Psalm 111

^[a]Praise ^[b]the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart,
In the company of the upright and in the assembly.
²  Great are the works of the Lord;
They are ^[c] studied by all who delight in them.
^3 [d] Splendid and majestic is His work,
And His righteousness endures forever.
⁴ He has made His ^[e]wonders ^[f]to be remembered;
The Lord is gracious and compassionate.
⁵ He has given ^[g]food to those who ^[h]fear Him;
He will remember His covenant forever.
⁶ He has made known to His people the power of His works,
In giving them the heritage of the nations.

⁷ The works of His hands are ^[i] truth and justice;
All His precepts are ^[j]sure.
⁸ They are upheld forever and ever;
They are performed in ^[k] truth and uprightness.
⁹ He has sent redemption to His people;
He has ^[l]ordained His covenant forever;
Holy and ^[m]awesome is His name.
¹⁰ The ^[n] fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who ^[o]do His commandments;
His praise endures forever.

Numbers 6

Law of the Nazirites

6 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a ^[a]special vow, the vow of a ^[b]Nazirite, to ^[c]dedicate himself to the Lord, ³ he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes. ⁴ All the days of his ^[d]separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.

⁵ ‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.
⁶ ‘ All the days of his separation to the Lord he shall not go near to a dead person. ⁷ He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.
⁹ ‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. ¹⁰ Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting. ¹¹ The priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him ^[e]concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall consecrate his head, ¹² and shall dedicate to the Lord his days ^[f]as a ^[g]Nazirite, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days will be void because his separation was defiled.
¹³ ‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall bring ^[h]the offering to the doorway of the tent of meeting. ¹⁴ He shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering and one ewe-lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering and one ram without defect for a peace offering, ¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, along with their grain offering and their drink offering. ¹⁶ Then the priest shall present them before the Lord and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. ¹⁷ He shall also offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, together with the basket of unleavened cakes; the priest shall likewise offer its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁸  The Nazirite shall then shave his dedicated head of hair at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and take the dedicated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. ¹⁹  The priest shall take the ram’s shoulder when it has been boiled, and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the ^[i]hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his ^[j]dedicated hair. ²⁰ Then the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offered by waving and the thigh offered by lifting up; and afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.’
²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the Lord according to his separation, in addition to what else ^[k]he can afford; according to his vow which he takes, so he shall do according to the law of his separation.”

Aaron’s Benediction

²² Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²³ “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

²⁴ The Lord bless you, and keep you;

²⁵ The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;

²⁶ The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’

²⁷ So they shall ^[l] invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”

1 Thessalonians 4

Sanctification and Love

4  Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to ^[a] walk and please God (just as you actually do ^[b]walk), that you excel still more. ² For you know what commandments we gave you ^[c]by the authority of the Lord Jesus. ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from ^[d]sexual immorality; ⁴ that each of you know how to ^[e]possess his own ^[f] vessel in sanctification and honor, ⁵ not in ^[g] lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but ^[h]in sanctification. ⁸ So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

⁹ Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; ¹⁰ for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, ¹¹ and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, ¹² so that you will ^[i] behave properly toward outsiders and ^[j] not be in any need.

Those Who Died in Christ

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep ^[k]in Jesus. ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive ^[l]and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a ^[m] shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive ^[n]and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 3

3 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.² We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, ³ so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. ⁴ In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. ⁵ For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith.I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.

Timothy’s Encouraging Report

⁶ But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. ⁷ Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. ⁸ For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. ⁹ How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? ¹⁰ Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

¹¹ Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. ¹² May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. ¹³ May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blamelessand holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.