"I, the Sovereign LORD, declare that no uncircumcised foreigner, no one who disobeys me, will enter my Temple, not even a foreigner who lives among the people of Israel."

Once they were proud of their beautiful jewels, but they used them to make disgusting idols. That is why the LORD has made their wealth repulsive to them.

The priests break my law and have no respect for what is holy. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. They do not teach the difference between clean and unclean things, and they ignore the Sabbath. As a result the people of Israel do not respect me.

"Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of their dead kings.

The kings built the doorsills and doorposts of their palace right against the doorsills and doorposts of my Temple, so that there was only a wall between us. They disgraced my holy name by all the disgusting things they did, and so in my anger I destroyed them.

Do not offer as a food offering any animal obtained from a foreigner. Such animals are considered defective and are not acceptable.

"People of Israel!" they shouted. "Help! This is the man who goes everywhere teaching everyone against the people of Israel, the Law of Moses, and this Temple. And now he has even brought some Gentiles into the Temple and defiled this holy place!"

And the LORD says to those foreigners who become part of his people, who love him and serve him, who observe the Sabbath and faithfully keep his covenant:

"I will bring you to Zion, my sacred hill, give you joy in my house of prayer, and accept the sacrifices you offer on my altar. My Temple will be called a house of prayer for the people of all nations."

and caused me to turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion,

So then, from now on be obedient to the LORD and stop being stubborn.

The LORD your God will give you and your descendants obedient hearts, so that you will love him with all your heart, and you will continue to live in that land.

Keep your covenant with me, your LORD, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem. If you don't, my anger will burn like fire because of the evil things you have done. It will burn, and there will be no one to put it out."

(SEE 9:25)

"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing.

Rather, the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives praise from God, not from human beings.

In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self.

You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins;

The priest shall burn all this on the altar as a food offering pleasing to the LORD. All the fat belongs to the LORD.

He must be holy and must not disgrace my name. He offers food offerings to me, and he must be holy.

The people must consider the priest holy, because he presents the food offerings to me. I am the LORD; I am holy and I make my people holy.

to tell Aaron, "None of your descendants who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me. This applies for all time to come.

No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any physical defects may present the food offering to me.

Do not offer as a food offering any animal obtained from a foreigner. Such animals are considered defective and are not acceptable.

This is how---by offering worthless food on my altar. Then you ask, 'How have we failed to respect you?' I will tell you---by showing contempt for my altar.

But you dishonor me when you say that my altar is worthless and when you offer on it food that you despise.

A curse on the cheater who sacrifices a worthless animal to me, when he has in his flock a good animal that he promised to give me! For I am a great king, and people of all nations fear me."

This started an angry argument among them. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" they asked.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.

This, then, is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread that your ancestors ate, but then later died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."

you shall put your hand on its head and kill it in front of the Tent. The priests shall throw its blood against all four sides of the altar

the kidneys and the fat on them, and the best part of the liver.

No Israelite may eat any fat or any blood; this is a rule to be kept forever by all Israelites wherever they live.

The life of every living thing is in the blood, and that is why the LORD has commanded that all blood be poured out on the altar to take away the people's sins. Blood, which is life, takes away sins.

Any male who has not been circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me."

If you refuse to obey my laws and commands and break the covenant I have made with you,

The LORD said to Moses, "You will soon die, and after your death the people will become unfaithful to me and break the covenant that I made with them. They will abandon me and worship the pagan gods of the land they are about to enter.

I will take them into this rich and fertile land, as I promised their ancestors. There they will have all the food they want, and they will live comfortably. But they will turn away and worship other gods. They will reject me and break my covenant,

The people have defiled the earth by breaking God's laws and by violating the covenant he made to last forever.

They have gone back to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to do what I said; they have worshiped other gods. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors.

It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them.