Circumcise Your Hearts, Not Just Flesh

1. At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.” 3. So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4. He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me. 5. I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me. 6. (The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 7. From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. 8. At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 9. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.) 10. I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you. 11. Yahweh said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” 12. Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13. to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good? 14. Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. 15. Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today. 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. 17. For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward. 18. He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. 19. Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20. You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. 21. He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. 22. Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude. 1. Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 2. Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, 3. his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4. and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day; 5. and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 6. and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel; 7. but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did. 8. Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it; 9. and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10. For the land, where you go in to possess, isn’t like the land of Egypt, that you came out of, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; 11. but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, 12. a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. 13. It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14. that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15. I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16. Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17. and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. 18. Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 19. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates; 21. that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. 22. For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him; 23. then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border. 25. No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you. 26. Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27. the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today; 28. and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods, which you have not known. 29. It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30. Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31. For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32. You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today. 1. These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. 2. You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3. You shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. 4. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. 5. But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and there you shall come. 6. There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7. There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 8. You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9. for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you. 10. But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety; 11. then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13. Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14. but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15. Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the deer. 16. Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 18. but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. 19. Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. 20. When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat; you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul. 21. If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 22. Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 23. Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat. 24. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25. You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes. 26. Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose. 27. You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar; and you shall eat the meat. 28. Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes. 29. When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land; 30. be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31. You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32. Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

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. The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset. 2. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out. 3. Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy around him. 4. He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5. “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” 6. The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah. 7. “Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God. 8. I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me. 9. I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens. 10. For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. 11. I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine. 12. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 13. Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 14. Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. 15. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” 16. But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips, 17. since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you? 18. When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have participated with adulterers. 19. “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. 20. You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son. 21. You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes. 22. “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver. 23. Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”