1I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. 2He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm. 3He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. 4Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. 5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count. 6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.
New Testament·Mark 8:20–38
20“And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect?” “Seven,” they said. 21Then He asked them, “Do you still not understand?” 22When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked. 24The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.” 25Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home and said, “Do not go back into the village.” 27Then Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way, He questioned His disciples: “Who do people say I am?” 28They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” 30And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. 31Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke this message quite frankly, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33But Jesus, turning and looking at His disciples, rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 34Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples, and He told them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it. 36What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Old Testament·Leviticus 23–24
1Then the LORD said to Moses, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. 3For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a day of sacred assembly. You must not do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD. 4These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. 5The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work. 8For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.’” 9And the LORD said to Moses, 10“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD, 13along with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made by fire to the LORD, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. 14You must not eat any bread or roasted or new grain until the very day you have brought this offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. 15From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks. 16You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD. 18Along with the bread you are to present seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 19You shall also prepare one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a peace offering. 20The priest is to wave the lambs as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live for the generations to come. 22When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the LORD your God.’” 23The LORD also said to Moses, 24“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts. 25You must not do any regular work, but you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.’” 26Again the LORD said to Moses, 27“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. 29If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people. 30I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on this day. 31You are not to do any work at all. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.” 33And the LORD said to Moses, 34“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days. 35On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work. 36For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work. 37These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting offerings by fire to the LORD—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. 38These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, and in addition to your gifts, to all your vow offerings, and to all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD. 39On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days. There shall be complete rest on the first day and also on the eighth day. 40On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41You are to celebrate this as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come; you are to celebrate it in the seventh month. 42You are to dwell in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must dwell in booths, 43so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’” 44So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.
24Then the LORD said to Moses, 2“Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. 3Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps continually before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come. 4He shall tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually. 5You are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf, 6and set them in two rows—six per row—on the table of pure gold before the LORD. 7And you are to place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread, an offering made by fire to the LORD. 8Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant. 9It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place; for it is to him a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD—his portion forever.” 10Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12They placed him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them. 13Then the LORD said to Moses, 14“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him. 15And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin. 16Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death. 17And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death. 18Whoever kills an animal must make restitution—life for life. 19If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him. 21Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the LORD your God.’” 23Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses.