I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ¹  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ³ 

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence. ¹  (Now it was very early morning.) ²  They ³  did not go into the governor’s residence ⁴  so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal.

The priest of the temple ¹  of Zeus, ²  located just outside the city, brought bulls ³  and garlands ⁴  to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. ⁵ 

And he is also the father of the circumcised, ¹  who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised. ² 

Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your ¹  faith in the power ²  of God who raised him from the dead.

Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. ¹  For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, ²  which have never benefited those who participated in them.

“Command Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering is to remain on the hearth ¹  on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar must be kept burning on it. ² 

Say to them, ‘Throughout your generations, ¹  if any man from all your descendants approaches the holy offerings which the Israelites consecrate ²  to the Lord while he is impure, ³  that person must be cut off from before me. ⁴  I am the Lord.

Then the priest will offer one for a purification offering ¹  and the other ²  as a burnt offering, ³  and make atonement ⁴  for him, because of his transgression ⁵  in regard to the corpse. So he must reconsecrate ⁶  his head on that day.

“This is the law ¹  of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord his offering according to his separation, as well as whatever else he can provide. ²  Thus he must fulfill ³  his vow that he makes, according to the law of his separation.”

After they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. They fasted on that day, and they confessed ¹  there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” So Samuel led ²  the people of Israel at Mizpah.

So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing and left, accompanied by two of his men. They came to the woman at night and said, “Use your ritual pit to conjure up for me the one I tell you.” ¹ 

Josiah also got rid of ¹  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ²  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ³  and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law ⁴  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

He passed his sons through the fire ¹  in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. ²  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him. ³ 

Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment, you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ¹  people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. If you do not, ²  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you that no one will be able to extinguish. That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It is true: ¹  “A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!”

Then Paul took the men the next day, ¹  and after he had purified himself ²  along with them, he went to the temple and gave notice ³  of the completion of the days of purification, ⁴  when ⁵  the sacrifice would be offered for each ⁶  of them.

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ¹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ²  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

yet we know ¹  that no one ²  is justified by the works of the law ³  but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. ⁴  And ⁵  we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ ⁶  and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one ⁷  will be justified.

For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,