18 Kislev 5781

Jacob sent messengers ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom, and instructed them as follows, “Thus shall you say, ‘To my lord Esau, thus says your servant Jacob: I stayed with Laban and remained until now; I have acquired cattle, asses, sheep, and male and female slaves; and I send this message to my lord in the hope of gaining your favor.’” The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau; he himself is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Jacob was greatly frightened; in his anxiety, he divided the people with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, the other camp may yet escape.” Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Return to your native land and I will deal bountifully with you’! I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant: with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; else, I fear, he may come and strike me down, mothers and children alike. Yet You have said, ‘I will deal bountifully with you and make your offspring as the sands of the sea, which are too numerous to count.’” After spending the night there, he selected from what was at hand these presents for his brother Esau: 200 she-goats and 20 he-goats; 200 ewes and 20 rams; 30 milch camels with their colts; 40 cows and 10 bulls; 20 she-asses and 10 he-asses. These he put in the charge of his servants, drove by drove, and he told his servants, “Go on ahead, and keep a distance between droves.” He instructed the one in front as follows, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, ‘Whose man are you? Where are you going? And whose [animals] are these ahead of you?’ you shall answer, ‘Your servant Jacob’s; they are a gift sent to my lord Esau; and [Jacob] himself is right behind us.’” He gave similar instructions to the second one, and the third, and all the others who followed the droves, namely, “Thus and so shall you say to Esau when you reach him. And you shall add, ‘And your servant Jacob himself is right behind us.’” For he reasoned, “If I propitiate him with presents in advance, and then face him, perhaps he will show me favor.” And so the gift went on ahead, while he remained in camp that night. That same night he arose, and taking his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children, he crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After taking them across the stream, he sent across all his possessions. Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking.” But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob.” Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” Jacob asked, “Pray tell me your name.” But he said, “You must not ask my name!” And he took leave of him there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning, “I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping on his hip. That is why the children of Israel to this day do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the socket of the hip, since Jacob’s hip socket was wrenched at the thigh muscle. Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, accompanied by four hundred men. He divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids, putting the maids and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. He himself went on ahead and bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near his brother. Esau ran to greet him. He embraced him and, falling on his neck, he kissed him; and they wept. Looking about, he saw the women and the children. “Who,” he asked, “are these with you?” He answered, “The children with whom God has favored your servant.” Then the maids, with their children, came forward and bowed low; next Leah, with her children, came forward and bowed low; and last, Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed low; And he asked, “What do you mean by all this company which I have met?” He answered, “To gain my lord’s favor.” Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let what you have remain yours.” But Jacob said, “No, I pray you; if you would do me this favor, accept from me this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably. Please accept my present which has been brought to you, for God has favored me and I have plenty.” And when he urged him, he accepted. And [Esau] said, “Let us start on our journey, and I will proceed at your pace.” But he said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail and that the flocks and herds, which are nursing, are a care to me; if they are driven hard a single day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I travel slowly, at the pace of the cattle before me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” Then Esau said, “Let me assign to you some of the men who are with me.” But he said, “Oh no, my lord is too kind to me!” So Esau started back that day on his way to Seir. But Jacob journeyed on to Succoth, and built a house for himself and made stalls for his cattle; that is why the place was called Succoth. Jacob arrived safe in the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan—having come thus from Paddan-aram—and he encamped before the city. The parcel of land where he pitched his tent he purchased from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred kesitahs. He set up an altar there, and called it El-elohe-yisrael. Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her, and took her and lay with her by force. Being strongly drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and in love with the maiden, he spoke to the maiden tenderly. So Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.” Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah; but since his sons were in the field with his cattle, Jacob kept silent until they came home. Then Shechem’s father Hamor came out to Jacob to speak to him. Meanwhile Jacob’s sons, having heard the news, came in from the field. The men were distressed and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing not to be done. And Hamor spoke with them, saying, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him in marriage. Intermarry with us: give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves: You will dwell among us, and the land will be open before you; settle, move about, and acquire holdings in it.” Then Shechem said to her father and brothers, “Do me this favor, and I will pay whatever you tell me. Ask of me a bride-price ever so high, as well as gifts, and I will pay what you tell me; only give me the maiden for a wife.” Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor—speaking with guile because he had defiled their sister Dinah— and said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to a man who is uncircumcised, for that is a disgrace among us. Only on this condition will we agree with you; that you will become like us in that every male among you is circumcised. Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to ourselves; and we will dwell among you and become as one kindred. But if you will not listen to us and become circumcised, we will take our daughter and go.” Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. And the youth lost no time in doing the thing, for he wanted Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most respected in his father’s house. So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public place of their town and spoke to their fellow townsmen, saying, “These people are our friends; let them settle in the land and move about in it, for the land is large enough for them; we will take their daughters to ourselves as wives and give our daughters to them. But only on this condition will the men agree with us to dwell among us and be as one kindred: that all our males become circumcised as they are circumcised. Their cattle and substance and all their beasts will be ours, if we only agree to their terms, so that they will settle among us.” All who went out of the gate of his town heeded Hamor and his son Shechem, and all males, all those who went out of the gate of his town, were circumcised. On the third day, when they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males. They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. The other sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the town, because their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and asses, all that was inside the town and outside; all their wealth, all their children, and their wives, all that was in the houses, they took as captives and booty. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious among the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my men are few in number, so that if they unite against me and attack me, I and my house will be destroyed.” But they answered, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?” God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and remain there; and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.” So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Rid yourselves of the alien gods in your midst, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. Come, let us go up to Bethel, and I will build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” They gave to Jacob all the alien gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth that was near Shechem. As they set out, a terror from God fell on the cities round about, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. Thus Jacob came to Luz—that is, Bethel—in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. There he built an altar and named the site El-bethel, for it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and was buried under the oak below Bethel; so it was named Allon-bacuth. God appeared again to Jacob on his arrival from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. God said to him, “You whose name is Jacob, You shall be called Jacob no more, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He named him Israel. And God said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fertile and increase; A nation, yea an assembly of nations, Shall descend from you. Kings shall issue from your loins. The land that I assigned to Abraham and Isaac I assign to you; And to your offspring to come Will I assign the land.” God parted from him at the spot where He had spoken to him; and Jacob set up a pillar at the site where He had spoken to him, a pillar of stone, and he offered a libation on it and poured oil upon it. Jacob gave the site, where God had spoken to him, the name of Bethel. They set out from Bethel; but when they were still some distance short of Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Have no fear, for it is another boy for you.” But as she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. Thus Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrath—now Bethlehem. Over her grave Jacob set up a pillar; it is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day. Israel journeyed on, and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-eder. While Israel stayed in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine; and Israel found out. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve in number. The sons of Leah: Reuben—Jacob’s first-born—Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram. And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old when he breathed his last and died. He was gathered to his kin in ripe old age; and he was buried by his sons Esau and Jacob. This is the line of Esau—that is, Edom. Esau took his wives from among the Canaanite women—Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah daughter of Zibeon the Hivite— and also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth. Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz; Basemath bore Reuel; and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. Those were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan. Esau took his wives, his sons and daughters, and all the members of his household, his cattle and all his livestock, and all the property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land because of his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too many for them to dwell together, and the land where they sojourned could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir—Esau being Edom. This, then, is the line of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah; Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath. The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. Those were the descendants of Esau’s wife Adah. And these were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. Those were the descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath. And these were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah daughter of Zibeon: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the clans of the children of Esau. The descendants of Esau’s first-born Eliphaz: the clans Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, Korah, Gatam, and Amalek; these are the clans of Eliphaz in the land of Edom. Those are the descendants of Adah. And these are the descendants of Esau’s son Reuel: the clans Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah; these are the clans of Reuel in the land of Edom. Those are the descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath. And these are the descendants of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: the clans Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the clans of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah. Those were the sons of Esau—that is, Edom—and those are their clans. These were the sons of Seir the Horite, who were settled in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Those are the clans of the Horites, the descendants of Seir, in the land of Edom. The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna. The sons of Shobal were these: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon were these: Aiah and Anah—that was the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the wilderness while pasturing the asses of his father Zibeon. The children of Anah were these: Dishon and Anah’s daughter Oholibamah. The sons of Dishon were these: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran. The sons of Ezer were these: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. And the sons of Dishan were these: Uz and Aran. These are the clans of the Horites: the clans Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Those are the clans of the Horites, clan by clan, in the land of Seir. These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Bela son of Beor reigned in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah. When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded him as king. When Jobab died, Husham of the land of the Temanites succeeded him as king. When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the country of Moab, succeeded him as king; the name of his city was Avith. When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah succeeded him as king. When Samlah died, Saul of Rehoboth-on-the-river succeeded him as king. When Saul died, Baal-hanan son of Achbor succeeded him as king. And when Baal-hanan son of Achbor died, Hadar succeeded him as king; the name of his city was Pau, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-zahab. These are the names of the clans of Esau, each with its families and locality, name by name: the clans Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, Magdiel, and Iram. Those are the clans of Edom—that is, of Esau, father of the Edomites—by their settlements in the land which they hold.

The prophecy of Obadiah. We have received tidings from the LORD, And an envoy has been sent out among the nations: “Up! Let us rise up against her for battle.” Thus said my Lord GOD concerning Edom: I will make you least among nations, You shall be most despised. Your arrogant heart has seduced you, You who dwell in clefts of the rock, In your lofty abode. You think in your heart, “Who can pull me down to earth?” Should you nest as high as the eagle, Should your eyrie be lodged ’mong the stars, Even from there I will pull you down —declares the LORD. If thieves were to come to you, Marauders by night, They would steal no more than they needed. If vintagers came to you, They would surely leave some gleanings. How utterly you are destroyed! How thoroughly rifled is Esau, How ransacked his hoards! All your allies turned you back At the frontier; Your own confederates Have duped and overcome you; [Those who ate] your bread Have planted snares under you. He is bereft of understanding. In that day —declares the LORD— I will make the wise vanish from Edom, Understanding from Esau’s mount. Your warriors shall lose heart, O Teman, And not a man on Esau’s mount Shall survive the slaughter. For the outrage to your brother Jacob, Disgrace shall engulf you, And you shall perish forever. On that day when you stood aloof, When aliens carried off his goods, When foreigners entered his gates And cast lots for Jerusalem, You were as one of them. How could you gaze with glee On your brother that day, On his day of calamity! How could you gloat Over the people of Judah On that day of ruin! How could you loudly jeer On a day of anguish! How could you enter the gate of My people On its day of disaster, Gaze in glee with the others On its misfortune On its day of disaster, And lay hands on its wealth On its day of disaster! How could you stand at the passes To cut down its fugitives! How could you betray those who fled On that day of anguish! As you did, so shall it be done to you; Your conduct shall be requited. Yea, against all nations The day of the LORD is at hand. That same cup that you drank on My Holy Mount Shall all nations drink evermore, Drink till their speech grows thick, And they become as though they had never been. But on Zion’s mount a remnant shall survive, And it shall be holy. The House of Jacob shall dispossess Those who dispossessed them. The House of Jacob shall be fire, And the House of Joseph flame, And the House of Esau shall be straw; They shall burn it and devour it, And no survivor shall be left of the House of Esau —for the LORD has spoken. Thus they shall possess the Negeb and Mount Esau as well, the Shephelah and Philistia. They shall possess the Ephraimite country and the district of Samaria, and Benjamin along with Gilead. And that exiled force of Israelites [shall possess] what belongs to the Phoenicians as far as Zarephath, while the Jerusalemite exile community of Sepharad shall possess the towns of the Negeb. For liberators shall march up on Mount Zion to wreak judgment on Mount Esau; and dominion shall be the LORD’s.

