Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

¹“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ²wyou shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall xgo to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ythat the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A zwandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, afew in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶And bthe Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷Then cwe cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸And dthe Lord brought us out of Egypt ewith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,1 with signs and wonders. ⁹And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, fa land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹And gyou shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

¹²“When you have finished paying all hthe tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ithe year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, jnor have I forgotten them. ¹⁴kI have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it lto the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ¹⁵mLook down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

¹⁶“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷nYou have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. ¹⁸And the Lord has declared today that you are oa people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, ¹⁹and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor phigh above all nations qthat he has made, and that you shall be ra people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”

Psalm 117

The Lord's Faithfulness Endures Forever

¹cPraise the Lord, all nations!

Extol him, all peoples!

²For dgreat is his steadfast love toward us,

and ethe faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

bPraise the Lord!

Psalm 118

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

¹fOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

²gLet Israel say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

³gLet the house of Aaron say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

⁴gLet those who fear the Lord say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

⁵hOut of my distress I icalled on the Lord;

the Lord answered me and set me jfree.

⁶kThe Lord is on my side; lI will not fear.

What can man do to me?

⁷mThe Lord is on my side as my helper;

I shall nlook in triumph on those who hate me.

⁸oIt is better to take refuge in the Lord

pthan to trust in man.

⁹It is better to take refuge in the Lord

pthan to trust in princes.

¹⁰qAll nations surrounded me;

in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

¹¹They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;

in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

¹²rThey surrounded me like bees;

they went out like sa fire among thorns;

in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

¹³I was tpushed hard,1 so that I was falling,

but the Lord helped me.

¹⁴The Lord is my strength and my song;

uhe has become my salvation.

¹⁵Glad songs of salvation

are in the tents of the righteous:

v“The right hand of the Lord wdoes valiantly,

¹⁶the right hand of the Lord exalts,

the right hand of the Lord wdoes valiantly!”

¹⁷xI shall not die, but I shall live,

and yrecount the deeds of the Lord.

¹⁸The Lord has zdisciplined me severely,

but he has not given me over to death.

¹⁹aOpen to me the gates of righteousness,

that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the Lord.

²⁰This is the gate of the Lord;

bthe righteous shall enter through it.

²¹I thank you that cyou have answered me

uand have become my salvation.

²²dThe stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.2

²³This is the Lord's doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁵Save us, we pray, O Lord!

O Lord, we pray, give us success!

²⁶eBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

We fbless you from the house of the Lord.

²⁷The Lord is God,

and he has made ghis light to shine upon us.

Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,

up to hthe horns of the altar!

²⁸You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;

you are my God; I will iextol you.

²⁹jOh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

¹gWho has believed what he has heard from us?1

And to whom has hthe arm of the Lord been revealed?

²For he grew up before him like a young plant,

iand like a root out of dry ground;

jhe had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

³kHe was despised and rejected2 by men,

a man of sorrows3 and acquainted with4 grief;5

and as one from whom men hide their faces6

he was despised, and lwe esteemed him not.

⁴mSurely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

nsmitten by God, and afflicted.

⁵oBut he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

pand with his wounds we are healed.

⁶qAll we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

rand the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

syet he opened not his mouth;

tlike a ulamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, vwho considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

⁹And they made his grave with the wicked

wand with a rich man in his death,

although7 xhe had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet yit was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;8

zwhen his soul makes9 an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

athe will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

¹¹Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see10 and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall bthe righteous one, my servant,

cmake many to be accounted righteous,

dand he shall bear their iniquities.

¹²eTherefore I will divide him a portion with the many,11

fand he shall divide the spoil with the strong,12

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

gyet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

¹aThe book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, bthe son of David, cthe son of Abraham.

²dAbraham was the father of Isaac, and eIsaac the father of Jacob, and fJacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³and gJudah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,1 ⁴and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵and Salmon the father of Boaz by hRahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶and iJesse the father of David the king.

And jDavid was the father of Solomon by kthe wife of Uriah, ⁷and lSolomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,2 ⁸and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, mand Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,3 and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹and nJosiah the father of oJechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

¹²And after the deportation to Babylon: pJechoniah was the father of qShealtiel,4 and rShealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶and Jacob the father of sJoseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to tthe Christ fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸Now the birth of uJesus Christ5 took place in this way. vWhen his mother Mary had been betrothed6 to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child wfrom the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling xto put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, yan angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and zyou shall call his name Jesus, afor he will save his people from their sins.” ²²bAll this took place cto fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³d“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name eImmanuel”

(which means, God fwith us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And ghe called his name Jesus.