They served only for matters of food and drink ¹  and various washings; they are external regulations ²  imposed until the new order came. ³ 

Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.

So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly ¹  welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

Give a shepherd’s care to ¹  God’s flock among you, exercising oversight ²  not merely as a duty ³  but willingly under God’s direction, ⁴  not for shameful profit but eagerly.

For by speaking high-sounding but empty words ¹  they are able to entice, ²  with fleshly desires and with debauchery, ³  people ⁴  who have just escaped ⁵  from those who reside in error. ⁶ 

Yet these men, ¹  as a result of their dreams, ²  defile the flesh, reject authority, ³  and insult ⁴  the glorious ones. ⁵ 

save ¹  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ²  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ³  hating even the clothes stained ⁴  by the flesh. ⁵ 

Look! I am throwing her onto a bed of violent illness, ¹  and those who commit adultery with her into terrible suffering, ²  unless they repent of her deeds.

with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ¹ 

On ¹  her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ²  “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”

Then ¹  the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury ²  with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. ³ 

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ¹  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ² 

You are destructive ¹  like water and will not excel, ²  for you got on your father’s bed, ³  then you defiled it – he got on my couch! ⁴ 

Then she will remain ¹  thirty-three days in blood purity. ²  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ³ 

but he must not go into the veil-canopy ¹  or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus ²  he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

“‘If anyone dies very suddenly ¹  beside him and he defiles ²  his consecrated head, ³  then he must shave his head on the day of his purification – on the seventh day he must shave it.

He must rededicate ¹  to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a reparation offering, ²  but the former days will not be counted ³  because his separation ⁴  was defiled.

But ¹  the man who is ceremonially clean, and was not on a journey, and fails ²  to keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people. ³  Because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time, that man must bear his sin. ⁴ 

“‘Then a man who is ceremonially clean must gather up the ashes of the red heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept ¹  for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of purification ²  – it is a purification for sin. ³ 

The majority of the many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were ceremonially unclean, yet they ate the Passover in violation of what is prescribed in the law. ¹  For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: “May the Lord, who is good, forgive ²