“‘You shall not make for yourselves idols and divine images, and you shall not raise up stone pillars for yourselves, and you shall not put a sculptured stone in your land in order to worship before it, because I am Yahweh your God.

“‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

“‘If you walk in my statutes and you keep my commands and you do them, then I will give you rains in their time, and the land shall give its produce, and the trees of the field shall give their fruit. And for you the threshing season shall overtake the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall overtake the sowing, and you shall eat your food to your fill and you shall live securely in your land. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and there shall not be anybody who makes you afraid, and I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword shall pass through your land. And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue a myriad; and your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. And I will turn to you, and I will make you fruitful, and I will make you numerous; and I will keep my covenant with you. And you shall eat old grain, and you shall clear away the old before the new. And I will put my dwelling place in your midst, and my inner self shall not abhor you. And I will walk about in your midst, and I shall be your God, and you shall be my people. I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke, and I caused you to walk erectly.

“‘But if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out all these commands, and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self abhors my regulations, to not carry out all my commands by your breaking my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: then I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated before your enemies; and your haters shall rule over you, and you shall flee away, but there shall not be anybody who is pursuing you.

“‘And if in spite of these things you do not listen to me, then I will continue to discipline you seven times for your sins. And I will break the pride of your strength; and I will make your heaven like iron and your land like copper. And your strength shall be consumed in vain; and your land shall not give its produce, and the land’s trees shall not give their fruit.

“‘And if you go against me in hostility and you are not willing to listen to me, then I will add a plague onto you seven times according to your sins. And I will send wild animals out among you, and they shall make you childless, and they shall cut down your domestic animals, and they shall make you fewer; and your roads shall be desolate.

“‘And if you do not accept correction from me through these things, but you go against me in hostility, then I myself will also go against you in hostility, and I myself also will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring upon you a sword that seeks vengeance for the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities; and I will send a plague in your midst, and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy. At my breaking the supply of bread for you, then ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall return your bread by weight; and you shall eat it, and you shall not be satisfied.

“‘And if through this you do not listen to me and you go against me in hostility, then I will go against you in hostile anger, and also I myself will discipline you seven times for your sins. And you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. And I will destroy your high places, and I will cut down your incense altars, and I will place your corpses on your idols’ corpses; and my inner self shall abhor you. And I will lay your cities in ruins, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries; and I shall not smell your sacrifices’ appeasing fragrance. And I myself will lay waste the land, and your enemies who are living in it shall be appalled over it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword behind you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a ruin. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest for the time that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it. As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight before a sword, and they shall fall, but there shall not be a pursuer. And they shall stumble over one another as from before a sword, but there shall not be a pursuer; and you shall have no resistance before your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you. And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors, they shall decay with them.

“‘But when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— I myself also went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, simply because they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes. And in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. And I will remember the first covenant for them—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am Yahweh.'”

These are the rules and the regulations and the laws that Yahweh gave between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.

Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, ‘When a man makes a vow according to your proper value of persons to Yahweh, if your proper value is for a male from twenty years of age up to sixty years of age, then your proper value shall be fifty shekels of money according to the sanctuary’s shekel. But if it is for a female, then your proper value shall be thirty shekels. And if from five years of age up to twenty years of age, then your proper value shall be twenty shekels for the male and ten shekels for the female. And if from a month of age up to five years of age, then your proper value shall be five shekels of money for the male, and your proper value for the female shall be three shekels of money. And if from sixty years of age and above: if a male, then your proper value shall be fifteen shekels; and for the female, ten shekels. But if he is poorer than your proper value, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value on him; the priest shall value him according to what the person who made a vow can afford.

“‘And if it is a domestic animal from which they present an offering for Yahweh, all that he gives from it for Yahweh shall be a holy object. He shall not replace it, nor shall he exchange it, either good with bad or bad with good; and if he indeed exchanges a domestic animal with a domestic animal, then it and its substitution shall be a holy object. But if it is any unclean animal from which they may not present an offering for Yahweh, then he shall present the animal before the priest. And the priest shall set a value on it, either good or bad; as the priest sets your proper value, so it shall be. And if he indeed wants to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it onto your proper value.

“‘And if a man consecrates his house as a holy object for Yahweh, then the priest shall set a value on it, either good or bad; just as the priest sets a value on it, so it shall remain. But if the one who consecrates it wants to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your proper value’s money onto it, and it shall be his.