One day, Jonathan son of Saul said to the attendant who carried his arms, “Come, let us cross over to the Philistine garrison on the other side”; but he did not tell his father. Now Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah, under the pomegranate tree at Migron, and the troops with him numbered about 600. Ahijah son of Ahitub brother of Ichabod son of Phinehas son of Eli, the priest of the LORD at Shiloh, was there bearing an ephod.—The troops did not know that Jonathan had gone. At the crossing by which Jonathan sought to reach the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on one side, and another rocky crag on the other, the one called Bozez and the other Seneh. One crag was located on the north, near Michmas, and the other on the south, near Geba. Jonathan said to the attendant who carried his arms, “Come, let us cross over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf, for nothing prevents the LORD from winning a victory by many or by few.” His arms-bearer answered him, “Do whatever you like. You go first, I am with you, whatever you decide.” Jonathan said, “We’ll cross over to those men and let them see us. If they say to us, ‘Wait until we get to you,’ then we’ll stay where we are, and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up, for the LORD is delivering them into our hands. That shall be our sign.” They both showed themselves to the Philistine outpost and the Philistines said, “Look, some Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding.” The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his arms-bearer, “Come up to us, and we’ll teach you a lesson.” Then Jonathan said to his arms-bearer, “Follow me, for the LORD will deliver them into the hands of Israel.” And Jonathan clambered up on his hands and feet, his arms-bearer behind him; [the Philistines] fell before Jonathan, and his arms-bearer finished them off behind him. The initial attack that Jonathan and his arms-bearer made accounted for some twenty men, within a space about half a furrow long [in] an acre of land. Terror broke out among all the troops both in the camp [and] in the field; the outposts and the raiders were also terrified. The very earth quaked, and a terror from God ensued. Saul’s scouts in Gibeah of Benjamin saw that the multitude was scattering in all directions. And Saul said to the troops with him, “Take a count and see who has left us.” They took a count and found that Jonathan and his arms-bearer were missing. Thereupon Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the Ark of God here”; for the Ark of God was at the time among the Israelites. But while Saul was speaking to the priest, the confusion in the Philistine camp kept increasing; and Saul said to the priest, “Withdraw your hand.” Saul and the troops with him assembled and rushed into battle; they found [the Philistines] in very great confusion, every man’s sword turned against his fellow. And the Hebrews who had previously sided with the Philistines, who had come up with them in the army [from] round about—they too joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. When all the men of Israel who were hiding in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too pursued them in battle. Thus the LORD brought victory to Israel that day. The fighting passed beyond Beth-aven. The men of Israel were distressed that day. For Saul had laid an oath upon the troops: “Cursed be the man who eats any food before night falls and I take revenge on my enemies.” So none of the troops ate anything. Everybody came to a stack of beehives where some honey had spilled on the ground. When the troops came to the beehives and found the flow of honey there, no one put his hand to his mouth, for the troops feared the oath. Jonathan, however, had not heard his father adjure the troops. So he put out the stick he had with him, dipped it into the beehive of honey, and brought his hand back to his mouth; and his eyes lit up. At this one of the soldiers spoke up, “Your father adjured the troops: ‘Cursed be the man who eats anything this day.’ And so the troops are faint.” Jonathan answered, “My father has brought trouble on the people. See for yourselves how my eyes lit up when I tasted that bit of honey. If only the troops had eaten today of spoil captured from the enemy, the defeat of the Philistines would have been greater still!” They struck down the Philistines that day from Michmas to Aijalon, and the troops were famished. The troops pounced on the spoil; they took the sheep and cows and calves and slaughtered them on the ground, and the troops ate with the blood. When it was reported to Saul that the troops were sinning against the LORD, eating with the blood, he said, “You have acted faithlessly. Roll a large stone over to me today.” And Saul ordered, “Spread out among the troops and tell them that everyone must bring me his ox or his sheep and slaughter it here, and then eat. You must not sin against the LORD and eat with the blood.” Every one of the troops brought his own ox with him that night and slaughtered it there. Thus Saul set up an altar to the LORD; it was the first altar he erected to the LORD. Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder among them until the light of morning; and let us not leave a single survivor among them.” “Do whatever you please,” they replied. But the priest said, “Let us approach God here.” So Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hands of Israel?” But this time He did not respond to him. Then Saul said, “Come forward, all chief officers of the troops, and find out how this guilt was incurred today. For as the LORD lives who brings victory to Israel, even if it was through my son Jonathan, he shall be put to death!” Not one soldier answered him. And he said to all the Israelites, “You stand on one side, and my son Jonathan and I shall stand on the other.” The troops said to Saul, “Do as you please.” Saul then said to the LORD, the God of Israel, “Show Thammim.” Jonathan and Saul were indicated by lot, and the troops were cleared. And Saul said, “Cast the lots between my son and me”; and Jonathan was indicated. Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me, what have you done?” And Jonathan told him, “I only tasted a bit of honey with the tip of the stick in my hand. I am ready to die.” Saul said, “Thus and more may God do: You shall be put to death, Jonathan!” But the troops said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, after bringing this great victory to Israel? Never! As the LORD lives, not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground! For he brought this day to pass with the help of God.” Thus the troops saved Jonathan and he did not die. Saul broke off his pursuit of the Philistines, and the Philistines returned to their homes. After Saul had secured his kingship over Israel, he waged war on every side against all his enemies: against the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, the Philistines, and the kings of Zobah; and wherever he turned he worsted [them]. He was triumphant, defeating the Amalekites and saving Israel from those who plundered it. Saul’s sons were: Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were Merab, the older, and Michal, the younger. The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz; and the name of his army commander was Abiner son of Saul’s uncle Ner. Kish, Saul’s father, and Ner, Abner’s father, were sons of Abiel. There was bitter war against the Philistines all the days of Saul; and whenever Saul noticed any stalwart man or warrior, he would take him into his service. Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over His people Israel. Therefore, listen to the LORD’s command! “Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them on the road, on their way up from Egypt. Now go, attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses!” Saul mustered the troops and enrolled them at Telaim: 200,000 men on foot, and 10,000 men of Judah. Then Saul advanced as far as the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the wadi. Saul said to the Kenites, “Come, withdraw at once from among the Amalekites, that I may not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they left Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from among the Amalekites. Saul destroyed Amalek from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is close to Egypt, and he captured King Agag of Amalek alive. He proscribed all the people, putting them to the sword; but Saul and the troops spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the second-born, the lambs, and all else that was of value. They would not proscribe them; they proscribed only what was cheap and worthless. The word of the LORD then came to Samuel: “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from Me and has not carried out My commands.” Samuel was distressed and he entreated the LORD all night long. Early in the morning Samuel went to meet Saul. Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he erected a monument for himself; then he left and went on down to Gilgal.” When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the LORD! I have fulfilled the LORD’s command.” “Then what,” demanded Samuel, “is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of oxen that I hear?” Saul answered, “They were brought from the Amalekites, for the troops spared the choicest of the sheep and oxen for sacrificing to the LORD your God. And we proscribed the rest.” Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night!” “Speak,” he replied. And Samuel said, “You may look small to yourself, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel. The LORD anointed you king over Israel, and the LORD sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and proscribe the sinful Amalekites; make war on them until you have exterminated them.’ Why did you disobey the LORD and swoop down on the spoil in defiance of the LORD’s will?” Saul said to Samuel, “But I did obey the LORD! I performed the mission on which the LORD sent me: I captured King Agag of Amalek, and I proscribed Amalek, and the troops took from the spoil some sheep and oxen—the best of what had been proscribed—to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” But Samuel said: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As much as in obedience to the LORD’s command? Surely, obedience is better than sacrifice, Compliance than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, Defiance, like the iniquity of teraphim. Because you rejected the LORD’s command, He has rejected you as king.” Saul said to Samuel, “I did wrong to transgress the LORD’s command and your instructions; but I was afraid of the troops and I yielded to them. Please, forgive my offense and come back with me, and I will bow low to the LORD.” But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not go back with you; for you have rejected the LORD’s command, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel.” As Samuel turned to leave, Saul seized the corner of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has this day torn the kingship over Israel away from you and has given it to another who is worthier than you. Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not deceive or change His mind, for He is not human that He should change His mind.” But [Saul] pleaded, “I did wrong. Please, honor me in the presence of the elders of my people and in the presence of Israel, and come back with me until I have bowed low to the LORD your God.” So Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul bowed low to the LORD. Samuel said, “Bring forward to me King Agag of Amalek.” Agag approached him with faltering steps; and Agag said, “Ah, bitter death is at hand!” Samuel said: “As your sword has bereaved women, So shall your mother be bereaved among women.” And Samuel cut Agag down before the LORD at Gilgal. Samuel then departed for Ramah, and Saul went up to his home at Gibeah of Saul. Samuel never saw Saul again to the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, because the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel. And the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and set out; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have decided on one of his sons to be king.” Samuel replied, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” The LORD answered, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrificial feast, and then I will make known to you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I point out to you.” Samuel did what the LORD commanded. When he came to Bethlehem, the elders of the city went out in alarm to meet him and said, “Do you come on a peaceful errand?” “Yes,” he replied, “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Purify yourselves and join me in the sacrificial feast.” He also instructed Jesse and his sons to purify themselves and invited them to the sacrificial feast. When they arrived and he saw Eliab, he thought: “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands before Him.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Pay no attention to his appearance or his stature, for I have rejected him. For not as man sees [does the LORD see]; man sees only what is visible, but the LORD sees into the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass before Samuel; but he said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” Next Jesse presented Shammah; and again he said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” Thus Jesse presented seven of his sons before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.” Then Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the boys you have?” He replied, “There is still the youngest; he is tending the flock.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send someone to bring him, for we will not sit down to eat until he gets here.” So they sent and brought him. He was ruddy-cheeked, bright-eyed, and handsome. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.” Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD gripped David from that day on. Samuel then set out for Ramah. Now the spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD began to terrify him. Saul’s courtiers said to him, “An evil spirit of God is terrifying you. Let our lord give the order [and] the courtiers in attendance on you will look for someone who is skilled at playing the lyre; whenever the evil spirit of God comes over you, he will play it and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his courtiers, “Find me someone who can play well and bring him to me.” One of the attendants spoke up, “I have observed a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilled in music; he is a stalwart fellow and a warrior, sensible in speech, and handsome in appearance, and the LORD is with him.” Whereupon Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, who is with the flock.” Jesse took an ass [laden with] bread, a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David. So David came to Saul and entered his service; [Saul] took a strong liking to him and made him one of his arms-bearers. Saul sent word to Jesse, “Let David remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the [evil] spirit of God came upon Saul, David would take the lyre and play it; Saul would find relief and feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. The Philistines assembled their forces for battle; they massed at Socoh of Judah, and encamped at Ephes-dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the men of Israel massed and encamped in the valley of Elah. They drew up their line of battle against the Philistines, with the Philistines stationed on one hill and Israel stationed on the opposite hill; the ravine was between them. A champion of the Philistine forces stepped forward; his name was Goliath of Gath, and he was six cubits and a span tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and wore a breastplate of scale armor, a bronze breastplate weighing five thousand shekels. He had bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin [slung] from his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s bar, and the iron head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels; and the shield-bearer marched in front of him. He stopped and called out to the ranks of Israel and he said to them, “Why should you come out to engage in battle? I am the Philistine [champion], and you are Saul’s servants. Choose one of your men and let him come down against me. If he bests me in combat and kills me, we will become your slaves; but if I best him and kill him, you shall be our slaves and serve us.” And the Philistine ended, “I herewith defy the ranks of Israel. Get me a man and let’s fight it out!” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and terror-stricken. David was the son of a certain Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons, and in the days of Saul the man was already old, advanced in years. The three oldest sons of Jesse had left and gone with Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who had gone to the war were Eliab the first-born, the next Abinadab, and the third Shammah; and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul, and David would go back and forth from attending on Saul to shepherd his father’s flock at Bethlehem. The Philistine stepped forward morning and evening and took his stand for forty days. Jesse said to his son David, “Take an ephah of this parched corn and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers, and carry them quickly to your brothers in camp. Take these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. Find out how your brothers are and bring some token from them.” Saul and the brothers and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, in the war against the Philistines. Early next morning, David left someone in charge of the flock, took [the provisions], and set out, as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the barricade as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines opposite each other. David left his baggage with the man in charge of the baggage and ran toward the battle line and went to greet his brothers. While he was talking to them, the champion, whose name was Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, stepped forward from the Philistine ranks and spoke the same words as before; and David heard him. When the men of Israel saw the man, they fled in terror. And the men of Israel were saying [among themselves], “Do you see that man coming out? He comes out to defy Israel! The man who kills him will be rewarded by the king with great riches; he will also give him his daughter in marriage and grant exemption to his father’s house in Israel.” David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes the disgrace from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that he dares defy the ranks of the living God?” The troops told him in the same words what would be done for the man who killed him. When Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking to the men, Eliab became angry with David and said, “Why did you come down here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your impudence and your impertinence: you came down to watch the fighting!” But David replied, “What have I done now? I was only asking!” And he turned away from him toward someone else; he asked the same question, and the troops gave him the same answer as before. The things David said were overheard and were reported to Saul, who had him brought over. David said to Saul, “Let no man’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine!” But Saul said to David, “You cannot go to that Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth!” David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or a bear came and carried off an animal from the flock, I would go after it and fight it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard and strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God. The LORD,” David went on, “who saved me from lion and bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the LORD be with you!” Saul clothed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head and fastened a breastplate on him. David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk; but he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off. He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and, sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine. The Philistine, meanwhile, was coming closer to David, preceded by his shield-bearer. When the Philistine caught sight of David, he scorned him, for he was but a boy, ruddy and handsome. And the Philistine called out to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods; and the Philistine said to David, “Come here, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.” David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you and cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. All the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel. And this whole assembly shall know that the LORD can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and He will deliver you into our hands.” When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine. David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine in the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck him down and killed him. David had no sword; so David ran up and stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword and pulled it from its sheath; and with it he dispatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their warrior was dead, they ran. The men of Israel and Judah rose up with a war cry and they pursued the Philistines all the way to Gai and up to the gates of Ekron; the Philistines fell mortally wounded along the road to Shaarim up to Gath and Ekron. Then the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines and looted their camp. David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; and he put his weapons in his own tent. When Saul saw David going out to assault the Philistine, he asked his army commander Abner, “Whose son is that boy, Abner?” And Abner replied, “By your life, Your Majesty, I do not know.” “Then find out whose son that young fellow is,” the king ordered. So when David returned after killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him to Saul, with the head of the Philistine still in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, my boy?” And David answered, “The son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” When [David] finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan’s soul became bound up with the soul of David; Jonathan loved David as himself. Saul took him [into his service] that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.— Jonathan and David made a pact, because [Jonathan] loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the cloak and tunic he was wearing and gave them to David, together with his sword, bow, and belt. David went out [with the troops], and he was successful in every mission on which Saul sent him, and Saul put him in command of all the soldiers; this pleased all the troops and Saul’s courtiers as well. When the [troops] came home [and] David returned from killing the Philistine, the women of all the towns of Israel came out singing and dancing to greet King Saul with timbrels, shouting, and sistrums. The women sang as they danced, and they chanted: Saul has slain his thousands; David, his tens of thousands! Saul was much distressed and greatly vexed about the matter. For he said, “To David they have given tens of thousands, and to me they have given thousands. All that he lacks is the kingship!” From that day on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. The next day an evil spirit of God gripped Saul and he began to rave in the house, while David was playing [the lyre], as he did daily. Saul had a spear in his hand, and Saul threw the spear, thinking to pin David to the wall. But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, for the LORD was with him and had turned away from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him chief of a thousand, to march at the head of the troops. David was successful in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him; and when Saul saw that he was successful, he dreaded him. All Israel and Judah loved David, for he marched at their head. Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter, Merab; I will give her to you in marriage; in return, you be my warrior and fight the battles of the LORD.” Saul thought: “Let not my hand strike him; let the hand of the Philistines strike him.” David replied to Saul, “Who am I and what is my life—my father’s family in Israel—that I should become Your Majesty’s son-in-law?” But at the time that Merab, daughter of Saul, should have been given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite. Now Michal daughter of Saul had fallen in love with David; and when this was reported to Saul, he was pleased. Saul thought: “I will give her to him, and she can serve as a snare for him, so that the Philistines may kill him.” So Saul said to David, “You can become my son-in-law even now through the second one.” And Saul instructed his courtiers to say to David privately, “The king is fond of you and all his courtiers like you. So why not become the king’s son-in-law?” When the king’s courtiers repeated these words to David, David replied, “Do you think that becoming the son-in-law of a king is a small matter, when I am but a poor man of no consequence?” Saul’s courtiers reported to him, “This is what David answered.” And Saul said, “Say this to David: ‘The king desires no other bride-price than the foreskins of a hundred Philistines, as vengeance on the king’s enemies.’”—Saul intended to bring about David’s death at the hands of the Philistines.— When his courtiers told this to David, David was pleased with the idea of becoming the king’s son-in-law. Before the time had expired, David went out with his men and killed two hundred Philistines; David brought their foreskins and they were counted out for the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. Saul then gave him his daughter Michal in marriage. When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that Michal daughter of Saul loved him, Saul grew still more afraid of David; and Saul was David’s enemy ever after. The Philistine chiefs marched out [to battle]; and every time they marched out, David was more successful than all the other officers of Saul. His reputation soared. Saul urged his son Jonathan and all his courtiers to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan was very fond of David, and Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is bent on killing you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; get to a secret place and remain in hiding. I will go out and stand next to my father in the field where you will be, and I will speak to my father about you. If I learn anything, I will tell you.” So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him, “Let not Your Majesty wrong his servant David, for he has not wronged you; indeed, all his actions have been very much to your advantage. He took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then should you incur the guilt of shedding the blood of an innocent man, killing David without cause?” Saul heeded Jonathan’s plea, and Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death!” Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all this. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as before. Fighting broke out again. David went out and fought the Philistines. He inflicted a great defeat upon them and they fled before him. Then an evil spirit of the LORD came upon Saul while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing [the lyre]. Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he drove the spear into the wall. David fled and got away. That night Saul sent messengers to David’s home to keep watch on him and to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal told him, “Unless you run for your life tonight, you will be killed tomorrow.” Michal let David down from the window and he escaped and fled. Michal then took the household idol, laid it on the bed, and covered it with a cloth; and at its head she put a net of goat’s hair. Saul sent messengers to seize David; but she said, “He is sick.” Saul, however, sent back the messengers to see David for themselves. “Bring him up to me in the bed,” he ordered, “that he may be put to death.” When the messengers came, they found the household idol in the bed, with the net of goat’s hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, “Why did you play that trick on me and let my enemy get away safely?” “Because,” Michal answered Saul, “he said to me: ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you.’” David made good his escape, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth. Saul was told that David was at Naioth in Ramah, and Saul sent messengers to seize David. They saw a band of prophets speaking in ecstasy, with Samuel standing by as their leader; and the spirit of God came upon Saul’s messengers and they too began to speak in ecstasy. When Saul was told about this, he sent other messengers; but they too spoke in ecstasy. Saul sent a third group of messengers; and they also spoke in ecstasy. So he himself went to Ramah. When he came to the great cistern at Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” and was told that they were at Naioth in Ramah. He was on his way there, to Naioth in Ramah, when the spirit of God came upon him too; and he walked on, speaking in ecstasy, until he reached Naioth in Ramah. Then he too stripped off his clothes and he too spoke in ecstasy before Samuel; and he lay naked all that day and all night. That is why people say, “Is Saul too among the prophets?” David fled from Naioth in Ramah; he came to Jonathan and said, “What have I done, what is my crime and my guilt against your father, that he seeks my life?” He replied, “Heaven forbid! You shall not die. My father does not do anything, great or small, without disclosing it to me; why should my father conceal this matter from me? It cannot be!” David swore further, “Your father knows well that you are fond of me and has decided: Jonathan must not learn of this or he will be grieved. But, as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want, I will do it for you.” David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I am to sit with the king at the meal. Instead, let me go and I will hide in the countryside until the third evening. If your father notes my absence, you say, ‘David asked my permission to run down to his home town, Bethlehem, for the whole family has its annual sacrifice there.’ If he says ‘Good,’ your servant is safe; but if his anger flares up, know that he is resolved to do [me] harm. Deal faithfully with your servant, since you have taken your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. And if I am guilty, kill me yourself, but don’t make me go back to your father.” Jonathan replied, “Don’t talk like that! If I learn that my father has resolved to kill you, I will surely tell you about it.” David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?” Jonathan said to David, “Let us go into the open”; and they both went out into the open. Then Jonathan said to David, “By the LORD, the God of Israel! I will sound out my father at this time tomorrow, [or] on the third day; and if [his response] is favorable for David, I will send a message to you at once and disclose it to you. But if my father intends to do you harm, may the LORD do thus to Jonathan and more if I do [not] disclose it to you and send you off to escape unharmed. May the LORD be with you, as He used to be with my father. Nor shall you fail to show me the LORD’s faithfulness, while I am alive; nor, when I am dead, shall you ever discontinue your faithfulness to my house—not even after the LORD has wiped out every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth. Thus has Jonathan covenanted with the house of David; and may the LORD requite the enemies of David!” Jonathan, out of his love for David, adjured him again, for he loved him as himself. Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow will be the new moon; and you will be missed when your seat remains vacant. So the day after tomorrow, go down all the way to the place where you hid the other time, and stay close to the Ezel stone. Now I will shoot three arrows to one side of it, as though I were shooting at a mark, and I will order the boy to go and find the arrows. If I call to the boy, ‘Hey! the arrows are on this side of you,’ be reassured and come, for you are safe and there is no danger—as the LORD lives! But if, instead, I call to the lad, ‘Hey! the arrows are beyond you,’ then leave, for the LORD has sent you away. As for the promise we made to each other, may the LORD be [witness] between you and me forever.” David hid in the field. The new moon came, and the king sat down to partake of the meal. When the king took his usual place on the seat by the wall, Jonathan rose and Abner sat down at Saul’s side; but David’s place remained vacant. That day, however, Saul said nothing. “It’s accidental,” he thought. “He must be unclean and not yet cleansed.” But on the day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was vacant again. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged leave of me to go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are going to have a family feast in our town and my brother has summoned me to it. Do me a favor, let me slip away to see my kinsmen.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.” Saul flew into a rage against Jonathan. “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!” he shouted. “I know that you side with the son of Jesse—to your shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness! For as long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your kingship will be secure. Now then, have him brought to me, for he is marked for death.” But Jonathan spoke up and said to his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” At that, Saul threw his spear at him to strike him down; and Jonathan realized that his father was determined to do away with David. Jonathan rose from the table in a rage. He ate no food on the second day of the new moon, because he was grieved about David, and because his father had humiliated him. In the morning, Jonathan went out into the open for the meeting with David, accompanied by a young boy. He said to the boy, “Run ahead and find the arrows that I shoot.” And as the boy ran, he shot the arrows past him. When the boy came to the place where the arrows shot by Jonathan had fallen, Jonathan called out to the boy, “Hey, the arrows are beyond you!” And Jonathan called after the boy, “Quick, hurry up. Don’t stop!” So Jonathan’s boy gathered the arrows and came back to his master.— The boy suspected nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.— Jonathan handed the gear to his boy and told him, “Take these back to the town.” When the boy got there, David emerged from his concealment at the Negeb. He flung himself face down on the ground and bowed low three times. They kissed each other and wept together; David wept the longer. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace! For we two have sworn to each other in the name of the LORD: ‘May the LORD be [witness] between you and me, and between your offspring and mine, forever!’” David then went his way, and Jonathan returned to the town. David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech came out in alarm to meet David, and he said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king has ordered me on a mission, and he said to me, ‘No one must know anything about the mission on which I am sending you and for which I have given you orders.’ So I have directed [my] young men to such and such a place. Now then, what have you got on hand? Any loaves of bread? Let me have them—or whatever is available.” The priest answered David, “I have no ordinary bread on hand; there is only consecrated bread—provided the young men have kept away from women.” In reply to the priest, David said, “I assure you that women have been kept from us, as always. Whenever I went on a mission, even if the journey was a common one, the vessels of the young men were consecrated; all the more then may consecrated food be put into their vessels today.” So the priest gave him consecrated bread, because there was none there except the bread of display, which had been removed from the presence of the LORD, to be replaced by warm bread as soon as it was taken away.— Now one of Saul’s officials was there that day, detained before the LORD; his name was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman. David said to Ahimelech, “Haven’t you got a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t take my sword or any of my weapons with me, because the king’s mission was urgent.” The priest said, “There is the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you slew in the valley of Elah; it is over there, wrapped in a cloth, behind the ephod. If you want to take that one, take it, for there is none here but that one.” David replied, “There is none like it; give it to me.” That day David continued on his flight from Saul and he came to King Achish of Gath. The courtiers of Achish said to him, “Why, that’s David, king of the land! That’s the one of whom they sing as they dance: Saul has slain his thousands; David, his tens of thousands.” These words worried David and he became very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. So he concealed his good sense from them; he feigned madness for their benefit. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his beard. And Achish said to his courtiers, “You see the man is raving; why bring him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to rave for me? Should this fellow enter my house?” David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard, they joined him down there. Everyone who was in straits and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was desperate joined him, and he became their leader; there were about four hundred men with him. David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, “Let my father and mother come [and stay] with you, until I know what God will do for me.” So he led them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David remained in the stronghold. But the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; go at once to the territory of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth. When Saul heard that David and the men with him had been located—Saul was then in Gibeah, sitting under the tamarisk tree on the height, spear in hand, with all his courtiers in attendance upon him— Saul said to the courtiers standing about him, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give fields and vineyards to every one of you? And will he make all of you captains of thousands or captains of hundreds? Is that why all of you have conspired against me? For no one informs me when my own son makes a pact with the son of Jesse; no one is concerned for me and no one informs me when my own son has set my servant in ambush against me, as is now the case.” Doeg the Edomite, who was standing among the courtiers of Saul, spoke up: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. He inquired of the LORD on his behalf and gave him provisions; he also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” Thereupon the king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and for all the priests belonging to his father’s house at Nob. They all came to the king, and Saul said, “Listen to me, son of Ahitub.” “Yes, my lord,” he replied. And Saul said to him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him food and a sword, and inquired of God for him—that he may rise in ambush against me, as is now the case.” Ahimelech replied to the king, “But who is there among all your courtiers as trusted as David, son-in-law of Your Majesty and obedient to your bidding, and esteemed in your household? This is the first time that I inquired of God for him; I have done no wrong. Let not Your Majesty find fault with his servant [or] with any of my father’s house; for your servant knew nothing whatever about all this.” But the king said, “You shall die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” And the king commanded the guards standing by, “Turn about and kill the priests of the LORD, for they are in league with David; they knew he was running away and they did not inform me.” But the king’s servants would not raise a hand to strike down the priests of the LORD. Thereupon the king said to Doeg, “You, Doeg, go and strike down the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite went and struck down the priests himself; that day, he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. He put Nob, the town of the priests, to the sword: men and women, children and infants, oxen, asses, and sheep—[all] to the sword. But one son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped—his name was Abiathar—and he fled to David. When Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD, David said to Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would tell Saul. I am to blame for all the deaths in your father’s house. Stay with me; do not be afraid; for whoever seeks your life must seek my life also. It will be my care to guard you.” David was told: “The Philistines are raiding Keilah and plundering the threshing floors.” David consulted the LORD, “Shall I go and attack those Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go; attack the Philistines and you will save Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah, how much more if we go to Keilah against the forces of the Philistines!” So David consulted the LORD again, and the LORD answered him, “March down at once to Keilah, for I am going to deliver the Philistines into your hands.” David and his men went to Keilah and fought against the Philistines; he drove off their cattle and inflicted a severe defeat on them. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he brought down an ephod with him. Saul was told that David had come to Keilah, and Saul thought, “God has delivered him into my hands, for he has shut himself in by entering a town with gates and bars.” Saul summoned all the troops for war, to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men. When David learned that Saul was planning to harm him, he told the priest Abiathar to bring the ephod forward. And David said, “O LORD, God of Israel, Your servant has heard that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me. Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me into his hands? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, tell Your servant!” And the LORD said, “He will.” David continued, “Will the citizens of Keilah deliver me and my men into Saul’s hands?” And the LORD answered, “They will.” So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah at once and moved about wherever they could. And when Saul was told that David had got away from Keilah, he did not set out. David was staying in the strongholds of the wilderness [of Judah]; he stayed in the hill country, in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him constantly, but God did not deliver him into his hands. David was once at Horesh in the wilderness of Ziph, when David learned that Saul had come out to seek his life. And Saul’s son Jonathan came to David at Horesh and encouraged him in [the name of] God. He said to him, “Do not be afraid: the hand of my father Saul will never touch you. You are going to be king over Israel and I shall be second to you; and even my father Saul knows this is so.” And the two of them entered into a pact before the LORD. David remained in Horesh, and Jonathan went home. Some Ziphites went up to Saul in Gibeah and said, “David is hiding among us in the strongholds of Horesh, at the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon. So if Your Majesty has the desire to come down, come down, and it will be our task to deliver him into Your Majesty’s hands.” And Saul replied, “May you be blessed of the LORD for the compassion you have shown me! Go now and prepare further. Look around and learn what places he sets foot on [and] who has seen him there, for I have been told he is a very cunning fellow. Look around and learn in which of all his hiding places he has been hiding, and return to me when you are certain. I will then go with you, and if he is in the region, I will search him out among all the clans of Judah.” They left at once for Ziph, ahead of Saul; David and his men were then in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimon. When Saul and his men came to search, David was told about it; and he went down to the rocky region and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. On hearing this, Saul pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul was making his way along one side of a hill, and David and his men were on the other side of the hill. David was trying hard to elude Saul, and Saul and his men were trying to encircle David and his men and capture them, when a messenger came and told Saul, “Come quickly, for the Philistines have invaded the land.” Saul gave up his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why that place came to be called the Rock of Separation. David went from there and stayed in the wildernesses of En-gedi. When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told that David was in the wilderness of En-gedi. So Saul took three thousand picked men from all Israel and went in search of David and his men in the direction of the rocks of the wild goats; and he came to the sheepfolds along the way. There was a cave there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the back of the cave. David’s men said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘I will deliver your enemy into your hands; you can do with him as you please.’” David went and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul’s cloak. But afterward David reproached himself for cutting off the corner of Saul’s cloak. He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord—the LORD’s anointed—that I should raise my hand against him; for he is the LORD’s anointed.” David rebuked his men and did not permit them to attack Saul. Saul left the cave and started on his way. Then David also went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord king!” Saul looked around and David bowed low in homage, with his face to the ground. And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say, ‘David is out to do you harm?’ You can see for yourself now that the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave today. And though I was urged to kill you, I showed you pity; for I said, ‘I will not raise a hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’ Please, sir, take a close look at the corner of your cloak in my hand; for when I cut off the corner of your cloak, I did not kill you. You must see plainly that I have done nothing evil or rebellious, and I have never wronged you. Yet you are bent on taking my life. May the LORD judge between you and me! And may He take vengeance upon you for me, but my hand will never touch you. As the ancient proverb has it: ‘Wicked deeds come from wicked men!’ My hand will never touch you. Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A single flea? May the LORD be arbiter and may He judge between you and me! May He take note and uphold my cause, and vindicate me against you.” When David finished saying these things to Saul, Saul said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” And Saul broke down and wept. He said to David, “You are right, not I; for you have treated me generously, but I have treated you badly. Yes, you have just revealed how generously you treated me, for the LORD delivered me into your hands and you did not kill me. If a man meets his enemy, does he let him go his way unharmed? Surely, the LORD will reward you generously for what you have done for me this day. I know now that you will become king, and that the kingship over Israel will remain in your hands. So swear to me by the LORD that you will not destroy my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s house.” David swore to Saul, Saul went home, and David and his men went up to the strongholds. Samuel died, and all Israel gathered and made lament for him; and they buried him in Ramah, his home. David went down to the wilderness of Paran. There was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel. The man was very wealthy; he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At the time, he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was a hard man and an evildoer. David was in the wilderness when he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. David dispatched ten young men, and David instructed the young men, “Go up to Carmel. When you come to Nabal, greet him in my name. Say as follows: ‘To life! Greetings to you and to your household and to all that is yours! I hear that you are now doing your shearing. As you know, your shepherds have been with us; we did not harm them, and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you. So receive these young men graciously, for we have come on a festive occasion. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can.’” David’s young men went and delivered this message to Nabal in the name of David. When they stopped speaking, Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays who run away from their masters. Should I then take my bread and my water, and the meat that I slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from I don’t know where?” Thereupon David’s young men retraced their steps; and when they got back, they told him all this. And David said to his men, “Gird on your swords.” Each girded on his sword; David too girded on his sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. One of [Nabal’s] young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, that David had sent messengers from the wilderness to greet their master, and that he had spurned them. “But the men had been very friendly to us; we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything all the time that we went about with them while we were in the open. They were a wall about us both by night and by day all the time that we were with them tending the flocks. So consider carefully what you should do, for harm threatens our master and all his household; he is such a nasty fellow that no one can speak to him.” Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves of bread, two jars of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of parched corn, one hundred cakes of raisin, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs. She loaded them on asses, and she told her young men, “Go on ahead of me, and I’ll follow you”; but she did not tell her husband Nabal. She was riding on the ass and going down a trail on the hill, when David and his men appeared, coming down toward her; and she met them.— Now David had been saying, “It was all for nothing that I protected that fellow’s possessions in the wilderness, and that nothing he owned is missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God do thus and more to the enemies of David if, by the light of morning, I leave a single male of his.”— When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted from the ass and threw herself face down before David, bowing to the ground. Prostrate at his feet, she pleaded, “Let the blame be mine, my lord, but let your handmaid speak to you; hear your maid’s plea. Please, my lord, pay no attention to that wretched fellow Nabal. For he is just what his name says: His name means ‘boor’ and he is a boor. “Your handmaid did not see the young men whom my lord sent. I swear, my lord, as the LORD lives and as you live—the LORD who has kept you from seeking redress by blood with your own hands—let your enemies and all who would harm my lord fare like Nabal! Here is the present which your maidservant has brought to my lord; let it be given to the young men who are the followers of my lord. Please pardon your maid’s boldness. For the LORD will grant my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and no wrong is ever to be found in you. And if anyone sets out to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life in the care of the LORD; but He will fling away the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling. And when the LORD has accomplished for my lord all the good He has promised you, and has appointed you ruler of Israel, do not let this be a cause of stumbling and of faltering courage to my lord that you have shed blood needlessly and that my lord sought redress with his own hands. And when the LORD has prospered my lord, remember your maid.” David said to Abigail, “Praised be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed be your prudence, and blessed be you yourself for restraining me from seeking redress in blood by my own hands. For as sure as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives—who has kept me from harming you—had you not come quickly to meet me, not a single male of Nabal’s line would have been left by daybreak.” David then accepted from her what she had brought him, and he said to her, “Go up to your home safely. See, I have heeded your plea and respected your wish.” When Abigail came home to Nabal, he was having a feast in his house, a feast fit for a king; Nabal was in a merry mood and very drunk, so she did not tell him anything at all until daybreak. The next morning, when Nabal had slept off the wine, his wife told him everything that had happened; and his courage died within him, and he became like a stone. About ten days later the LORD struck Nabal and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praised be the LORD who championed my cause against the insults of Nabal and held back His servant from wrongdoing; the LORD has brought Nabal’s wrongdoing down on his own head.” David sent messengers to propose marriage to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel and told her that David had sent them to her to make her his wife, she immediately bowed low with her face to the ground and said, “Your handmaid is ready to be your maidservant, to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” Then Abigail rose quickly and mounted an ass, and with five of her maids in attendance she followed David’s messengers; and she became his wife. Now David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel; so both of them became his wives. Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish from Gallim.

