's wives.

Deuteronomy 23

1 "No man who has been castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord's people.

2 "No one born out of wedlock or any descendant of such a person, even in the tenth generation, may be included among the Lord's people.

3 "No Ammonite or Moabite - or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation - may be included among the Lord's people.

4 They refused to provide you with food and water when you were on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor, from the city of Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you.

5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead he turned the curse into a blessing, because he loved you.

6 As long as you are a nation, never do anything to help these nations or to make them prosperous.

7 "Do not despise the Edomites; they are your relatives. And do not despise the Egyptians; you once lived in their land.

8 From the third generation onward their descendants may be included among the Lord's people.

9 "When you are in camp in time of war, you are to avoid anything that would make you ritually unclean.

10 If a man becomes unclean because he has had a wet dream during the night, he is to go outside the camp and stay there.

11 Toward evening he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may come back into camp.

12 "You are to have a place outside the camp where you can go when you need to relieve yourselves.

13 Carry a stick as part of your equipment, so that when you have a bowel movement you can dig a hole and cover it up.

14 Keep your camp ritually clean, because the Lord your God is with you in your camp to protect you and to give you victory over your enemies. Do not do anything indecent that would cause the Lord to turn his back on you

15 "If slaves run away from their owners and come to you for protection, do not send them back.

16 They may live in any of your towns that they choose, and you are not to treat them harshly.

17 "No Israelite, man or woman, is to become a temple prostitute.

18 Also, no money earned in this way may be brought into the house of the Lord your God in fulfillment of a vow. The Lord hates temple prostitutes.

19 "When you lend money or food or anything else to Israelites, do not charge them interest.

20 You may charge interest on what you lend to foreigners, but not on what you lend to Israelites. Obey this rule, and the Lord your God will bless everything you do in the land that you are going to occupy.

21 "When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not put off doing what you promised; the Lord will hold you to your vow, and it is a sin not to keep it.

22 It is no sin not to make a vow to the Lord,

23 but if you make one voluntarily, be sure that you keep it.

24 "When you walk along a path in someone else's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but you must not carry any away in a container.

25 When you walk along a path in someone else's grainfield, you may eat all the grain you can pull off with your hands, but you must not cut any grain with a sickle.

Deuteronomy 24

1 "Suppose a man marries a woman and later decides that he doesn't want her, because he finds something about her that he doesn't like. So he writes out divorce papers, gives them to her, and sends her away from his home.

2 Then suppose she marries another man,

3 and he also decides that he doesn't want her, so he also writes out divorce papers, gives them to her, and sends her away from his home. Or suppose her second husband dies.

4 In either case, her first husband is not to marry her again; he is to consider her defiled. If he married her again, it would be offensive to the Lord. You are not to commit such a terrible sin in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

5 "When a man is newly married, he is not to be drafted into military service or any other public duty; he is to be excused from duty for one year, so that he can stay at home and make his wife happy.

6 "When you lend someone something, you are not to take as security his millstones used for grinding his grain. This would take away the family's means of preparing food to stay alive.

7 "If any of you kidnap Israelites and make them your slaves or sell them into slavery, you are to be put to death. In this way your nation will get rid of this evil.

8 "When you are suffering from a dreaded skin disease, be sure to do exactly what the levitical priests tell you; follow the instructions that I have given them.

9 Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt.

10 "When you lend someone something, do not go into his house to get the garment he is going to give you as security;

11 wait outside and let him bring it to you himself.

12 If he is poor, do not keep it overnight;

13 return it to him each evening, so that he can have it to sleep in. Then he will be grateful, and the Lord your God will be pleased with you.

14 "Do not cheat poor and needy hired servants, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living in one of your towns.

15 Each day before sunset pay them for that day's work; they need the money and have counted on getting it. If you do not pay them, they will cry out against you to the Lord, and you will be guilty of sin.

16 "Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; people are to be put to death only for a crime they themselves have committed.

17 "Do not deprive foreigners and orphans of their rights; and do not take a widow's garment as security for a loan.

18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God set you free; that is why I have given you this command.

19 "When you gather your crops and fail to bring in some of the grain that you have cut, do not go back for it; it is to be left for the foreigners, orphans, and widows, so that the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

20 When you have picked your olives once, do not go back and get those that are left; they are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

21 When you have gathered your grapes once, do not go back over the vines a second time; the grapes that are left are for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.

22 Never forget that you were slaves in Egypt; that is why I have given you this command.

Mark 14:1-26

1 It was now two days before the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law were looking for a way to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death.

2 "We must not do it during the festival," they said, "or the people might riot."

3 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease. While Jesus was eating, a woman came in with an alabaster jar full of a very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus' head.

4 Some of the people there became angry and said to one another, "What was the use of wasting the perfume?

5 It could have been sold for more than three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor!" And they criticized her harshly.

6 But Jesus said, "Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a fine and beautiful thing for me.

7 You will always have poor people with you, and any time you want to, you can help them. But you will not always have me.

8 She did what she could; she poured perfume on my body to prepare it ahead of time for burial.

9 Now, I assure you that wherever the gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went off to the chief priests in order to betray Jesus to them.

11 They were pleased to hear what he had to say, and promised to give him money. So Judas started looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them.

12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the lambs for the Passover meal were killed, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and get the Passover meal ready for you?"

13 Then Jesus sent two of them with these instructions: "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him

14 to the house he enters, and say to the owner of the house: "The Teacher says, Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal?'

15 Then he will show you a large upstairs room, fixed up and furnished, where you will get everything ready for us."

16 The disciples left, went to the city, and found everything just as Jesus had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

17 When it was evening, Jesus came with the twelve disciples.

18 While they were at the table eating, Jesus said, "I tell you that one of you will betray me - one who is eating with me."

19 The disciples were upset and began to ask him, one after the other, "Surely you don't mean me, do you?"

20 Jesus answered, "It will be one of you twelve, one who dips his bread in the dish with me.

21 The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will; but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

22 While they were eating, Jesus took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples. "Take it," he said, "this is my body."

23 Then he took a cup, gave thanks to God, and handed it to them; and they all drank from it.

24 Jesus said, "This is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God's covenant.

25 I tell you, I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine in the Kingdom of God."

26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.