14 verses
16All of your males must appear before Yahweh your God three times a year in the place which he chooses. In the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of temporary-shelters. They must not appear before Yahweh empty-handed. 17Every man is to give as he is able, according to Yahweh your God's blessing which he has given you. 18Make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they'll judge the people with righteous judgment. 19Don't pervert justice. Don't show partiality. Don't take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20Pursue what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which Yahweh your God is giving you. 21Don't plant for yourselves an Asherah from any kind of tree beside Yahweh your God' altar, which you make for yourselves. 22Don't set yourself up a [sacred] pillar which Yahweh your God hates.
1Don't sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox or a sheep which has a defect [or] anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
2If there is found among you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in Yahweh your God's sight in transgressing his covenant, 3and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded, 4and you are told, and you have heard of it, then you are to diligently inquire [into it]. Look, if it is true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is [indeed] done in Israel, 5then bring out that man or woman who has done this evil thing to your gates, that same man or woman; and you are to stone them to death with stones. 6[Only] at the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, is the one who is to die to be put to death. At the mouth of [only] one witness they must not be put to death. 7The witnesses' hands are to be first to put to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you will remove the evil from among you.
24 verses
1[Lover]
Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are doves behind your veil.
Your hair is a flock of goats,
that descend from Mount Gilead.
2Your teeth are a newly shorn flock,
which have come up from the washing,
where every one of them has twins.
None is bereaved among them.
3Your lips are scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are a slice of pomegranate behind your veil.
4Your neck is David's tower built for an armory,
on which a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men.
5Your two breasts are two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies. 6Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh,
to the hill of frankincense. 7You are all beautiful, my love.
There is no spot in you.
8Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
with me from Lebanon.
Look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Senir and Hermon,
from the lions' dens,
from the mountains of the leopards. 9You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes,
with one chain of your neck.
10How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine,
the fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
11Your lips, my bride, drip nectar.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden;
a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain.
13Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits,
henna with spikenard plants,
14spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree;
myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
15a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters,
flowing streams from Lebanon.
16[Beloved]
Awake, north wind, and come, you south!
Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
and taste his precious fruits.
1[Lover]
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
[Friends]
Eat, friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
2[Beloved]
I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
It is the voice of my beloved who knocks:
"Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;
for my head is filled with dew,
and my hair with the dampness of the night."
3I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on?
I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
4My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening.
My heart pounded for him.
5I rose up to open for my beloved.
My hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the lock.
6I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved left, and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
I looked for him, but I didn't find him.
I called him, but he didn't answer.
7The watchmen who go about the city found me.
They beat me.
They bruised me.
The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. 8I solemnly-order you, daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am faint with love.
22 verses
1But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their destruction will not doze.
4For if God didn't spare angels when they fell-short, but threw them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; 5and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; 7and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked 8for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless actions): 9the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of testing and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries; 11whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don't bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord. 12But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, 13receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; 14having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing; 15forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam [the son of] Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; 16but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.
17These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 18For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; 19promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a man is brought into slavery by whoever overcomes him.
20For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus AnointedOne, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit again," and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."