A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, do You forever reject us, do You fume in anger at the flock that You tend? Remember the community You made Yours long ago, Your very own tribe that You redeemed, Mount Zion, where You dwell. Bestir Yourself because of the perpetual tumult, all the outrages of the enemy in the sanctuary. Your foes roar inside Your meeting-place; they take their signs for true signs. It is like men wielding axes against a gnarled tree; with hatchet and pike they hacked away at its carved work. They made Your sanctuary go up in flames; they brought low in dishonor the dwelling-place of Your presence. They resolved, “Let us destroy them altogether!” They burned all God’s tabernacles in the land. No signs appear for us; there is no longer any prophet; no one among us knows for how long. Till when, O God, will the foe blaspheme, will the enemy forever revile Your name? Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand? Draw it out of Your bosom! O God, my King from of old, who brings deliverance throughout the land; it was You who drove back the sea with Your might, who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters; it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left him as food for the denizens of the desert; it was You who released springs and torrents, who made mighty rivers run dry; the day is Yours, the night also; it was You who set in place the orb of the sun; You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; summer and winter—You made them. Be mindful of how the enemy blasphemes the LORD, how base people revile Your name. Do not deliver Your dove to the wild beast; do not ignore forever the band of Your lowly ones. Look to the covenant! For the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of lawlessness. Let not the downtrodden turn away disappointed; let the poor and needy praise Your name. Rise, O God, champion Your cause; be mindful that You are blasphemed by base men all day long. Do not ignore the shouts of Your foes, the din of Your adversaries that ascends all the time. For the leader; al tashḥeth. A psalm of Asaph, a song. We praise You, O God; we praise You; Your presence is near; men tell of Your wondrous deeds. “At the time I choose, I will give judgment equitably. Earth and all its inhabitants dissolve; it is I who keep its pillars firm.Selah. To wanton men I say, ‘Do not be wanton!’ to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns!’” Do not lift your horns up high in vainglorious bluster. For what lifts a man comes not from the east or the west or the wilderness; for God it is who gives judgment; He brings down one man, He lifts up another. There is a cup in the LORD’s hand with foaming wine fully mixed; from this He pours; all the wicked of the earth drink, draining it to the very dregs. As for me, I will declare forever, I will sing a hymn to the God of Jacob. “All the horns of the wicked I will cut; but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.” For the leader; with instrumental music. A psalm of Asaph, a song. God has made Himself known in Judah, His name is great in Israel; Salem became His abode; Zion, His den. There He broke the fiery arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword of war.Selah. You were resplendent, glorious, on the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted were despoiled; they were in a stupor; the bravest of men could not lift a hand. At Your blast, O God of Jacob, horse and chariot lay stunned. O You! You are awesome! Who can withstand You when You are enraged? In heaven You pronounced sentence; the earth was numbed with fright as God rose to execute judgment, to deliver all the lowly of the earth.Selah. The fiercest of men shall acknowledge You, when You gird on the last bit of fury. Make vows and pay them to the LORD your God; -all who are around Him shall bring tribute to the Awesome One. He curbs the spirit of princes, inspires awe in the kings of the earth. For the leader; on Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm. I cry aloud to God; I cry to God that He may give ear to me. In my time of distress I turn to the Lord, with my hand [uplifted]; [my eyes] flow all night without respite; I will not be comforted. I call God to mind, I moan, I complain, my spirit fails.Selah. You have held my eyelids open; I am overwrought, I cannot speak. My thoughts turn to days of old, to years long past. I recall at night their jibes at me; I commune with myself; my spirit inquires, “Will the Lord reject forever and never again show favor? Has His faithfulness disappeared forever? Will His promise be unfulfilled for all time? Has God forgotten how to pity? Has He in anger stifled His compassion?” Selah. And I said, “It is my fault that the right hand of the Most High has changed.” I recall the deeds of the LORD; yes, I recall Your wonders of old; I recount all Your works; I speak of Your acts. O God, Your ways are holiness; what god is as great as God? You are the God who works wonders; You have manifested Your strength among the peoples. By Your arm You redeemed Your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.Selah. The waters saw You, O God, the waters saw You and were convulsed; the very deep quaked as well. Clouds streamed water; the heavens rumbled; Your arrows flew about; Your thunder rumbled like wheels; lightning lit up the world; the earth quaked and trembled. Your way was through the sea, Your path, through the mighty waters; Your tracks could not be seen. You led Your people like a flock in the care of Moses and Aaron. A maskil of Asaph. Give ear, my people, to my teaching, turn your ear to what I say. I will expound a theme, hold forth on the lessons of the past, things we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not withhold them from their children, telling the coming generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He performed. He established a decree in Jacob, ordained a teaching in Israel, charging our fathers to make them known to their children, that a future generation might know —children yet to be born— and in turn tell their children that they might put their confidence in God, and not forget God’s great deeds, but observe His commandments, and not be like their fathers, a wayward and defiant generation, a generation whose heart was inconstant, whose spirit was not true to God. Like the Ephraimite bowmen who played false in the day of battle, they did not keep God’s covenant, they refused to follow His instruction; they forgot His deeds and the wonders that He showed them. He performed marvels in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan. He split the sea and took them through it; He made the waters stand like a wall. He led them with a cloud by day, and throughout the night by the light of fire. He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as if from the great deep. He brought forth streams from a rock and made them flow down like a river. But they went on sinning against Him, defying the Most High in the parched land. To test God was in their mind when they demanded food for themselves. They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a feast in the wilderness? True, He struck the rock and waters flowed, streams gushed forth; but can He provide bread? Can He supply His people with meat?” The LORD heard and He raged; fire broke out against Jacob, anger flared up at Israel, because they did not put their trust in God, did not rely on His deliverance. So He commanded the skies above, He opened the doors of heaven and rained manna upon them for food, giving them heavenly grain. Each man ate a hero’s meal; He sent them provision in plenty. He set the east wind moving in heaven, and drove the south wind by His might. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sands of the sea, making them come down inside His camp, around His dwelling-place. They ate till they were sated; He gave them what they craved. They had not yet wearied of what they craved, the food was still in their mouths when God’s anger flared up at them. He slew their sturdiest, struck down the youth of Israel. Nonetheless, they went on sinning and had no faith in His wonders. He made their days end in futility, their years in sudden death. When He struck them, they turned to Him and sought God once again. They remembered that God was their rock, God Most High, their Redeemer. Yet they deceived Him with their speech, lied to Him with their words; their hearts were inconstant toward Him; they were untrue to His covenant. But He, being merciful, forgave iniquity and would not destroy; He restrained His wrath time and again and did not give full vent to His fury; for He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breath that does not return. How often did they defy Him in the wilderness, did they grieve Him in the wasteland! Again and again they tested God, vexed the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His strength, or the day He redeemed them from the foe; how He displayed His signs in Egypt, His wonders in the plain of Zoan. He turned their rivers into blood; He made their waters undrinkable. He inflicted upon them swarms of insects to devour them, frogs to destroy them. He gave their crops over to grubs, their produce to locusts. He killed their vines with hail, their sycamores with frost. He gave their beasts over to hail, their cattle to lightning bolts. He inflicted His burning anger upon them, wrath, indignation, trouble, a band of deadly messengers. He cleared a path for His anger; He did not stop short of slaying them, but gave them over to pestilence. He struck every first-born in Egypt, the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham. He set His people moving like sheep, drove them like a flock in the wilderness. He led them in safety; they were unafraid; as for their enemies, the sea covered them. He brought them to His holy realm, the mountain His right hand had acquired. He expelled nations before them, settled the tribes of Israel in their tents, allotting them their portion by the line. Yet they defiantly tested God Most High, and did not observe His decrees. They fell away, disloyal like their fathers; they played false like a treacherous bow. They vexed Him with their high places; they incensed Him with their idols. God heard it and was enraged; He utterly rejected Israel. He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had set among men. He let His might go into captivity, His glory into the hands of the foe. He gave His people over to the sword; He was enraged at His very own. Fire consumed their young men, and their maidens remained unwed. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep. The Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shaking off wine. He beat back His foes, dealing them lasting disgrace. He rejected the clan of Joseph; He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. He did choose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved. He built His Sanctuary like the heavens, like the earth that He established forever. He chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds. He brought him from minding the nursing ewes to tend His people Jacob, Israel, His very own. He tended them with blameless heart; with skillful hands he led them. A psalm of Asaph. O God, heathens have entered Your domain, defiled Your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins. They have left Your servants’ corpses as food for the fowl of heaven, and the flesh of Your faithful for the wild beasts. Their blood was shed like water around Jerusalem, with none to bury them. We have become the butt of our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. How long, O LORD, will You be angry forever, will Your indignation blaze like fire? Pour out Your fury on the nations that do not know You, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home. Do not hold our former iniquities against us; let Your compassion come swiftly toward us, for we have sunk very low. Help us, O God, our deliverer, for the sake of the glory of Your name. Save us and forgive our sin, for the sake of Your name. Let the nations not say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes let it be known among the nations that You avenge the spilled blood of Your servants. Let the groans of the prisoners reach You; reprieve those condemned to death, as befits Your great strength. Pay back our neighbors sevenfold for the abuse they have flung at You, O Lord. Then we, Your people, the flock You shepherd, shall glorify You forever; for all time we shall tell Your praises.

