Bible in a Year.

On the fifty-seventh day, Numbers 6 presents the Nazirite vow, a symbol of special consecration to the Lord, and the priestly blessing that concludes the chapter. In Deuteronomy 6, we find the heart of the Judeo-Christian faith: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." Psalm 91 complements these readings with its powerful affirmation of trust and refuge under the wings of the Most High. A day that invites us to consecration and total trust in God.

1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When a man, or woman, shall make a vow to be sanctified, and will consecrate themselves to the Lord:

3. They shall abstain from wine, and from every thing that may make a man drunk. They shall not drink vinegar of wine, or of any other drink, nor any thing that is pressed out of the grape: nor shall they eat grapes either fresh or dried.

4. All the days that they are consecrated to the Lord by vow: they shall eat nothing that cometh of the vineyard, from the raisin even to the kernel.

5. All the time of his separation no razor shall pass over his head, until the day be fulfilled of his consecration to the Lord. He shall be holy, and shall let the hair of his head grow.

6. All the time of his consecration he shall not go in to any dead,

7. Neither shall he make himself unclean, even for his father, or for his mother, or for his brother, or for his sister, when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

8. All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord.

9. But if any man die suddenly before him: the head of his consecration shall be defiled: and he shall shave it forthwith on the same day of his purification, and again on the seventh day.

10. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons to the priest in the entry of the covenant of the testimony.

11. And the priest shall offer one for sin, and the other for a holocaust, and shall pray for him, for that he hath sinned by the dead: and he shall sanctify his head that day :

12. And shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation, offering a lamb of one year for sin: yet so that the former days be made void, because his sanctification was profaned.

13. This is the law of consecration. When the days which he had determined by vow shall be expired, he shall bring him to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant,

14. And shall offer his oblation to the Lord: one he lamb of a year old without blemish for a holocaust, and one awe lamb of a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for a victim of peace offering,

15. A basket also of unleavened bread, tempered with oil, and wafers without leaven anointed with oil, and the libations of each:

16. And the priest shall present them before the Lord, and shall offer both the sin offering and the holocaust.

17. But the ram he shall immolate for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, offering at the same time the basket of unleavened bread, and the libations that are due by custom.

18. Then shall the hair of the consecration of the Nazarite, be shaved off before the door of the tabernacle of the covenant: and he shall take his hair, and lay it upon the fire, which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

19. And shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and he shall deliver them into the hands of the Nazarite, after his head is shaven.

20. And receiving them again from him, he shall elevate them in the sight of the Lord: and they being sanctified shall belong to the priest, as the breast, which was commanded to be separated, and the shoulder. After this the Nazarite may drink wine.

21. This is the law of the Nazarite, when he hath vowed his oblation to the Lord in the time of his consecration, besides those things which his hand shall find, according to that which he had vowed in his mind, so shall he do for the fulfilling of his sanctification.

22. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

23. Say to Aaron and his sons: Thus shall you bless the children of Israel, and you shall say to them:

24. The Lord bless thee, and keep thee.

25. The Lord shew his face to thee, and have mercy on thee.

26. The Lord turn his countenance to thee, and give thee peace.

27. And they shall invoke my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.

1. These are the precepts, and ceremonies, and judgments, which the Lord your God commanded that I should teach you, and that you should do them in the land into which you pass over to possess it:

2. That thou mayst fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and precepts, which I command thee, and thy sons, and thy grandsons, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged.

3. Hear, O Israel, and observe to do the things which the Lord hath commanded thee, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst be greatly multiplied, as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey.

4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

5. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.

6. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart:

7. And thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising.

8. And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes.

9. And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house.

10. And when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, for which he swore to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and shall have given thee great and goodly cities, which thou didst not build,

11. Houses full of riches, which thou didst not set up, cisterns which thou didst not dig, vineyards and oliveyards, which thou didst not plant,

12. And thou shalt have eaten and be full:

13. Take heed diligently lest thou forget the Lord, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve him only, and thou shalt swear by his name.

14. You shall not go after the strange gods of all the nations, that are round about you:

15. Because the Lord thy God is a jealous God in the midst of thee: lest at any time the wrath of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and take thee away from the face of the earth.

16. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, as thou temptedst him in the place of temptation.

17. Keep the precepts of the Lord thy God, and the testimonies and ceremonies which he hath commanded thee.

18. And do that which is pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with thee: and going in thou mayst possess the goodly land, concerning which the Lord swore to thy fathers,

19. That he would destroy all thy enemies before thee, as he hath spoken.

20. And when thy son shall ask thee to morrow, saying: What mean these testimonies, and ceremonies and judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded us?

21. Thou shalt say to him: We were bondmen of Pharao in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.

22. And he wrought signs and wonders great and very grievous in Egypt against Pharao, and all his house, in our sight,

23. And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in and give us the land, concerning which he swore to our fathers.

24. And the Lord commanded that we should do all these ordinances, and should fear the Lord our God, that it might be well with us all the days of our life, as it is at this day.

25. And he will be merciful to us, if we keep and do all his precepts before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.

1. The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

2. He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

3. For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

4. He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

5. His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

6. Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

7. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

8. But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

9. Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

10. There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

11. For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

12. In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13. Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

14. Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

15. He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

16. I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation.