Blessings for Obedience

1 “You shall not make ^sidols for yourselves or erect an ^timage or ^upillar, and you shall not set up a ^vfigured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 ^wYou shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 ^x“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then ^yI will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 ^zYour threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And ^ayou shall eat your bread to the full and ^bdwell in your land securely. 6 ^cI will give peace in the land, and ^dyou shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And ^eI will remove harmful beasts from the land, ^fand the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 ^gFive of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 ^hI will turn to you and ⁱmake you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat ^jold store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 ^kI will make my dwelling¹ among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 ^lAnd I ^mwill walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 ⁿI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. ^oAnd I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 ^p“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but ^qbreak my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with ^rwasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And ^syou shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will ^tset my face against you, and ^uyou shall be struck down before your enemies. ^vThose who hate you shall rule over you, and ^wyou shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again ^xsevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break ^ythe pride of your power, and I ^zwill make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And ^ayour strength shall be spent in vain, for ^byour land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 ^c“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And ^dI will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that ^eyour roads shall be deserted.

23 “And ^fif by this discipline you are not turned to me ^cbut walk contrary to me, 24 ^gthen I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And ^hI will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ⁱI will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 ^jWhen I break your supply² of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and ^kyou shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 “But ^lif in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you ^min fury, and I myself will discipline you ^xsevenfold for your sins. 29 ⁿYou shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And ^oI will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and ^pcast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will ^qlay your cities waste and will ^rmake your sanctuaries desolate, and ^sI will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And ^tI myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be ^uappalled at it. 33 And ^vI will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 ^w“Then the land shall enjoy³ its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, ^xI will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^ysound of a ^zdriven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And ^ayou shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall ^brot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

40 “But if ^cthey confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they ^dcommitted against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their ^euncircumcised heart is ^fhumbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will ^gremember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^hremember the land. 43 But ^wthe land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, ⁱI will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and ^jbreak my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, ^kwhom I brought out of the land of Egypt ^lin the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

46 ^mThese are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses ⁿon Mount Sinai.

Deliver Me from My Enemies

To the choirmaster: according to ^xDo Not Destroy. A ^yMiktam¹ of David, ^zwhen Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.

Jesus Before Pilate

1 ^cThen the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man ^dmisleading our nation and ^eforbidding us to give tribute to ^fCaesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, ^ga king.” 3 ^hAnd Pilate asked him, ⁱ“Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, ^j“You have said so.” 4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, ^k“I find no guilt in this man.” 5 But they were urgent, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, ^lfrom Galilee even to this place.”

Jesus Before Herod

6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that he belonged to ^mHerod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. 8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, ⁿfor he had long desired to see him, ^obecause he had heard about him, and he was hoping ^pto see some sign done by him. 9 So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. 10 The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. 11 And Herod with his soldiers ^qtreated him with contempt and ^rmocked him. Then, ^sarraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. 12 And ^tHerod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

13 Pilate then called together the chief priests and ^uthe rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man ^vas one who was misleading the people. And ^wafter examining him before you, behold, I ^xdid not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15 Neither did Herod, for ^yhe sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. 16 ^zI will therefore punish and release him.”¹

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

18 ^aBut they all cried out together, ^b“Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas”— 19 a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and ^cfor murder. 20 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to them, “Why? ^dWhat evil has he done? ^eI have found in him no guilt deserving death. ^fI will therefore punish and release him.” 23 But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison ^gfor insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, ^hbut he delivered Jesus over to their will.

The Crucifixion

26 ⁱAnd as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were ^jmourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, ^kthe days are coming when they will say, ^l‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 ^mThen they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For ⁿif they do these things when ^othe wood is green, what will happen ^owhen it is dry?”

32 ^pTwo others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 ^qAnd when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, ^pone on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, ^rforgive them, ^sfor they know not what they do.”² And they cast lots ^tto divide his garments. 35 And ^uthe people stood by, watching, ^vbut ^wthe rulers ^xscoffed at him, saying, ^y“He saved others; ^zlet him save himself, ^aif he is ^bthe Christ of God, ^chis Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and ^doffering him sour wine 37 and saying, ^e“If you are ^fthe King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 ^gThere was also an inscription over him,³ “This is ^fthe King of the Jews.”

39 ^hOne of the criminals who were hanged ⁱrailed at him,⁴ saying, “Are you not ^jthe Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me ^kwhen you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in ^lparadise.”

The Death of Jesus

44 ^mIt was now about the sixth hour,⁵ and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,⁶ 45 while the sun’s light failed. And ⁿthe curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, ^ocalling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, ^pinto your hands I ^qcommit my spirit!” And having said this ^rhe breathed his last. 47 Now ^swhen the centurion saw what had taken place, ^the praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home ^ubeating their breasts. 49 And all ^vhis acquaintances and ^wthe women who had followed him from Galilee ^xstood at a distance watching these things.

Jesus Is Buried

50 ^yNow there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action; and he ^zwas looking for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and ^alaid him in a tomb cut in stone, ^bwhere no one had ever yet been laid. 54 It was the day of ^cPreparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.⁷ 55 ^dThe women ^ewho had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they returned and ^fprepared spices and ointments.

On the Sabbath they rested ^gaccording to the commandment.