“‘And if a man consecrates some of his property’s fields for Yahweh, then your proper value shall be in accordance with its seed requirements: a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of money. If he consecrates his field from the Year of Jubilee, it shall stand as your proper value. But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the money for him according to the number of years that are left over until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your proper value. And if he indeed redeems the field that is consecrated, then he shall add a fifth of your proper value’s money onto it, and it shall stand for him. And if he does not redeem the field and if he sells the field to another man, it may not be redeemed again, and the field shall be a holy object for Yahweh when it goes out in the Jubilee, like a devoted field; it shall be the priest’s property.

“‘And if he consecrates for Yahweh his acquired field that is not the field of his inherited possession, then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your proper value until the year of the Jubilee, and he shall give your proper value on that day as a holy object for Yahweh. In the Year of the Jubilee the field shall return to the one who bought it from him, to the one whose property the land is. And every proper value of yours shall be in the sanctuary’s shekel—the shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

“‘However, a man shall not consecrate a firstborn among livestock, which belongs as firstborn to Yahweh; whether an ox or small livestock, it is for Yahweh. And if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ransom it according to your proper value, and he shall add a fifth of its value onto it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your proper value. However, anything devoted that a man has devoted to Yahweh from all that he has, from human or animal, or from the field of his property, may not be sold, and it may not be redeemed; anything devoted is a most holy thing for Yahweh. Anyone devoted who is devoted from human beings cannot be ransomed—he shall surely be put to death.

“‘And any tithe of the land from the land’s seed or from the fruit of the trees is for Yahweh; it is a holy object for Yahweh. And if a man indeed redeems from his tithe, he shall add a fifth of its value onto it. As for every tithe of cattle or of the flock, all which crosses under the rod, the tenth shall be a holy object for Yahweh. He shall not inspect between the good and the bad, and he shall not exchange it; but if he indeed exchanges it, then it and its substitution shall be a holy object—it shall not be redeemed.'”

These are the commands that Yahweh commanded Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.

Praise Yah!

Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh;

he takes great delight in his commands.

His descendants will be mighty in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever.

His light rises in the darkness for the upright;

he is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

It goes well for a man who is gracious and lends,

who conducts his business properly.

For he will not be shaken forever;

the righteous will be remembered forever.

He is not afraid of bad news;

his heart is steadfast, secure in Yahweh.

His heart is sustained; he will not be afraid,

until he looks in triumph on his enemies.

He gives lavishly to the needy;

his righteousness endures forever.

His horn rises high in honor.

The wicked sees it and is vexed.

He gnashes his teeth and becomes weak.

The desire of the wicked perishes.

For the law, possessing a shadow of the good things that are about to come, not the form of things itself, is never able year by year by means of the same sacrifices which they offer without interruption to make perfect those who draw near. For otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the ones who worship, having been purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in them there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when he came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifice and offering you did not want,

but a body you prepared for me;

you did not delight in whole burnt offerings and offerings for sins.

Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—

in the roll of the book it is written about me—

to do your will, O God.’

When he says above,

“Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin

you did not want, nor did you delight in,”

which are offered according to the law, then he has said,

“Behold, I have come to do your will.”

He takes away the first in order to establish the second, by which will we are made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands every day serving and offering the same sacrifices many times, which are never able to take away sins. But this one, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, from now on waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

“This is the covenant that I will decree for them

after those days, says the Lord:

I am putting my laws on their hearts,

and I will write them on their minds.”

He also says,

“Their sins and their lawless deeds I will never remember again.”

Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence for the entrance into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the curtain, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in the full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful. And let us think about how to stir one another up to love and good works, not abandoning our meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging each other, and by so much more as you see the day drawing near.

For if we keep on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that is about to consume the adversaries. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think the person will be considered worthy of who treats with disdain the Son of God and who considers ordinary the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy and who insults the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said,

“Vengeance is mine, I will repay,”

and again,

“The Lord will judge his people.”

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But remember the former days in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed both to insults and to afflictions, and sometimes becoming sharers with those who were treated in this way. For you both sympathized with the prisoners and put up with the seizure of your belongings with joy because you knew that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, in order that after you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet

“a very, very little while,

and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.

But my righteous one will live by faith,

and if he shrinks back, my soul is not well pleased with him.”

But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but among those who have faith to the preservation of our souls.

Until next time, keep meditating on the word of God.

Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.