He replied, “Yes, in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” So he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

He said to them: “Listen to me, you Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, so you can consecrate the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors! ¹  Remove from the sanctuary what is ceremonially unclean!

Now give praise to the Lord God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the local residents ¹  and from these foreign wives.”

I said to them, “Each of you must get rid of the detestable idols you keep before you, ¹  and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ¹  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

Then you will remember your evil behavior ¹  and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.

and do not present your members to sin as instruments ¹  to be used for unrighteousness, ²  but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments ³  to be used for righteousness.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves ¹  as obedient slaves, ²  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ³ 

He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants.

“So now the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ¹  asks, ‘Why will you do such great harm to yourselves? Why should every man, woman, child, and baby of yours be destroyed from the midst of Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant?

“This is how you will divide this land for yourselves among the tribes of Israel.

You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

¹ The Lord said ²  to Moses: “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.

You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not feed the sheep!

Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, ¹  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” ²  says the Lord.

For by grace you are saved ¹  through faith, ²  and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, ¹  kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,

so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

Be on guard so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he has made with you, and that you do not make an image of any kind, just as he ¹  has forbidden ²  you.

“‘But I said to their children ¹  in the wilderness, “Do not follow the practices of your fathers; do not observe their regulations, ²  nor defile yourselves with their idols.