¹And the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying: ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and get from them a rod from each father’s house, all their leaders according to their fathers’ houses—twelve rods. Write each man’s name on his rod. ³And you shall write Aaron’s name on the rod of Levi. For there shall be one rod for the head of each father’s house. ⁴Then you shall place them in the tabernacle of meeting before the Testimony, where I meet with you. ⁵And it shall be that the rod of the man whom I choose will blossom; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you.” ⁶So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and each of their leaders gave him a rod apiece, for each leader according to their fathers’ houses, twelve rods; and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. ⁷And Moses placed the rods before the Lᴏʀᴅ in the tabernacle of witness. ⁸Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds. ⁹Then Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lᴏʀᴅ to all the children of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his rod. ¹⁰And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s rod back before the Testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels, that you may put their complaints away from Me, lest they die.” ¹¹Thus did Moses; just as the Lᴏʀᴅ had commanded him, so he did. ¹²So the children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Surely we die, we perish, we all perish! ¹³Whoever even comes near the tabernacle of the Lᴏʀᴅ must die. Shall we all utterly die?”

¹Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Aaron: “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear the iniquity related to the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood. ²Also bring with you your brethren of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be joined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tabernacle of witness. ³They shall attend to your needs and all the needs of the tabernacle; but they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die—they and you also. ⁴They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the work of the tabernacle; but an outsider shall not come near you. ⁵And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, that there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel. ⁶Behold, I Myself have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; they are a gift to you, given by the Lᴏʀᴅ, to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁷Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.” ⁸And the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Aaron: “Here, I Myself have also given you charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them as a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever. ⁹This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering and every sin offering and every trespass offering which they render to Me, shall be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰In a most holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. ¹¹This also is yours: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as an ordinance forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ¹²All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the Lᴏʀᴅ, I have given them to you. ¹³Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, which they bring to the Lᴏʀᴅ, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ¹⁴Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. ¹⁵Everything that first opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lᴏʀᴅ, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. ¹⁷But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lᴏʀᴅ. ¹⁸And their flesh shall be yours, just as the wave breast and the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lᴏʀᴅ, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lᴏʀᴅ with you and your descendants with you.” ²⁰Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Aaron: “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. ²¹“Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting. ²²Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. ²³But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lᴏʀᴅ, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ” ²⁵Then the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lᴏʀᴅ, a tenth of the tithe. ²⁷And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lᴏʀᴅ from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lᴏʀᴅ’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lᴏʀᴅ, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. ³¹You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. ³²And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’ ”

¹To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Contemplation of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication. ²Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily, ³Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, And in wrath they hate me. ⁴My heart is severely pained within me, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me. ⁵Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me. ⁶So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. ⁷Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah ⁸I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest.” ⁹Destroy, O Lᴏʀᴅ, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city. ¹⁰Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. ¹¹Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. ¹²For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. ¹³But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. ¹⁴We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. ¹⁵Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. ¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God, And the Lᴏʀᴅ shall save me. ¹⁷Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice. ¹⁸He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me. ¹⁹God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God. ²⁰He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has broken his covenant. ²¹The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords. ²²Cast your burden on the Lᴏʀᴅ, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. ²³But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You.

¹Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. ²And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. ³Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, ⁴and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. ⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶“Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”— ⁷thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. ⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. ⁹The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ‘ ” ¹⁰Moreover the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke again to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹“Ask a sign for yourself from the Lᴏʀᴅ your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” ¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lᴏʀᴅ!” ¹³Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lᴏʀᴅ Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. ¹⁵Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. ¹⁷The Lᴏʀᴅ will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.” ¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lᴏʀᴅ will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. ¹⁹They will come, and all of them will rest In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, And on all thorns and in all pastures. ²⁰In the same day the Lᴏʀᴅ will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard. ²¹It shall be in that day That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep; ²²So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give, That he will eat curds; For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land. ²³It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines Worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns. ²⁴With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns. ²⁵And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.

¹James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. ²My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. ⁹Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, ¹⁰but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. ¹¹For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. ¹²Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. ¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. ¹⁵Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. ¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. ¹⁷Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. ¹⁸Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. ¹⁹So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; ²⁰for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. ²¹Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. ²⁵But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. ²⁶If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. ²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.