They may water an irrigated field during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year, both from a newly-emerging spring and from a spring that is not just emerged. But they may not water the field with water from stored rain, and not with a swipe and bucket. And they may not make small ditches around the vines. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: they may not make a new water channel may not during the festival [week] or in the sabbatical year. But the sages say: they may make a new water channel during the sabbatical year, and they may repair broken ones during the festival. And they may repair impaired water works in the public domain, and clean them out. And they may repair roads, town squares and [ritual] pools, and they may do all public needs may be performed, and mark graves, and [inspectors] may go out to inspect kilayim (mixed seeds). Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: they may draw water from [one] tree to [another] tree, as long as they don’t water the whole field. Seeds that have not had [any] drink before the festival, he may not water them during the festival. The sages however allow it in both cases. They may trap moles and mice in a tree-field or a white field in an unusual way during the festival and in the sabbatical year. But the sages say: in the tree-field in the usual way and in the white field in an unusual way. And they may block up a breach in a wall during the festival, and in the sabbatical year they may build it in the usual way. Rabbi Meir says: [Priests] may inspect leprous symptoms at the outset [during the festival] for [the priest to make] a lenient assessment, but not to make a strict one. But the sages say: neither for a lenient nor for a severe assessment. Furthermore Rabbi Meir said: a man may gather his father’s and mother’s bones, since this is a joy for him. Rabbi Yose says: it is mourning for him. A man should not stir up wailing for his dead, nor hold a lamentation for him thirty days before the festival. They may not dig burial niches and graves during the festival. But they may adapt burial niches [to the size of the dead body] during the festival. And they may make a temporary grave during the festival, and a coffin, if a dead [body] is close by in the courtyard. Rabbi Judah forbids, unless there are sawn boards at hand. One may not marry a woman during the festival, whether a virgin or a widow, nor may one perform levirate marriage, because this is a joy for him. But one may remarry his divorced wife. And a woman may make the adornments [for her wedding] during the festival. Rabbi Judah says: she may not put on lime, as that is a [temporary] disfigurement to her. An ordinary person may sew in the usual way, but a craftsman may sew [only using] uneven stitches. And they may weave the ropes of a bed. Rabbi Yose says: they may even be tightened. They may set up an oven, stove or a millstone during the festival. Rabbi Judah says: they may not roughen millstones for the first time. They may put up a railing around a roof or a gallery porch, in the style of an ordinary person but not in the style of a professional. They may put plaster on crevices [on the roof] and flatten them down with a roller, by hand or foot, but not using professional tools. A hinge, a socket, a beam, a lock, a key which broke they may repair them during the festival, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival. And all the pickled food that he may eat during the festival, he may pickle. If one had turned his olives, and mourning or some unforeseen circumstance befell him, or workmen misled him, he may [during the festival] put on the beam for the first time and leave it until after the festival, the words of Rabbi Judah. Rabbi Yose says: he may pour off [the oil] and complete the process and seal [the jars] in his usual way. Similarly, if one had his wine [already] in a cistern and mourning or some unforeseen circumstance befell him, or workmen misled him, he may draw off [the wine], complete the process and seal [the jars] in his usual way, the words of Rabbi Yose. Rabbi Judah says: he [may only] cover [the cistern] with boards to prevent it from turning into vinegar. A man may bring his produce indoors for fear of thieves and withdraw his flax from a soaking pool to prevent it spoiling, as long as he doesn’t intend to do this work during the festival. And all those who deliberately intended to do their work on the festival, they must leave it to spoil. They may not purchase houses, slaves or cattle unless it is for the needs of the festival, or the need of the seller who does not have enough to eat. They may not move [belongings] from one house to another house, but he may move [his belongings] within his courtyard. They may not bring back vessels from the house of the craftsman, but if one is anxious about them, he may remove them to another courtyard. They may cover [drying] figs with straw. Rabbi Judah says: they may even be pile [the figs] up [in heaps]. Sellers of produce, clothing and [other] vessels may sell privately for the requirements of the festival. Trappers [of fish and birds], groats-makers and grist-millers may engage in their work privately for the requirements of the festival. Rabbi Yose says: they were strict upon themselves. And these may shave during the festival: one coming back from a trip abroad, or one coming out from a place of captivity, or coming out of prison, or one excommunicated whom the sages have released. And similarly one who asked a sage [to be released from a vow] and was released, and a nazirite or a leper on emerging from his state of impurity to his state of purification. These may launder [their clothes] during the festival: one coming back from a trip abroad, or one coming out from a place of captivity, or coming out of prison, or one excommunicated whom the sages have released. And similarly one who asked a sage [to be released from a vow] and was released. Hand-towels, barber’s towels and bath-towels [may be laundered]. Zavim and zavot, menstruants, and women who have given birth, and anyone going from a state of impurity to purity, are permitted [to launder their clothes]. But everyone else is prohibited. They may write the following documents during the festival: Betrothal of women [documents], divorce documents and receipts, wills of a dying person, bequests and prosbols; evaluation certificates and orders for support, documents of halitzah and of repudiation [of marriage] and arbitration records; decrees of the court and correspondence. They may not write loan documents during the festival; but if he [the creditor] does not trust him or he does not have food to eat, he may write. They may not write [Torah] scrolls, tefillin and mezuzot during the festival, nor may they correct [even] a single letter, even in the [ancient] Temple-scroll. Rabbi Judah says: a man may write tefillin and mezuzot for himself. And one may spin on his thigh the blue-wool for his fringe. One who buries his dead three days before a festival, the decrees of shiva are annulled from him; [One he buries his dead] eight days before a festival, the decrees of the shloshim [thirty days] are annulled from him. Because they [the sages] said that Shabbat counts but does not interrupt, while festivals interrupt and do not count. Rabbi Eliezer says: From the time the Temple was destroyed, Atzeret (Shavuot) is like Shabbat. Rabban Gamaliel says: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are like festivals. The sages say: [the rule is] not according to the words of this one nor that one, rather Atzeret is like the festivals and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are like Shabbat. They do not rend [their clothes] or bare [their shoulders], or provide a meal [for the mourners] except for the relatives of the dead. And they do not provide a meal except on an upright couch. They do not bring [food] to the house of mourning on an [ornamental] tray, platter, or flat basket, but in plain baskets. And they do not say the mourners’ blessing during the festival. But they may stand in a row and comfort [the mourners] and [the mourners] may formally dismiss the community. They do not place the bier on the thruway [during the festival] so as not to encourage eulogizing. And the bier of women is never [set down on the thruway] for the sake of propriety. Women may raise a wail during the festival, but not clap [their hands in grief]. Rabbi Ishmael says: those that are close to the bier clap [their hands in grief]. On Rosh Hodesh, on Hannukah and on Purim they may wail and clap [their hands in grief]. Neither on the former nor on the latter occasions may they offer a lamentation. After the dead has been buried they neither wail nor clap [their hands in grief]. What is meant by wailing? When all wail in unison. What is meant by a lament? When one speaks and all respond after her, as it is said: “And teach your daughters wailing and one another [each] lamentation” (Jeremiah 9:19). But as to the future, it says: “He will destroy death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:9).

If a court erroneously issued a ruling permitting the Jewish people to violate one of all the mitzvot that are stated in the Torah, and an individual proceeded and performed that transgression unwittingly on the basis of the court’s ruling, then whether the judges performed the transgression and he performed it with them, or whether the judges performed the transgression and he performed it after them, or whether the judges did not perform the transgression and he performed it alone, in all these cases the individual is exempt from bringing an offering. This is due to the fact that he associated his action with the ruling of the court. If the court issued a ruling and one of the judges knew that they erred, despite the fact that the majority ruled against his opinion, or if he was a student and he was qualified to issue halakhic rulings, and that judge or student proceeded and performed that transgression on the basis of its ruling, then whether the judges performed the transgression and he performed it with them, or whether the judges performed the transgression and he performed it after them, or whether the judges did not perform the transgression and he performed it alone, in all these cases, the judge or the student is liable to bring an offering. This is due to the fact that he did not associate his action with the ruling of the court. This is the principle: One who associates his action with himself is liable, and one who associates his action with the ruling of the court is exempt. In a case where the judges of the court issued an erroneous ruling and they discovered that they erred and reversed their decision, whether they brought their atonement offering for their erroneous ruling or whether they did not bring their atonement offering, and an individual who was unaware of the new ruling proceeded and performed a transgression on the basis of their first ruling, Rabbi Shimon deems him exempt from bringing an offering, and Rabbi Elazar says: There is uncertainty with regard to his status and he is liable to bring a provisional guilt-offering. Which is the case of uncertainty for which one is liable to bring a provisional guilt-offering? If one sat inside his house and performed the transgression he is liable to bring a provisional guilt-offering, as he could have learned of the change in the court’s ruling. If he went to a country overseas and is relying on the initial ruling, he is exempt.Rabbi Akiva said: I concede in that case of one who went overseas that he is closer to exemption than he is to liability. Ben Azzai said to him: In what way is this person who went overseas different from one who sits in his house? Rabbi Akiva said to him: The difference is that with regard to one who sits in his house it would have been possible for him to hear of the court’s reversal, but with regard to that person who went overseas, it would not have been possible for him to hear of the court’s reversal. The mishna explains for which type of unwitting transgression based on the ruling of the court there is liability to bring an offering. In a case where the judges of the court issued an erroneous ruling to abolish the entire essence of a mitzva, not only a detail thereof, e.g., they said: There is no prohibition against engaging in intercourse with a menstruating woman written in the Torah, or there is no prohibition against performing prohibited labor on Shabbat written in the Torah, or there is no prohibition against engaging in idol worship written in the Torah, these judges are exempt, as this is an error based on ignorance, not an erroneous ruling. If the judges issued a ruling to nullify part of a mitzva and to sustain part of that mitzva, these judges are liable.How so? An example of this is if the judges said: There is a prohibition against engaging in intercourse with a menstruating woman written in the Torah, but one who engages in intercourse with a woman who observes a clean day for a day she experiences a discharge is exempt. When the woman sees a discharge of blood for one or two days during the eleven days between the end of one menstrual period and the expected start of another, the blood is assumed to not be menstrual blood. If after the second day, the next day passes without any discharge of blood, she may immerse immediately and she is ritually pure. The judges ruled erroneously that it is permitted to engage in intercourse with her on the day that she is observing a clean day, even without the day having passed and her having immersed. Another example is if they said: There is a prohibition against performing prohibited labor on Shabbat written in the Torah, but one who carries out objects from the private domain to the public domain is exempt. Another example is if they said: There is a prohibition against engaging in idol worship written in the Torah, but one who bows to the idol but does not sacrifice an offering is exempt. In all of these cases, these judges are liable, as it is stated: “And the matter is hidden” (Leviticus 4:13), from which it is derived that there is liability only if a matter, a single detail, is hidden, but not if the entire essence of a mitzva is hidden. If the court issued a ruling, and one of the judges knew that they erred and he said to them: You are mistaken; or if the most distinguished [mufla] member of the court was not there for that session of the Sanhedrin, or if one of the judges was disqualified from serving as a judge, e.g., because he was a convert, or a child born from an incestuous or adulterous relationship [mamzer], or a Gibeonite, or an old man no longer able to father children, this court is exempt, because they have not rendered a full-fledged ruling. This is derived by means of a verbal analogy, as “assembly” is stated here with regard to a court that issues an erroneous ruling: “And if the entire assembly of Israel shall act unwittingly” (Leviticus 4:13), and “assembly” is stated there with regard to the halakha of one who commits murder unwittingly: “And the assembly shall judge between the one who struck and the blood redeemer” (Numbers 35:24). Just as in the “assembly” stated there, with regard to the unwitting murderer, all the judges must be fit to issue rulings, so too, in the “assembly” stated here, with regard to the court that issued an erroneous ruling; the court will not be liable unless all the judges will be fit to issue rulings. If the judges of the court issued an erroneous ruling unwittingly and the entire congregation performed a transgression unwittingly on the basis of their ruling, the court brings a bull, as it is stated in the Torah with regard to an unwitting communal sin-offering. If the court issued the erroneous ruling intentionally, as they knew that their ruling was incorrect, and the congregation performed a transgression unwittingly on the basis of the ruling of the court, each member of the congregation brings a female lamb or a female goat as an individual sin-offering. If the court issued the erroneous ruling unwittingly and the congregation performed a transgression intentionally, i.e., with the knowledge that the ruling of the court was erroneous, these people are exempt from bringing an offering. If the judges of the court issued an erroneous ruling and the entire congregation or a majority thereof performed a transgression on the basis of their ruling, the judges bring a bull as an unwitting communal sin-offering. And if the erroneous ruling involved idol worship, the judges bring a bull and a goat, as it is written in the Torah (see Numbers 15:24); this is the statement of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehuda says: It is not the court that brings the offering, it is the people. Twelve tribes, each of which performed a transgression, bring twelve bulls, i.e., each tribe brings one, and for idol worship they bring twelve bulls and twelve goats, as each tribe is a congregation. Rabbi Shimon says: They bring thirteen bulls; and for idol worship they bring thirteen bulls and thirteen goats, a bull and a goat for each and every tribe and a bull and a goat for the court. The mishna continues: If the judges of the court issued a ruling, and at least seven tribes, or a majority of each of those tribes, performed a transgression on the basis of their ruling, the judges bring a bull; and for idol worship they bring a bull and a goat. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehuda says: The seven tribes that sinned bring seven bulls, i.e., each tribe brings one bull, and each of the rest of the tribes, i.e., those that did not sin, brings one bull on the basis of the sin of the other tribes, as even those who did not sin bring an offering on the basis of the actions of the sinners. Rabbi Shimon says: When seven tribes sin eight bulls are brought as offerings, one bull for each and every tribe and one bull for the court. And for idol worship, eight bulls and eight goats are brought, one bull and one goat for each and every tribe and one bull and one goat for the court. If the court of one of the tribes issued a ruling and the majority of that tribe performed a transgression on the basis of its ruling, that tribe is liable to bring an offering and the rest of all the tribes are exempt; this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And the Rabbis say: One is liable to bring an offering for an unwitting communal sin only for rulings of the High Court alone, as it is stated: “And if the entire assembly of Israel shall act unwittingly” (Leviticus 4:13), from which it is derived that there is liability only for a ruling of the assembly, i.e., the court, of the entire people, but not for a ruling of the assembly of that particular tribe. In a case where an anointed priest, i.e., the High Priest, issued an erroneous ruling for himself permitting performance of an action prohibited by Torah law, if he issued the ruling unwittingly and then unwittingly performed the transgression in accordance with his ruling, he is liable to bring a bull as a sin-offering for an unwitting transgression by the anointed priest. If he issued the ruling unwittingly, and performed the transgression intentionally, or if he issued the ruling intentionally and performed the transgression unwittingly, he is exempt from liability to bring any offering, as there is a principle: The legal status of the ruling of an anointed priest for himself is like that of the ruling of the court for the general public. Therefore, the High Priest is liable to bring the bull as a sin-offering for his unwitting transgression in a case when the court would be liable to bring the bull as a communal sin-offering for an unwitting transgression performed by the general public. If the anointed priest issued a ruling by himself and performed a transgression by himself, he achieves atonement by himself by bringing a bull as his sin-offering. If he issued a ruling with the general public, i.e., the Sanhedrin, and performed a transgression with the general public, i.e., the Jewish people, he achieves atonement with the general public. As, the court is not liable unless the judges issue a ruling to nullify part of a commandment and to sustain part of that commandment, and likewise with regard to the ruling of the anointed priest. And the court and the priest are not liable for a ruling with regard to idol worship unless they issue a ruling to nullify part of that commandment and to sustain part of it. The court is liable only for absence of awareness of the matter, leading to an erroneous ruling, together with unwitting performance of the action by the general public on the basis of that ruling. And likewise, the anointed priest is liable only for an erroneous ruling and his unwitting performance of an action on the basis of that ruling. And the court and the priest are liable for a ruling with regard to idol worship only for absence of awareness of the matter, leading to an erroneous ruling, together with unwitting performance of the action on the basis of that ruling. The court is not liable to bring an offering for absence of awareness of the matter unless they issue a ruling with regard to a matter for whose intentional violation one is liable to receive karet and for whose unwitting violation one is liable to bring a sin-offering. And likewise the anointed priest is liable only for such a ruling. Neither is the court liable to bring a sin-offering for idol worship unless the judges issue a ruling with regard to a matter for whose intentional violation one is liable to receive karet, and for whose unwitting violation one is liable to bring a sin-offering. The court is not liable to bring a bull as an unwitting communal sin-offering for issuing a ruling with regard to a positive mitzva or a prohibition related to the defiling of the Temple by one being there while ritually impure, or the defiling of its sacrificial foods by one partaking of them while ritually impure. There is a positive mitzva to remove impure people from the Temple, and there is a prohibition against entering the Temple while in a state of ritual impurity. And one does not bring a provisional guilt-offering for a positive mitzva or a prohibition related to the defiling of the Temple or its sacrificial foods. But the court is liable to bring a bull for a positive mitzva or for a prohibition that is related to a menstruating woman, and one brings a provisional guilt-offering for a positive mitzva or for a prohibition that is related to a menstruating woman. What is the positive mitzva that is related to a menstruating woman? Distance yourself from the menstruating woman. If a man engages in intercourse with a woman and she begins menstruating, he is required to separate from her. And what is the prohibition? Do not engage in intercourse with a woman whom you know is a menstruating woman. The court is not liable for issuing a ruling with regard to hearing of a voice, i.e., a false oath of testimony taken by a witness who refuses to testify on behalf of a litigant who demands that he testify, or for an utterance of the lips, i.e., a false oath stated about some matter, or for the defiling of the Temple or its sacrificial foods. And the status of the king is like that of the court, and he is exempt from bringing an offering in those cases; this is the statement of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili. Rabbi Akiva says: The king is liable in all of those cases except for the case of hearing of a voice, and even in that case, his exemption is not intrinsic to the mitzva. Rather, it is for technical reasons, as the king neither judges others nor do others judge him; he does not testify nor do others testify against him. Therefore, a demand that he testify is not applicable. In summation: For all mitzvot that are in the Torah for whose intentional violation one is liable to receive karet and for whose unwitting violation one is liable to bring a sin-offering, the individual brings a ewe or female goat for their unwitting transgression, and the king brings a male goat for their unwitting transgression, and an anointed priest and a court who issued an erroneous ruling bring a bull. And for unwittingly engaging in idol worship, the individual, and the king, and the anointed priest bring a female goat, and the court brings a bull and a goat: A bull for a burnt-offering and a goat for a sin-offering. With regard to a provisional guilt-offering, the individual and the king are liable, and an anointed priest and a court are exempt. With regard to a definite guilt-offering, the individual, the king, and the anointed priest are liable, and a court is exempt.For hearing of a voice, i.e., a false oath of testimony, and for a false oath on an utterance of the lips, and for the defiling of the Temple or its sacrificial foods, a court is exempt, and the individual, the king, and the anointed priest are liable. But an anointed High Priest is not liable for the defiling of the Temple or its sacrificial foods; this is the statement of Rabbi Shimon. And what offering are they liable to bring? It is a sliding-scale offering based on their financial circumstances, as delineated in the Torah (see Leviticus 5:1–13). Rabbi Elazar says: The king brings a goat. In the case of an anointed priest who sinned on the basis of his own erroneous halakhic ruling and thereafter moved on from his anointment, e.g., if he was disqualified due to a blemish that befell him before he brought his sin-offering, and likewise in the case of a king [nasi] who sinned and thereafter moved on from his prominence before he had brought an offering, an anointed priest brings a bull despite the fact that he is no longer the High Priest, and the king brings a goat, as he would have done during his reign. In the case of an anointed priest who moved on from his anointment and thereafter sinned, and likewise the king who moved on from his prominence and thereafter sinned, an anointed priest brings a bull, which he would have brought while he was High Priest, and the status of the king is like that of a commoner [kehedyot]. In the case of an anointed priest who moved on from his anointment and thereafter sinned, and likewise the king who moved on from his prominence and thereafter sinned, an anointed priest brings a bull, which he would have brought while he was High Priest, and the status of the king is like that of a commoner [kehedyot]. If a king or High Priest sinned before they were appointed, and thereafter they were appointed, the status of these people is like that of commoners; they bring the sin-offering of an individual. Rabbi Shimon says: If it became known to them, before they were appointed as king or High Priest, that they had sinned, they are liable to bring the sin-offering of an individual, but if it became known to them after they were appointed as king or High Priest they are completely exempt.Who is the nasi? This is a king, as it is stated: “When a nasi sins, and performs any one of all the mitzvot of the Lord his God that shall not be performed, unwittingly, and he is guilty” (Leviticus 4:22), referring to one who has only the Lord his God over him and no other authority. That is only the king. And who is the anointed priest? It is the High Priest who is anointed with the anointing oil, not the High Priest consecrated by donning multiple garments, i.e., one who served after the anointing oil had been sequestered, toward the end of the First Temple period. The difference between a High Priest anointed with the anointing oil and one consecrated by donning multiple garments unique to the High Priest is only that the latter does not bring the bull that comes for the transgression of any of the mitzvot.And the difference between a High Priest currently serving in that capacity and a former High Priest who had temporarily filled that position while the High Priest was unfit for service is only with regard to the bull brought by the High Priest on Yom Kippur and the tenth of an ephah meal-offering brought by the High Priest daily. Each of these offerings is brought only by the current High Priest, and not by a former High Priest. Both this High Priest currently serving and that former High Priest are equal with regard to performing the rest of the Yom Kippur service, and they are both commanded with regard to marrying a virgin (see Leviticus 21:13), and it is prohibited for both to marry a widow (see Leviticus 21:14), and they may not render themselves impure with impurity imparted by a corpse even in the event that one of their relatives dies (see Leviticus 21:11), and they may not grow their hair long and they may not rend their garments as expressions of mourning (see Leviticus 21:10), and when they die they restore the unwitting murderer to his home from the city of refuge (see Numbers 35:25). A High Priest rends his garments from below when he is in mourning, and an ordinary priest rends his garments from above like a non-priest. A High Priest sacrifices offerings as an acute mourner, i.e., on the day of the death of one of his close relatives, but he may not eat from those offerings. And an ordinary priest who is an acute mourner neither sacrifices offerings nor eats from those offerings. Any mitzva that is more frequent than another mitzva precedes that other mitzva if the opportunity to fulfill one of them coincides with an opportunity to fulfill the other. And anyone who is more sanctified than another precedes that other person. If the bull of the anointed priest and the bull of the congregation, which are brought for absence of awareness of the matter, are pending, the bull of the anointed priest precedes the bull of the congregation in all its actions, i.e., its sacrificial rites. The man precedes the woman when there is uncertainty with regard to which of them to rescue or to return a lost item to first. And the woman precedes the man with regard to which of them to provide with a garment first, because her humiliation is great, or to release from captivity first, due to the concern that she will be raped. When they are both subject to degradation, i.e., there is also concern that the man will be raped in captivity, the release of the man precedes the release of the woman.A priest precedes a Levite. A Levite precedes an Israelite. An Israelite precedes a son born from an incestuous or adulterous relationship [mamzer], and a mamzer precedes a Gibeonite, and a Gibeonite precedes a convert, and a convert precedes an emancipated slave. When do these halakhot of precedence take effect? In circumstances when they are all equal in terms of wisdom. But if there were a mamzer who is a Torah scholar and a High Priest who is an ignoramus, a mamzer who is a Torah scholar precedes a High Priest who is an ignoramus, as Torah wisdom surpasses all else.

(1) A song. A psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; on maḥalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.(2) O LORD, God of my deliverance, when I cry out in the night before You,(3) let my prayer reach You; incline Your ear to my cry.(4) For I am sated with misfortune; I am at the brink of Sheol.(5) I am numbered with those who go down to the Pit; I am a helpless man(6) abandoned among the dead, like bodies lying in the grave of whom You are mindful no more, and who are cut off from Your care.(7) You have put me at the bottom of the Pit, in the darkest places, in the depths.(8) Your fury lies heavy upon me; You afflict me with all Your breakers.Selah.(9) You make my companions shun me; You make me abhorrent to them; I am shut in and do not go out.(10) My eyes pine away from affliction; I call to You, O LORD, each day; I stretch out my hands to You.(11) Do You work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise to praise You?Selah.(12) Is Your faithful care recounted in the grave, Your constancy in the place of perdition?(13) Are Your wonders made known in the netherworld, Your beneficent deeds in the land of oblivion?(14) As for me, I cry out to You, O LORD; each morning my prayer greets You.(15) Why, O LORD, do You reject me, do You hide Your face from me?(16) From my youth I have been afflicted and near death; I suffer Your terrors wherever I turn.(17) Your fury overwhelms me; Your terrors destroy me.(18) They swirl about me like water all day long; they encircle me on every side.(19) You have put friend and neighbor far from me and my companions out of my sight.

(1) A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.(2) I will sing of the LORD’s steadfast love forever; to all generations I will proclaim Your faithfulness with my mouth.(3) I declare, “Your steadfast love is confirmed forever; there in the heavens You establish Your faithfulness.”(4) “I have made a covenant with My chosen one; I have sworn to My servant David:(5) I will establish your offspring forever, I will confirm your throne for all generations.” Selah.(6) Your wonders, O LORD, are praised by the heavens, Your faithfulness, too, in the assembly of holy beings.(7) For who in the skies can equal the LORD, can compare with the LORD among the divine beings,(8) a God greatly dreaded in the council of holy beings, held in awe by all around Him?(9) O LORD, God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O LORD? Your faithfulness surrounds You;(10) You rule the swelling of the sea; when its waves surge, You still them.(11) You crushed Rahab; he was like a corpse; with Your powerful arm You scattered Your enemies.(12) The heaven is Yours, the earth too; the world and all it holds— You established them.(13) North and south— You created them; Tabor and Hermon sing forth Your name.(14) Yours is an arm endowed with might; Your hand is strong; Your right hand, exalted.(15) Righteousness and justice are the base of Your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness stand before You.(16) Happy is the people who know the joyful shout; O LORD, they walk in the light of Your presence.(17) They rejoice in Your name all day long; they are exalted through Your righteousness.(18) For You are their strength in which they glory; our horn is exalted through Your favor.(19) Truly our shield is of the LORD, our king, of the Holy One of Israel.(20) Then You spoke to Your faithful ones in a vision and said, “I have conferred power upon a warrior; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.(21) I have found David, My servant; anointed him with My sacred oil.(22) My hand shall be constantly with him, and My arm shall strengthen him.(23) No enemy shall oppress him, no vile man afflict him.(24) I will crush his adversaries before him; I will strike down those who hate him.(25) My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him; his horn shall be exalted through My name.(26) I will set his hand upon the sea, his right hand upon the rivers.(27) He shall say to Me, ‘You are my father, my God, the rock of my deliverance.’(28) I will appoint him first-born, highest of the kings of the earth.(29) I will maintain My steadfast love for him always; My covenant with him shall endure.(30) I will establish his line forever, his throne, as long as the heavens last.(31) If his sons forsake My Teaching and do not live by My rules;(32) if they violate My laws, and do not observe My commands,(33) I will punish their transgression with the rod, their iniquity with plagues.(34) But I will not take away My steadfast love from him; I will not betray My faithfulness.(35) I will not violate My covenant, or change what I have uttered.(36) I have sworn by My holiness, once and for all; I will not be false to David.(37) His line shall continue forever, his throne, as the sun before Me,(38) as the moon, established forever, an enduring witness in the sky.”Selah.(39) Yet You have rejected, spurned, and become enraged at Your anointed.(40) You have repudiated the covenant with Your servant; You have dragged his dignity in the dust.(41) You have breached all his defenses, shattered his strongholds.(42) All who pass by plunder him; he has become the butt of his neighbors.(43) You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries, and made all his enemies rejoice.(44) You have turned back the blade of his sword, and have not sustained him in battle.(45) You have brought his splendor to an end and have hurled his throne to the ground.(46) You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame.Selah.(47) How long, O LORD; will You forever hide Your face, will Your fury blaze like fire?(48) O remember how short my life is; why should You have created every man in vain?(49) What man can live and not see death, can save himself from the clutches of Sheol? Selah.(50) O Lord, where is Your steadfast love of old which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?(51) Remember, O Lord, the abuse flung at Your servants that I have borne in my bosom [from] many peoples,(52) how Your enemies, O LORD, have flung abuse, abuse at Your anointed at every step.(53) Blessed is the LORD forever; Amen and Amen.

(12) [A piece of cloth] three [handbreadths] square that was torn: if he put it on a chair, and his skin touches the chair, it is pure; And if not, it remains pure. [A piece of cloth] three [fingerbreadths] square one thread of which was worn away, or in which a knot was found, or in which two threads ran alongside each other, is pure. [A piece of cloth] three [fingerbreadths] square that was thrown on the rubbish heap becomes pure. If he brought it back, it it becomes susceptible to uncleanness. Throwing it away always renders it pure and taking it back renders it susceptible to uncleanness, except when it is of purple or fine crimson. Rabbi Eliezer says: a patch of new cloth is also subject to the same law. Rabbi Shimon says: all these materials become pure; they were mentioned only in connection with the return of lost property.

(1) [A piece of cloth] three [fingerbreadths] square that was stuffed into a ball or was itself made into a ball is clean. But [a piece of cloth] three [handbreadths] square that was stuffed into a ball remains unclean. If he made it into a ball itself, it is clean because the sewing reduces its size.

