Bible Reading Plan

The Census of Israel

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai, on the first day of the second month of the second year^(a) after Israel's departure from the land of Egypt: ² "Take a census^(b) of the entire Israelite community by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting the names of every male one by one. ³ You and Aaron are to register those who are 20 years old or more by their military divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel's army.^{[a] 4} A man from each tribe is to be with you, each one the head of his ancestral house.^{(c) 5} These are the names of the men who are to assist you:

¹⁶ These are the men called from the community; they are leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of Israel's clans."

¹⁷ So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, ¹⁸ and they assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month. They recorded their ancestry by their clans and their ancestral houses, counting one by one the names of those 20 years old or more, ¹⁹ just as the Lord commanded Moses. He registered them in the Wilderness of Sinai:

⁴⁴ These are the men Moses and Aaron registered, with the assistance of the 12 leaders of Israel; each represented his ancestral house. ⁴⁵ So all the Israelites 20 years old or more, everyone who could serve in Israel's army, were registered by their ancestral houses. ⁴⁶ All those registered numbered 603,550.^(q)

Duties of the Levites

⁴⁷ But the Levites were not registered with them by their ancestral tribe. ⁴⁸ For the Lord had told Moses: ⁴⁹ "Do not register or take a census of the tribe of Levi with the other Israelites. ⁵⁰ Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They are to transport the tabernacle and all its articles, take care of it, and camp around it. ⁵¹ Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to stop at a campsite, the Levites are to set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near it must be put to death.^(r)

⁵² "The Israelites are to camp by their military divisions, each man with his encampment and under his banner. ⁵³ The Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the Israelite community."^{(s) 54} The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Chapter 12

The Parable of the Vineyard Owner

¹ Then^(a) He began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard,^(b) put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away. ² At harvest time he sent^(c) a slave^(d) to the farmers to collect some of the fruit^(e) of the vineyard from the farmers. ³ But they took him, beat^(f) him, and sent him away empty-handed.^{(g) 4} Again he sent another slave to them, and they^[a] hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.^{[b] 5} Then he sent another, and they killed that one. He also sent many others; they beat some and they killed some.

⁶ "He still had one to send, a beloved^(h) son. Finally⁽ⁱ⁾ he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.'

⁷ "But those tenant farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' ⁸ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

⁹ "Therefore, what will the owner ^[c](j) of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven't you read this Scripture: ^(k)

¹² Because they knew He had said this parable against them, they were looking for a way to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left Him and went away.

God and Caesar

¹³ Then^(o) they sent some of the Pharisees^(p) and the Herodians^(q) to Him to trap Him by what He said.^{[f](r) 14} When they came, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know You are truthful and defer to no one, for You don't show partiality^[g](s) but teach truthfully the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes^(t) to Caesar or not? ¹⁵ Should we pay, or should we not pay?"

But knowing their hypocrisy,^(u) He said to them, "Why are you testing^(v) Me? Bring Me a denarius^(w) to look at." ¹⁶ So they brought one. "Whose image^(x) and inscription^(y) is this?" He asked them.

"Caesar's," they said.

¹⁷ Then Jesus told them, "Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." ^(z) And they were amazed^(aa) at Him.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

¹⁸ Some^(ab) Sadducees,^(ac) who say there is no resurrection,^(ad) came to Him and questioned Him: ¹⁹ "Teacher,^(ae) Moses^(af) wrote for us that if a man's brother dies , leaves his wife behind, and leaves no child, ^(ag) his brother should take the wife ^(ah) and produce offspring for his brother. ^{(ai)[h] 20} There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying, left no offspring. ²¹ The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. ²² So the seven^[i] left no offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise,^[j] whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?"^[k]

²⁴ Jesus told them, "Are you not deceived because you don't know the Scriptures^(aj) or the power^(ak) of God?^{(al) 25} For when they rise^(am) from the dead,^(an) they neither marry nor are given in marriage^(ao) but are like angels^(ap) in heaven. ²⁶ Now concerning the dead being raised—haven't you read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him: I ^(aq) am the God of Abraham ^(ar) and the God of Isaac ^(as) and the God of Jacob ? ^{(at)[l] 27} He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are badly deceived."