1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

2 You are to offer to the Lord your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for His Name. 3You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste— so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

4 No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

5 You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you. 6You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt. 7And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the Lord your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.

8 For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the Lord your God, and you must not do any work.

9 You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. 10And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the Lord your God has blessed you, 11and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name — you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.

13 You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14And you shall rejoice in your feast— you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

15 For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the Lord your God in the place He will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.

16 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you.

18 You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

19 Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

20 Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the Lord your God, 22and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

1 You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep with any defect or serious flaw, for that is detestable to the Lord your God.

2 If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the Lord your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant 3and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven— which I have forbidden— 4and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly.

If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel, 5you must bring out to your gates the man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you must stone that person to death. 6On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but he shall not be executed on the testimony of a lone witness. 7The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.

8 If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the Lord your God will choose. 9You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

10 You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the Lord will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you, 11according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you.

12 But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. 13Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

14 When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15you are to appoint over yourselves the king whom the Lord your God shall choose. Appoint a king from among your brothers; you are not to set over yourselves a foreigner who is not one of your brothers.

16 But the king must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire more horses, for the Lord has said, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 17He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

18 When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes. 20Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

7 When Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, he was perplexed. For some were saying that John had risen from the dead, 8others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that a prophet of old had arisen.

9“I beheaded John,” Herod said, “but who is this man I hear such things about?” And he kept trying to see Jesus.

10 Then the apostles returned and reported to Jesus all that they had done. Taking them away privately, He withdrew to a town called Bethsaida. 11But the crowds found out and followed Him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and He healed those who needed healing.

12 As the day neared its end, the Twelve came to Jesus and said, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside for lodging and provisions. For we are in a desolate place here.”

13 But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.”

“We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14(There were about five thousand men.)

He told His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15They did so, and everyone was seated.

16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

18 One day as Jesus was praying in private and the disciples were with Him, He questioned them: “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that a prophet of old has arisen.”

20 “But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22“The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

23 Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

25 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27But I tell you truly, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”