with two thin perforated nose-like protrusions. One of the basins, used for the wine libation, had a perforation that was broad, and one, used for the water libation, had a perforation that was thin, so that the flow of both the water and the wine, which do not have the same viscosity, would conclude simultaneously. The basin to the west of the altar was for water, and the basin to the east of the altar was for wine. However, if one poured the contents of the basin of water into the basin of wine, or the contents of the basin of wine into the basin of water, he fulfilled his obligation, as failure to pour the libation from the prescribed location does not disqualify the libation after the fact.Rabbi Yehuda says: The basin for the water libation was not that large; rather, one would pour the water with a vessel that had a capacity of one log on all eight days of the Festival and not only seven. And the appointee says to the one pouring the water into the silver basin: Raise your hand, so that his actions would be visible, as one time a Sadducee priest intentionally poured the water on his feet, as the Sadducees did not accept the oral tradition requiring water libation, and in their rage all the people pelted him with their etrogim.Rabbi Yehuda continues: As its performance during the week, so is its performance on Shabbat, except that on Shabbat one would not draw water. Instead, on Shabbat eve, one would fill a golden barrel that was not consecrated for exclusive use in the Temple from the Siloam pool, and he would place it in the Temple chamber and draw water from there on Shabbat. If the water in the barrel spilled, or if it was exposed overnight, leading to concern that a snake may have deposited poison in the water, one would fill the jug with water from the basin in the Temple courtyard, as exposed wine or water is unfit for the altar. Just as it is prohibited for people to drink them due to the potential danger, so too, they may not be poured on the altar.GEMARA: With regard to the customs accompanying the drawing of the water, the Gemara asks: From where are these matters derived? Rav Eina said that it is as the verse states: “With joy [sason] you shall draw water out of the springs of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3), indicating that the water was to be drawn from the spring and the rite performed in extreme joy.Apropos this verse, the Gemara relates: There were these two heretics, one named Sason and one named Simḥa. Sason said to Simḥa: I am superior to you, as it is written: “They shall obtain joy [sason] and happiness [simḥa], and sorrow and sighing shall flee” (Isaiah 35:10). The verse mentions joy first. Simḥa said to Sason, On the contrary, I am superior to you, as it is written: “There was happiness [simḥa] and joy [sason] for the Jews” (Esther 8:17). Sason said to Simḥa: One day they will dismiss you and render you a messenger [parvanka], as it is written: “For you shall go out with happiness [simḥa]” (Isaiah 55:12). Simḥa said to Sason: One day they will dismiss you and draw water with you, as it is written: “With joy [sason] you shall draw water.”The Gemara relates a similar incident: A certain heretic named Sason said to Rabbi Abbahu: You are all destined to draw water for me in the World-to-Come, as it is written: “With sason you shall draw water.” Rabbi Abbahu said to him: If it had been written: For sason, it would have been as you say; now that it is written: With sason, it means that the skin of that man, you, will be rendered a wineskin, and we will draw water with it.§ The mishna continues: The priest ascended the ramp of the altar and turned to his left. The Sages taught: All who ascend the altar ascend and turn via the right, and circle the altar, and descend via the left. This is the case except for one ascending to perform one of these three tasks, as the ones who perform these tasks ascend via the left, and then turn on their heel and return in the direction that they came. And these tasks are: The water libation, and the wine libation, and the bird sacrificed as a burnt-offering when there were too many priests engaged in the sacrifice of these burnt-offerings in the preferred location east of the altar. When that was the case, additional priests engaged in sacrificing the same offering would pinch the neck of the bird west of the altar.The mishna continues: Rabbi Yehuda said that they were limestone, not silver, basins, but they would blacken due to the wine. The Gemara asks: Granted, the basin for wine blackened due to the wine; however, why did the basin for water blacken? The Gemara answers: Since the Master said in the mishna: However, if one inadvertently poured the contents of the basin of water into the basin of wine or the contents of the basin of wine into the basin of water, he fulfilled his obligation. Then even the basin for water would come to blacken over the course of time as well.§ The mishna continues: And the two basins were perforated at the bottom with two thin, perforated, nose-like protrusions, one broad and one thin. The Gemara asks: Let us say that the mishna is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda and not with that of the Rabbis, as we learned in the mishna that Rabbi Yehuda says: One would pour the water with a vessel that had a capacity of one log on all eight days of the Festival, unlike the wine libation, for which a three-log basin was used. According to his opinion, there is a difference between the capacity of the wine vessel and that of the water vessel; therefore, it is clear why the opening in the wine vessel was broader. As, if the mishna is in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, they are the same as the capacity of the water basin, three log. Why, then, were there different sized openings?The Gemara answers: Even if you say that the mishna is in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, the reason for the different-sized openings is that wine is thick and water is thin, and therefore wine flows more slowly than water. In order to ensure that the emptying of both basins would conclude simultaneously, the wine basin required a wider opening.So too, it is reasonable to establish that the mishna is in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, as, if it is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, unlike the description of the two openings in the mishna as broad and thin, elsewhere he is of the opinion that the openings as wide and narrow, as it was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: There were two small pipes there, one for water and one for wine. The mouth of the pipe for wine was wide and the mouth of the pipe for water was narrow, so that the emptying of both basins would conclude simultaneously. The disparity between wide and narrow is greater than the disparity between broad and thin, thereby facilitating the simultaneous emptying of the three-log and one-log basins according to Rabbi Yehuda. The Gemara concludes: Indeed, learn from it that the mishna is not in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda.§ The mishna continues: The basin to the west of the altar was for water, and the basin to the east of the altar was for wine, and they would tell the one pouring the water to raise his hand. The Sages taught: There was an incident involving one Sadducee priest who poured the water on his feet, and in anger all the people pelted him with their etrogim. And that day, the horn of the altar was damaged as a result of the pelting and the ensuing chaos. They brought a fistful of salt and sealed the damaged section, not because it rendered the altar fit for the Temple service, but in deference to the altar, so that the altar would not be seen in its damaged state.

that the incident occurred during sunrise is because he was standing out in the open and they were mere rays of light that he saw which he mistook for sunrise. In actuality, he too is testifying to an incident that occurred before sunrise, and the testimony of the two witnesses is therefore compatible testimony. Rav Shimi bar Ashi therefore teaches us that there is no concern that it transpired in that manner.Rav Naḥman said that Rav said: The halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. Rava said to Rav Naḥman: And let the Master say that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Meir, who maintains that one may eat during the entire fifth hour, as the tanna taught an unattributed mishna in accordance with his opinion, indicating that this is the halakha.As we learned in a mishna: For the entire time that one is permitted to eat leaven himself, he feeds it to his animal. It can be inferred from this mishna that there is no intermediate period when it is prohibited for a person to eat leaven but he may feed it to his animal. This unattributed mishna must be in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Meir, as Rabbi Yehuda maintains that during the fifth hour it is prohibited to eat leaven but one may feed it to an animal.The Gemara rejects this contention: That mishna is not classified as unattributed, as it is in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Gamliel, due to the fact that had the mishna been in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Meir, the term: Permitted, is difficult. Instead, the mishna should have been formulated: When one eats he may feed.Rava raised an additional difficulty to Rav Naḥman: And let the Master say that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Gamliel, as he is the decisor in this dispute, and there is a general principle that the halakha is always in accordance with the decisor who states an opinion that compromises between two opinions cited previously. He said to him: Rabban Gamliel is not a decisor; he is stating a reason of his own. Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Meir disagree with regard to consumption of any type of leaven; they do not distinguish between teruma and non-sacred food. Since Rabban Gamliel distinguishes between the time one must desist from eating teruma and the latest time that one may eat non-sacred food, his is evidently an unrelated opinion that is in no way a compromise between the other two rulings.And if you wish, say instead: When Rav said that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, he ruled in accordance with the opinion of this tanna, as it was taught in a baraita: With regard to the fourteenth of Nisan that occurs on Shabbat, one does not remove leaven on Passover eve in the usual manner. Rather, one removes everything leavened before Shabbat, and one burns ritually impure teruma:Terumain abeyance, whose purity is uncertain, and even any pureteruma that he does not require for his Shabbat meals. And one leaves from the pure leaven food for two meals, the meal at night and the one in the morning, in order to eat and finish until four hours of Shabbat morning. This is the statement of Rabbi Elazar ben Yehuda of Bartota, who said it in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua.The Sages said to him: One should not burn pureteruma, as perhaps those who can eat it will be found on Shabbat, and he will have retroactively violated a Torah prohibition by burning pure teruma unnecessarily. Instead, one places the teruma aside, and if no one is found to eat it, he feeds it to the dogs or renders it null and void in his heart. He said to them: They already sought people to eat the terumaand they did not find any other priests in the city to eat it. They said to him: Perhaps those priests who could eat the teruma on that Shabbat slept outside the wall of the city and will enter the city on Shabbat morning, at which point they could eat the teruma.He said to the Sages: According to your statement, that you take into account this unlikely scenario, one should not even burn teruma in abeyance, as perhaps Elijah the Prophet will come on Shabbat and establish prophetically that the teruma is not ritually impure, and render it ritually pure. They said to him: That possibility is no source of concern, as the Jewish people have already been assured that Elijah will come neither on a Friday nor on the eve of a Festival, due to the exertion involved preparing for the upcoming holy day. Consequently, Elijah will certainly come neither on Friday, nor on Shabbat itself, which is Passover eve.They said: They did not move from there until the Sages voted and they established the halakha in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Elazar ben Yehuda of Bartota, who said it in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua.Apropos the previous statement that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, what, is it not that the halakha is in accordance with his opinion even with regard to eating? Rav’s ruling indicates that one may eat leaven until the end of the fourth hour, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. Rav Pappa said in the name of Rava: No, the aforementioned ruling applies only to the obligation to remove leaven, i.e., the Sages agreed that it is permitted to remove pure teruma on Friday only if there is no one available to eat it.The Gemara notes: And even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi holds in accordance with this statement of Rav Naḥman, and rules that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. As Ravin bar Rav Adda said: There was an incident that occurred involving a certain person who deposited a saddlebag [disakkayya] filled with leavened bread with Yoḥanan Ḥakuka’a, and mice bore a hole in the bag, and leavened bread was spilling out of the sack. And he came before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi on Passover eve to ask what he should do. In the first hour of the day Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: Wait, as the owner of the bag might yet return to take it from you and eat the leaven. In the second hour he said to him: Wait. In the third hour he said to him: Wait. In the fourth hour he said to him: Wait. In the fifth hour, concluding that the person was not coming, he said to him: Go and sell it in the market.What, did Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi not mean that Yoḥanan Ḥakuka’a should sell this leaven to gentiles, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, who says that it is prohibited for a Jew to eat leaven during the fifth hour? Rav Yosef said: No, it could be that he meant to sell it to a Jew, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Meir that one may eat leaven during the fifth hour. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was simply advising him to sell the leaven quickly before the sixth hour begins, at which point it would be prohibited for Jews to eat it. Abaye said to him: If it is permitted for a Jew to eat leaven, let him take it for himself and pay the owner back later. Why trouble him to sell it to someone else?The Gemara responds: Eating it himself is not an option due to the potential of suspicion. As it was taught in a baraita with regard to a similar situation: Collectors of charity who have no poor people to whom they can distribute the money, change the money with other people and do not change it themselves, i.e., with their own coins.Likewise, collectors of food for the charity plate, who would collect food in large vessels for the poor to eat, who do not have poor people to whom to distribute the food, sell the food to others and do not sell it to themselves, as it is stated: “And you shall be clear before God and before Israel” (Numbers 32:22). It is not sufficient that a person is without sin in the eyes of God. He must also appear upright in the eyes of other people so that they will not suspect him of wrongdoing.Rav Adda bar Mattana said to Rav Yosef: You told us explicitly that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi meant: Go and sell it to gentiles, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. Rav Yosef took ill late in life and forgot his studies, and therefore his student would remind him that he also agreed with that version of the incident.Rav Yosef said: In accordance with whose opinion, i.e., the opinion of which tanna, is that halakha which was taught by Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, that one should sell leaven deposited with him in order to prevent the depositor from losing his possession? Rav Yosef explains: It is in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, as we learned in a mishna: With regard to one who deposits produce with another, even if the produce will be ruined by insects or mold, he should not touch them. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: He should sell them in court, due to the obligation to restore lost property. Just as one is required to return a lost item, he is likewise required to prevent loss of another’s property for which he assumed responsibility.Abaye said to him: Wasn’t it stated with regard to that mishna that Rabba bar bar Ḥana said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Rabbis taught that one may not touch them only iftheir decrease in value is at the standard rate of stored produce, due to rot and rodents. However, if their decrease in value is beyond the standard rate, everyone agrees that one sells them in court; and all the more so in the case here, with regard to leavened bread, as the bread will be entirely lost. Once the leaven is prohibited, it remains prohibited even after Passover. Consequently, everyone agrees that one is obligated to sell the leaven.We learned in the mishna: And furthermore, Rabbi Yehuda said: Two disqualified loaves of a thanks-offering are placed on the pillars surrounding the Temple as an indicator. The tanna who recited mishnayot in the study hall taught a baraitabefore Rav Yehuda: The loaves were placed on [al gav] the bench in the Temple. He said to him: And does he need to conceal them? No one would see them if they were placed there. Rather, teach the baraita: On the roof of [al gag] the colonnade, where everyone could see them.Raḥava said that Rabbi Yehuda said: The Temple Mount was a double colonnade, i.e., surrounded by two rows of columns. That was also taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yehuda says it was called an istevanit and it was a colonnade within a colonnade.We learned in the mishna that Rabbi Yehuda says these two loaves placed outside were disqualified. The Gemara asks: Why were they disqualified? What caused their disqualification? Rabbi Ḥanina said: Since the thanks-offerings brought that day are numerous, and the priests are unable to eat their portions from the loaves of all the offerings, the remaining loaves are disqualified by virtue of their being left overnight. The Gemara explains that so many loaves were brought that day, as it was taught in a baraita: One may not bring a thanks-offering on the festival of Passover due to the leavened bread included with it, as ten of the forty loaves brought with a thanks-offering are loaves of leavened bread.The Gemara raises a difficulty: It is obvious that one may not bring this offering on Passover, as it contains leaven. Rav Adda bar Ahava said: Here this baraita is not referring to the prohibition against bringing the offering on Passover itself. Rather, we are dealing with the issue of sacrificing a thanks-offering on the fourteenth of Nisan, and this tannamaintains: One may not bring consecrated offerings to a situation where the time that they may be eaten is restricted, thereby increasing the likelihood of disqualification. Although it is permitted to eat leavened bread until the sixth hour of the fourteenth of Nisan, one may not bring a thanks-offering on Passover eve. The reason is that a thanks-offering may be eaten for one full day and the following night, and if it is brought on the eve of Passover, the time available before disqualification is reduced.And therefore, everyone who ascended on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and were obligated to bring thanks-offerings brought them on the thirteenth of Nisan. And since these thanks-offerings are numerous, they are disqualified by virtue of their being left overnight, as priests are unable to eat their portions from the loaves of all the offerings brought that day.They said in the name of Rabbi Yannai: The loaves placed as an indicator were not disqualified by being left overnight. Rather, why did the tannacall them disqualified? It was due to the fact that no animal offering was slaughtered together with them to consecrate them, but they were consecrated as thanks-offering loaves independently. They could not be eaten until the offering with which they were brought was slaughtered. The Gemara asks: And let us slaughter the thanks-offering to render the loaves permitted. The Gemara answers: The mishna is referring to a case where the animal for the offering was lost.The Gemara raises a further difficulty: And let us bring another animal to replace the first one for sacrifice and let them slaughter it. The Gemara answers: This is a case where the one who consecrated the thanks-offering said: This is a thanks-offering and these are its loaves. He consecrated the animal and the loaves together, and this is in accordance with the opinion of Rabba, as Rabba said: If the loaf of a thanks-offering is lost, its owner brings another loaf to complete the offering. However, if the thanks-offering was lost and the loaves remain, one may not bring another thanks-offering. What is the reason for this? The loaves are brought due to the thanks-offering but the thanks-offering is not brought on account of the loaves. The animal sacrificed is the primary component of the offering while the loaves are subordinate to it.The Gemara asks: And let us redeem the loaves from their consecrated status and render them non-sacred, and there will be no need to burn the loaves. Rather, the Gemara explains that actually, the case is one where the animal offering was indeed slaughtered over the loaves to permit them, but the animal’s blood spilled before it could be sprinkled on the altar. Once the animal has been slaughtered, the loaves are fully consecrated and cannot be redeemed, but in this case, neither can they be eaten, as the blood was not sprinkled on the altar.And in accordance with whose opinion is this statement that the slaughter of the animal consecrates the loaves and from that point they can no longer be redeemed? It is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Each of two factors that are indispensable in permitting the sacrifice of an offering, elevates the subordinate components of the offering to consecrated status, without the other. In this case, the loaves are consecrated when the animal to be sacrificed is slaughtered, even if the blood was not sprinkled, as it was taught in a baraita: The lambs sacrificed on the festival of Assembly, i.e., Shavuot, consecrate the loaves that accompany them only by means of their slaughter. How so? If one slaughtered the lambs for their own sake, i.e., as lambs for Shavuot, in the appropriate manner, and the priest sprinkled their blood for their own sake, the loaves are consecrated.However, if one slaughtered them not for their own sake, and the priest sprinkled their blood not for their own sake, the loaves are not consecrated, as the factors indispensable in rendering the offering permitted were not properly performed. If one slaughtered them for their own sake, and he sprinkled their blood not for their own sake, the fact that the lambs were properly slaughtered renders the loaves partially consecrated. Therefore, the loaves are consecrated to the extent that they cannot be redeemed, but they are not consecrated to the extent that they may be eaten. