¹Now the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is the ordinance of the law which the Lᴏʀᴅ has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. ³You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, that he may take it outside the camp, and it shall be slaughtered before him; ⁴and Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of its blood seven times directly in front of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁵Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight: its hide, its flesh, its blood, and its offal shall be burned. ⁶And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet, and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. ⁷Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp; the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸And the one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water, bathe in water, and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹Then a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of purification; it is for purifying from sin. ¹⁰And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. It shall be a statute forever to the children of Israel and to the stranger who dwells among them. ¹¹‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. ¹²He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lᴏʀᴅ. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. ¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: All who come into the tent and all who are in the tent shall be unclean seven days; ¹⁵and every open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. ¹⁶Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. ¹⁷And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel. ¹⁸A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. ¹⁹The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean. ²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from among the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lᴏʀᴅ. The water of purification has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. ²¹It shall be a perpetual statute for them. He who sprinkles the water of purification shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of purification shall be unclean until evening. ²²Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.’ A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath. Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; Fighting all day he oppresses me. ²My enemies would hound me all day, For there are many who fight against me, O Most High. ³Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. ⁴In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? ⁵All day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. ⁶They gather together, They hide, they mark my steps, When they lie in wait for my life. ⁷Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God! ⁸You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? ⁹When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. ¹⁰In God (I will praise His word), In the Lᴏʀᴅ (I will praise His word), ¹¹In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ¹²Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, ¹³For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘Do Not Destroy.’ A Michtam of David when he fled from Saul into the cave. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by. ²I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me. ³He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. ⁴My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons of men Who are set on fire, Whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword. ⁵Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth. ⁶They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me; Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. Selah ⁷My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. ⁸Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. ⁹I will praise You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. ¹⁰For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. ¹¹Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth.

¹Moreover the Lᴏʀᴅ said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. ²And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.” ³Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz; ⁴for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.” ⁵The Lᴏʀᴅ also spoke to me again, saying: ⁶“Inasmuch as these people refused The waters of Shiloah that flow softly, And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son; ⁷Now therefore, behold, the Lᴏʀᴅ brings up over them The waters of the River, strong and mighty— The king of Assyria and all his glory; He will go up over all his channels And go over all his banks. ⁸He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel. ⁹“Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. ¹⁰Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us.” ¹¹For the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹²“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. ¹³The Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. ¹⁴He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken.” ¹⁶Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples. ¹⁷And I will wait on the Lᴏʀᴅ, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him. ¹⁸Here am I and the children whom the Lᴏʀᴅ has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion. ¹⁹And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. ²¹They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. ²²Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

¹My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. ²For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, ³and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” ⁴have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? ⁷Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? ⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; ⁹but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. ¹¹For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. ¹⁴What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! ²⁰But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? ²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²²Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. ²⁴You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. ²⁵Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.