1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

3 Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, 4bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream.

5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. 6Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, 7and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. 8Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.”

And the bloodshed will be atoned for. 9So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, 11if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, 12then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, 13and put aside the clothing of her captivity.

After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

15 If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, 16when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife.

17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him.

18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, 19his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown, 20and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

21 Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, 23you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

1 If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother. 2If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, you are to take the animal home to remain with you until your brother comes seeking it; then you can return it to him. 3And you shall do the same for his donkey, his cloak, or anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not ignore it.

4 If you see your brother’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, you must not ignore it; you must help him lift it up.

5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing, for whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord your God.

6 If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. 7You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled — both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.

12 You are to make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.

13 Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, 14and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

15 Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate 16and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her. 17And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders.

18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him. 19They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.

20 If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.

22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

23 If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, 24you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death— the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die. 26Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 27When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

28 If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

30 A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.

51 As the day of His ascension approached, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.

54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”

55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56And He and His disciples went on to another village.

57 As they were walking along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

59 Then He said to another man, “Follow Me.”

The man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60 But Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You, however, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Still another said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first let me bid farewell to my family.”

62 Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

1 After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit. 2And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.

3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Carry no purse or bag or sandals. Do not greet anyone along the road.

5 Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8 If you enter a town and they welcome you, eat whatever is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’

10 But if you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go into the streets and declare, 11‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off as a testimony against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.