Song, Thirst, and the Gift of Marriage

1. Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2. Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3. Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name. 4. He has cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his army into the sea. His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. 5. The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. 6. Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power. Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces. 7. In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble. 8. With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the plunder. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’ 10. You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11. Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? 12. You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them. 13. “You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. 14. The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. 15. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16. Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone— until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over. 17. You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established. 18. Yahweh shall reign forever and ever.” 19. For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the middle of the sea. 20. Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. 21. Miriam answered them, “Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” 22. Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. 23. When they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore its name was called Marah. 24. The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25. Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them; 26. and he said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.” 27. They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters. 1. They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2. The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; 3. and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by Yahweh’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4. Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not. 5. It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6. Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt; 7. and in the morning, then you shall see Yahweh’s glory; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?” 8. Moses said, “Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh.” 9. Moses said to Aaron, “Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.’” 10. As Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, Yahweh’s glory appeared in the cloud. 11. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12. “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.’” 13. In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp. 14. When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground. 15. When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat.” 16. This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: “Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent.” 17. The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. 18. When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating. 19. Moses said to them, “Let no one leave of it until the morning.” 20. Notwithstanding they didn’t listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them. 21. They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted. 22. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23. He said to them, “This is that which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’” 24. They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn’t become foul, and there were no worms in it. 25. Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field. 26. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.” 27. On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. 28. Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29. Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30. So the people rested on the seventh day. 31. The house of Israel called its name Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey. 32. Moses said, “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, ‘Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33. Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations.” 34. As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. 35. The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. 36. Now an omer is one tenth of an ephah. 1. All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. 2. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?” 3. The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” 4. Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5. Yahweh said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7. He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?” 8. Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God’s rod in my hand.” 10. So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11. When Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. When he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset. 13. Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. 14. Yahweh said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky.” 15. Moses built an altar, and called its name Yahweh our Banner. 16. He said, “Yah has sworn: ‘Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.’” 1. Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her away, 3. and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, “I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land”. 4. The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword.” 5. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God. 6. He said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.” 7. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent. 8. Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them. 9. Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10. Jethro said, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11. Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the thing in which they dealt arrogantly against them.” 12. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. 13. On the next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening. 14. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, “What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?” 15. Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16. When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.” 17. Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18. You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone. 19. Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God. 20. You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do. 21. Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men which fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22. Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you. 23. If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” 24. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. 25. Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 26. They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27. Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.

1. Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2. But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3. Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife her husband. 4. The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife. 5. Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6. But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. 7. Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind. 8. But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am. 9. But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn. 10. But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband 11. (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife. 12. But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. 13. The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. 14. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15. Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. 16. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 17. Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies. 18. Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. 19. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. 20. Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called. 21. Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. 22. For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant. 23. You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men. 24. Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God. 25. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy. 26. Therefore I think that because of the distress that is on us, that it’s good for a man to remain as he is. 27. Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife. 28. But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you. 29. But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; 30. and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess; 31. and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away. 32. But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; 33. but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. 34. There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. 35. This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction. 36. But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry. 37. But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well. 38. So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better. 39. A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord. 40. But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit. 1. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2. But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. 3. But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. 4. Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5. For though there are things that are called “gods”, whether in the heavens or on earth; as there are many “gods” and many “lords”; 6. yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him. 7. However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8. But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better. 9. But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak. 10. For if a man sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol’s temple, won’t his conscience, if he is weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11. And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12. Thus, sinning against the brothers, and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13. Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble. 1. Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? 2. If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3. My defense to those who examine me is this. 4. Have we no right to eat and to drink? 5. Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6. Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? 7. What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? 8. Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? 9. For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares, 10. or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. 11. If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? 12. If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ. 13. Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? 14. Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. 15. But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. 16. For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News. 17. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 18. What then is my reward? That, when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. 19. For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. 20. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; 21. to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. 22. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 23. Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. 24. Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win. 25. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 26. I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, 27. but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.

1. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! 2. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God. 4. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away. 5. God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you. 6. Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. 7. Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. 8. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children. 9. For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. 10. When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach. 11. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. 12. Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards. 13. But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. 14. Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. 16. Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. 17. Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! 18. Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies. 19. You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you. 20. Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none. 21. They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. 22. Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. 23. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. 24. Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. 25. Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents. 26. For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. 27. Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. 28. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous. 29. But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me. 30. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31. It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs. 32. The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live. 33. For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people. 34. Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein! 35. For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it. 36. The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.