Justice, Comfort, and the God Who Sees

1. When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2. When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3. If the latter husband hates her, and write her a bill of divorce, and puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; 4. her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. 5. When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken. 6. No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge; for he takes a life in pledge. 7. If a man is found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deals with him as a slave, or sells him; then that thief shall die. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 8. Be careful in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites teach you. As I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. 9. Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came out of Egypt. 10. When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you. 12. If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. 13. You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. 14. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15. In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. 16. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 17. You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge; 18. but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing. 19. When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21. When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing. 1. If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. 2. It shall be, if the wicked man is worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 3. He may sentence him to no more than forty stripes. He shall not give more; lest, if he should give more, and beat him more than that many stripes, then your brother will be degraded in your sight. 4. You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 5. If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 6. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. 7. If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.” 8. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stands and says, “I don’t want to take her”; 9. then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.” 10. His name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his shoe removed.” 11. When men strive against each other, and the wife of one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts out her hand, and takes him by his private parts, 12. then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity. 13. You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, one heavy and one light. 14. You shall not have in your house diverse measures, one large and one small. 15. You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16. For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17. Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt; 18. how he met you by the way, and struck the rearmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. 19. Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky. You shall not forget. 1. It shall be, when you have come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it, 2. that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. 3. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to Yahweh your God, that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.” 4. The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before Yahweh your God’s altar. 5. You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6. The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. 7. Then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders; 9. and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10. Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me.” You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God. 11. You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you. 12. When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled. 13. You shall say before Yahweh your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. 14. I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to Yahweh my God’s voice. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 15. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.” 16. Today Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17. You have declared today that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice. 18. Yahweh has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments. 19. He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken. 1. Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. 2. It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. 3. You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over; that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4. It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. 5. There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. 6. You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 7. You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 8. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.” 9. Moses and the priests the Levites spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent, and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God. 10. You shall therefore obey Yahweh your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.” 11. Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 12. “These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13. These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14. With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, 15. ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ 16. ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 17. ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 18. ‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 19. ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 20. ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 21. ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 22. ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 23. ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 24. ‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 25. ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 26. ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”

1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 4. who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. 6. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. 7. Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort. 8. For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life. 9. Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, 10. who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us; 11. you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf. 12. For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you. 13. For we write no other things to you, than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will acknowledge to the end; 14. as also you acknowledged us in part, that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus. 15. In this confidence, I was determined to come first to you, that you might have a second benefit; 16. and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my journey to Judea. 17. When I therefore was thus determined, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?” 18. But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not “Yes and no.” 19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not “Yes and no,” but in him is “Yes.” 20. For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us. 21. Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; 22. who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts. 23. But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn’t come to Corinth to spare you. 24. Not that we control your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith. 1. But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2. For if I make you sorry, then who will make me glad but he who is made sorry by me? 3. And I wrote this very thing to you, so that, when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be shared by all of you. 4. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made sorry, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you. 5. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I not press too heavily) to you all. 6. This punishment which was inflicted by the many is sufficient for such a one; 7. so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow. 8. Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward him. 9. For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. 10. Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11. that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes. 12. Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, 13. I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus, my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia. 14. Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. 15. For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish; 16. to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17. For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. 1. Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2. You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3. being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh. 4. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God; 5. not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 6. who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7. But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which was passing away; 8. won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory? 9. For if the service of condemnation has glory, the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10. For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses. 11. For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory. 12. Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, 13. and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away. 14. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. 15. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18. But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.

1. Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might. 2. Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth. 3. For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah. 4. Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul. 5. He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth. 6. With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good. 7. For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.