The Daily Audio Bible
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7 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your purification offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and sacrifice the offering of the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.”(A)
8 Aaron drew near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the purification offering, which was for himself.(B) 9 The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.(C) 10 But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the purification offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses, 11 and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.(D)
12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he dashed it against all sides of the altar. 13 And they brought him the burnt offering piece by piece and the head, which he turned into smoke on the altar. 14 He washed the entrails and the legs and, with the burnt offering, turned them into smoke on the altar.
15 Next he presented the people’s offering. He took the goat of the purification offering that was for the people and slaughtered it and presented it as a purification offering like the first one.(E) 16 He presented the burnt offering and sacrificed it according to regulation.(F) 17 He presented the grain offering, and, taking a handful of it, he turned it into smoke on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.(G)
18 He slaughtered the ox and the ram as a sacrifice of well-being for the people. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, which he dashed against all sides of the altar,(H) 19 and the fat of the ox and of the ram: the fatty tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat on them,[a] and the appendage of the liver. 20 They first laid the fat on the breasts, and the fat was turned into smoke on the altar, 21 and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron raised as an elevation offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.(I)
22 Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down after sacrificing the purification offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being. 23 Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting and then came out and blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.(J) 24 Fire came out from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.(K)
Nadab and Abihu
10 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them.(L) 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.(M) 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said,
‘Through those who are near me
I will show myself holy,
and before all the people
I will be glorified.’ ”
And Aaron was silent.(N)
4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come forward and carry your kinsmen away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.”(O) 5 They came forward and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had ordered. 6 And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not dishevel your hair and do not tear your vestments, or you will die, and wrath will strike all the congregation; but your kindred, the whole house of Israel, may mourn the burning that the Lord has sent.(P) 7 You shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is on you.” And they did as Moses had ordered.(Q)
8 And the Lord spoke to Aaron, 9 “Drink no wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons, when you enter the tent of meeting, that you may not die; it is a statute forever throughout your generations.(R) 10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean,(S) 11 and you are to teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”(T)
12 Moses spoke to Aaron and to his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left from the Lord’s offerings by fire,[b] and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy;(U) 13 you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due, from the offerings by fire[c] to the Lord, for so I am commanded. 14 But the breast that is elevated and the thigh that is raised, you and your sons and daughters as well may eat in any clean place, for they have been assigned to you and your children from the sacrifices of well-being of the Israelites.(V) 15 The thigh that is raised and the breast that is elevated they shall bring, together with the offerings by fire[d] of the fat, to raise for an elevation offering before the Lord; they are to be your due and that of your children forever, as the Lord has commanded.”(W)
16 Then Moses made inquiry about the goat of the purification offering, and it had already been burned! He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and said, 17 “Why did you not eat the purification offering in the sacred area? For it is most holy, and God[e] has given it to you that you may remove the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord.(X) 18 Its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.” 19 And Aaron spoke to Moses, “See, today they offered their purification offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and yet such things as these have befallen me! If I had eaten the purification offering today, would it have been agreeable to the Lord?”(Y) 20 And when Moses heard that, he agreed.
The Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground(A) 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”(B)
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?(C) 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
The Use of Parables
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it;(D) 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.(E)
Jesus Stills a Storm
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.(F) 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”(G) 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Jesus Heals a Man Possessed by Demons
5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him.(H) 3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain, 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him,(I) 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”(J) 8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 Then Jesus[b] asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding, 12 and the unclean spirits[c] begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, stampeded down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the man possessed by demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion, and they became frightened.(K) 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the man possessed by demons and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus[d] to leave their neighborhood.(L) 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But Jesus[e] refused and said to him, “Go home to your own people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.(M)
30 The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,
and their tongues speak justice.(A)
31 The law of their God is in their hearts;
their steps do not slip.(B)
32 The wicked watch for the righteous
and seek to kill them.(C)
33 The Lord will not abandon them to their power
or let them be condemned when they are brought to trial.(D)
34 Wait for the Lord and keep to his way,
and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
you will look on the destruction of the wicked.(E)
35 I have seen the wicked oppressing
and towering like a cedar of Lebanon.[a](F)
36 Again I[b] passed by, and they were no more;
though I sought them, they could not be found.(G)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.