¹Then the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God. ³According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. ⁴You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God. ⁵You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁶‘None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁷The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ⁸The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ¹⁰The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for theirs is your own nakedness. ¹¹The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father—she is your sister—you shall not uncover her nakedness. ¹²You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is near of kin to your father. ¹³You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is near of kin to your mother. ¹⁴You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother. You shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. ¹⁵You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law—she is your son’s wife—you shall not uncover her nakedness. ¹⁶You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness. They are near of kin to her. It is wickedness. ¹⁸Nor shall you take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while the other is alive. ¹⁹‘Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity. ²⁰Moreover you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her. ²¹And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ. ²²You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. ²³Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion. ²⁴‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. ²⁵For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. ²⁶You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you ²⁷(for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), ²⁸lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰Therefore you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves by them: I am the Lᴏʀᴅ your God.’ ”

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Deer of the Dawn.’ A Psalm of David. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? ²O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. ³But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. ⁴Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. ⁵They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. ⁶But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. ⁷All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ⁸“He trusted in the Lᴏʀᴅ, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” ⁹But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. ¹⁰I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. ¹¹Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. ¹²Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. ¹³They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. ¹⁴I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. ¹⁶For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; ¹⁷I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. ¹⁸They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. ¹⁹But You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! ²⁰Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. ²¹Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me. ²²I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. ²³You who fear the Lᴏʀᴅ, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! ²⁴For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. ²⁵My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. ²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lᴏʀᴅ. Let your heart live forever! ²⁷All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lᴏʀᴅ, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. ²⁸For the kingdom is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s, And He rules over the nations. ²⁹All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive. ³⁰A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lᴏʀᴅ to the next generation, ³¹They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.

¹The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. ²“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” ³What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? ⁴One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. ⁵The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. ⁶The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit. ⁷All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. ⁸All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. ⁹That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. ¹¹There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come By those who will come after. ¹²I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised. ¹⁴I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. ¹⁵What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered. ¹⁶I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. ¹⁸For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

¹This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ²A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵(for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); ⁶not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁷Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. ⁸Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, ⁹holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. ¹⁰But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. ¹¹Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. ¹²Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. ¹³For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; ¹⁵but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ¹⁶And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.