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says: Actually, the loaves are consecrated only when one slaughters the offerings for their own sake and sprinkles their blood for their own sake, i.e., only if both factors indispensable in rendering the offering permitted were properly performed. The previous answer in the Gemara is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.The Gemara adds: Even if you say that the previous answer is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, it is understood, as with what case are we dealing here? It is in a unique case where after the slaughter, the blood was received in the cup and it only then spilled before it was sprinkled.And Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, holds in accordance with the opinion of his father, Rabbi Shimon, who stated a principle: The legal status of any blood that is about to be sprinkled and prepared for sprinkling is like that of blood that had already been sprinkled. Therefore, the loaves are consecrated when the blood is received in the vessel and thereby prepared to be sprinkled. They may not be eaten until the blood is actually sprinkled.It was taught in the Tosefta that they said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: These loaves were entirely fit. As long as the loaves were placed there, the entire nation continued to eat leaven. When one of the loaves was taken away, the people knew that the time had come to place the leaven in abeyance, meaning that they neither eat nor burn their leaven. When both of the loaves were taken away, they all began burning their leaven.It was taught in a baraita that Abba Shaul says:

This halakha was also taught in the previous mishna (26a), and it is cited in this mishna according to the opinion of Rabbi Shimon. The Gemara asks: But didn’t Rabbi Shimon say: Two sisters neither perform ḥalitza nor enter into levirate marriage? Because these women are eligible for levirate marriage according to Torah law, they are considered the sisters of a woman with whom he has a levirate bond. In this case, Rabbi Shimon exempts them from both ḥalitza and levirate marriage. Why, then, does the mishna require them to perform ḥalitza?The Gemara answers: It is a rabbinic decree due to the general case of a prohibition resulting from a mitzva. If they did not perform ḥalitza in this case, where they are sisters, there is a concern that people would assume that their exemption from ḥalitza stemmed not from their status as sisters but rather due to the prohibition. This would lead to the mistaken conclusion that women who are forbidden due to a mitzva do not require ḥalitza. Therefore, the Sages issued a rabbinic decree requiring ḥalitza in this case.The Gemara asks: This works out well for her, as she is forbidden due to the prohibition resulting from a mitzva. It is appropriate to require ḥalitza with her, to demonstrate that ḥalitza is generally applied in cases where there is a prohibition resulting from a mitzva. But with regard to her sister, what is there to say? Why must she perform ḥalitza as well? The Gemara answers: There is a rabbinic decree with regard to her sister due to her.The Gemara asks: If Rabbi Shimon issues a decree in this case requiring ḥalitza for the sister, out of concern for confusion, then there is a difficulty: But, with regard to a forbidden relative we do not issue a decree requiring ḥalitza due to her sister; why does Rabbi Shimon issue a rabbinic decree requiring ḥalitza with a woman forbidden due to a prohibition resulting from a mitzva and not with a woman who is a forbidden relative? The Gemara answers: Forbidden relatives are different, as people learn the halakhot pertaining to them because they are stated explicitly in the Torah and are well known to all, and the ruling has publicity. Therefore, there is no concern lest people mistakenly confuse this case with cases of yevamot who are not sisters. Prohibitions resulting from mitzvot are not, however, explicit in the Torah, nor are they generally known.MISHNA: In the case of three brothers, two of whom were married to two sisters, and one who was single, the following occurred: The husband of one of the sisters died childless, leaving behind his wife, and the single brother performed levirate betrothal [ma’amar] to this wife. The single brother performed an act of betrothal to the yevama but did not yet consummate the marriage by engaging in sexual intercourse. Afterward, the second brother died, and therefore the second brother’s wife, the sister of the betrothed, happened before the single brother for levirate marriage as well.In this case, Beit Shammai say: His wife remains with him. The woman he betrothed is considered like his wife, and he is not required to divorce her. And this other woman leaves the yavam and is exempt from levirate marriage as the sister of a wife. Beit Hillel say: Being as he had not yet entered into marriage with the first woman, he is required to perform levirate marriage with both women. Therefore, he divorces his wife, i.e., the woman to whom he performed levirate betrothal, with a bill of divorce, which nullifies levirate betrothal, and by ḥalitza, which nullifies the levirate bond. And, he sends away the wife of his second brother with ḥalitza as well. They comment: This is the case that was referred to when the Sages said: Woe unto him for his wife and woe unto him for the wife of his brother. Due to the combination of circumstances, he loses them both.GEMARA: The Gemara asks: What does the mishna’s formulation of the term: This is, which indicates limitation and exactitude, come to exclude? The Gemara answers: It excludes that statement of Rabbi Yehoshua (109a). There, Rabbi Yehoshua holds that if a man is married to a minor when her sister happens before him for levirate marriage, he must send both of the women away. He said there: Woe unto him for his wife and woe unto him for the wife of his brother. From the language in the mishna here, we learn that we do not act in accordance with his opinion. Rather, we act either in accordance with the opinion of Rabban Gamliel or in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Elazar. According to the opinion of both of these tanna’im in the mishna (109a), despite the conflict between the brother’s marriage to the minor and the levirate bond with her sister, there is still a way for him to marry one of the women.§ With regard to the main issue of levirate betrothal, it would seem from this mishna that Beit Shammai hold that levirate betrothal has the legal force of levirate marriage. However, Rabbi Elazar said: Do not say that levirate betrothal acquires the woman as a full-fledged acquisition according to the opinion of Beit Shammai, such that the first woman becomes his wife to the extent that if he wants to divorce her a bill of divorce would suffice without an act of ḥalitza. Rather, for Beit Shammai, levirate betrothal acquires the woman only insofar as it precludes a rival wife from entering levirate marriage. The legal force of levirate betrothal is limited to preventing the rival wife of the sister from performing levirate marriage; she is exempt from both levirate marriage and ḥalitza.Rabbi Avin said: We, too, learn in the mishna a proof that levirate betrothal is not a full-fledged act of acquisition, even according to Beit Shammai. The mishna at the beginning of this chapter (26a) teaches that when two sisters who are yevamot happen before two brothers for levirate marriage, if the brothers married their wives before consulting the court, then Beit Shammai say: They may maintain them as their wives. From here it can be deduced: If they already married them, yes, they may maintain them. However, marrying them ab initio, no, this is prohibited due to the prohibition against marrying the sister of a woman with whom one has a levirate bond.And if it enters your mind that according to Beit Shammai levirate betrothal acquires the woman as a full-fledged acquisition, then this matter could potentially have been resolved ab initio: This brother should perform levirate betrothal and acquire one sister, and that brother should perform levirate betrothal and acquire the other sister. As there is no prohibition whatsoever involved in performing levirate betrothal, the concern for violating a prohibition by consummating the levirate marriage with a sister of a woman with whom he has a levirate bond is avoided; he only betroths her, but does not engage in sexual intercourse with her. After the betrothal, the levirate bond of her sister is dissolved and he can freely consummate the levirate marriage with her.The Gemara objects: Rather, what then? If levirate betrothal does not serve to fully acquire the woman, what is the alternative? It must be that according to Beit Shammai levirate betrothal precludes the rival wife from entering levirate marriage with a complete preclusion. If so, there is an additional potential scenario: This one should perform levirate betrothal with one sister and preclude the second sister from entering levirate marriage, and that one should perform levirate betrothal with the second sister and preclude the first sister from entering levirate marriage. In this way, the yevamin can consummate the levirate marriage with the sisters ab initio as well. Yet the mishna does not allow for this possibility.Rather, what have you to say? One must assert that levirate betrothal performed in circumstances where it is permitted to perform levirate marriage, i.e. where there is no prohibition with regard to the close relative of a woman with whom the yavam has a levirate bond, completely precludes the rival wife from entering levirate marriage. However, levirate betrothal performed in circumstances where it is forbidden to perform levirate marriage, does not preclude entering levirate marriage. Therefore, in the case of two sisters who happen simultaneously before two brothers for levirate marriage, the sisters cannot be precluded from entering levirate marriage via levirate betrothal. So too here, with regard to levirate betrothal performed by the third brother, the same distinction can be made. Even according to the one who said that levirate betrothal acquires a woman as a full-fledged acquisition, just like marriage, there is the following difference: Levirate betrothal under permitted circumstances acquires the woman, but levirate betrothal under forbidden circumstances does not acquire the woman. Therefore, there is no proof as to the nature of levirate betrothal according to the opinion of Beit Shammai from the first mishna in the chapter.Rav Ashi teaches this discourse in this manner: Rabbi Elazar said: Do not say that according to Beit Shammai levirate betrothal precludes entering levirate marriage as a complete preclusion, so that the rival wife of the woman who received levirate betrothal does not require even ḥalitza. Rather, it precludes entering levirate marriage and yet leaves a remnant of the levirate bond in place. Accordingly, levirate betrothal precludes the rival wife’s entering levirate marriage to the degree that the yavam is not required to divorce the woman he betrothed, but the levirate bond with the rival wife remains to the extent that he must still perform ḥalitza with her.Rabbi Avin said: We, too, learn this statement from the mishna, where it states: Beit Shammai say: They may maintain them as their wives. From here it can be deduced: Yes, they may maintain them as their wives after the fact; no, they are not allowed to marry them ab initio. And if it enters your mind to say that, according to Beit Shammai, levirate betrothal precludes entering levirate marriage as a complete preclusion, then this brother should perform levirate betrothal and preclude one sister from levirate marriage, and that brother should perform levirate betrothal and preclude the other sister from levirate marriage. The Gemara challenges this conclusion: But didn’t the mishna teach that Beit Shammai say: His wife remains with him, and this other is sent away due to her status as a sister of his wife? This indicates that she is exempt from levirate marriage and does not even require ḥalitza.Rather, one must resolve this by asserting that a yevama who is suitable for all of the aspects of levirate marriage is also suitable for part of it. If a yevama is eligible for both levirate marriage and ḥalitza when she happens before the brothers, as in the case cited in the present mishna where the woman who happened before the third brother was permitted to enter into levirate marriage, she is eligible for part of it. This indicates that if the yavam does not take her in levirate marriage but performs only levirate betrothal, the levirate betrothal has sufficient legal force to preclude the rival wife completely. However, a yevama who is not suitable for all of the aspects of levirate marriage is also not suitable for a part of it. If the yevama is not eligible for levirate marriage, such as in the case referred to in the first mishna of this chapter, where both women happened simultaneously so that the yavam is not permitted to consummate the levirate marriage with either woman, she is not suitable for part of it. In that case, if the yavam performs levirate betrothal, it does not have the legal force to affect a total preclusion.§ With regard to Beit Shammai’s opinion about levirate betrothal, Rabba asks: Does levirate betrothal, according to the opinion of Beit Shammai, create a full-fledged marriage bond? Or, does it merely create betrothal, similar to all other acts of betrothal? Abaye said to him: With regard to what halakha do you ask this?If we say it pertains to inheriting from her when she dies, and to becoming ritually impure for her if he is a priest, and to nullifying her vows, all of which are rights and obligations acquired by marriage, this is difficult. Now, with regard to a betrothed woman in general, i.e., a woman who was betrothed by Torah law, Rabbi Ḥiyya teaches in a baraita: One does not enter acute mourning on the day of the death of his betrothed wife, nor can he become ritually impure for her if she dies if he is a priest. Similarly, she does not enter acute mourning for him and is not obligated to become ritually impure for him. If she dies, he does not inherit from her; if he dies, she collects the payment of her marriage contract; In a case where he performed only levirate betrothal with her, is it necessary to say that he does not inherit from her, nor does he become ritually impure for her? Therefore, this halakha is obvious and Rabba’s question seems superfluous.Rather, the question must relate to the matter of delivery of the woman to the husband under a wedding canopy. What is the ruling with regard to this? Is the yavam obligated to enter the wedding canopy in the manner that he would with any other betrothed woman, or not? This is the dilemma: Does levirate betrothal create a full-fledged marriage bond, whereby the yevamawould not require further delivery to a wedding canopy? Or, does levirate betrothal perhaps create only betrothal, whereby she would require delivery to a wedding canopy?Abaye said to him that this question is not necessary, as well: Now, if he did not perform levirate betrothal with her at all, it is written: “Her brother-in-law will have intercourse with her” (Deuteronomy 25:5). It is deduced from this verse that he can take her even against her will. Is it necessary to say that if he performed levirate betrothal with her, even without a wedding canopy, that he is allowed to engage in sexual intercourse with her?Rabba said to him: This question is relevant, as I say that anyone who performs levirate betrothal with his yevama causes the levirate bond to be removed from him, and he is no longer considered subject to the halakhot of levirate marriage. Instead, a standard bond of betrothal applies to him. Therefore, it is appropriate to ask if this act of levirate betrothal is similar to a standard betrothal insofar as the wedding canopy is concerned, and consequently the woman would be required to enter the wedding canopy. Alternatively, perhaps the halakhot of levirate marriage still apply somewhat, in which case the woman would not be required to enter a wedding canopy in order to become married, similar to a standard yevama to whom levirate betrothal was not performed. Does the performance of levirate betrothal weaken the capacity of intercourse to establish levirate marriage on its own? What is the halakhic ruling here?The Gemara suggests: Come and hear an answer from what is taught in a mishna (Nedarim 74a): What is the ruling with regard to the nullification of vows for a widow who is waiting for her yavam, whether she is waiting for a single yavam or two yevamin? Rabbi Eliezer says: Let him nullify her vows. The yavam may nullify her vows as though he were her husband. Rabbi Yehoshua says: This holds true only if she is bonded to a single yavam, but not to two. Rabbi Akiva says: It does not hold true, neither to oneyavamnor to twoyevamin. They may not they nullify her vows.And we discussed this issue, interpreting the various opinions: Granted, Rabbi Akiva holds that the levirate bond is not substantial, even in the case of oneyavam. In his opinion, the levirate obligation does not create a marriage bond at all, even if there is only a single yavam. And according to Rabbi Yehoshua, the levirate bond with oneyavamis substantial. The yevama undoubtedly requires this yavam for levirate marriage, and therefore she is considered to be like his wife. But with twoyevamin, the levirate bond is not substantial, since it is not clear which brother will consummate the levirate marriage with her. However, Rabbi Eliezer, if he indeed holds that the levirate bond is substantial, his opinion is difficult. Granted, if there is oneyavam, he can nullify her vows, but if there are two, why should only one of them suffice to nullify her vows, as it is not yet clear which of them will eventually marry her?And Rabbi Ami bar Ahava said: With what are we dealing here? This is a case where one of them performed levirate betrothal with her, and this is in accordance with the opinion of Beit Shammai, who say: Levirate betrothal acquires her as a full-fledged acquisition.This interpretation can resolve Rabba’s question. Granted, if you say levirate betrothal creates a full-fledged marriage, it is due to that reason that the yavamcan nullify her vows just as a full-fledged husband does. However, if you say that levirate betrothal merely creates betrothal, how can he nullify the vows? Even in standard cases of betrothal by Torah law the husband cannot nullify her vows, for didn’t we learn in a mishna: With regard to a betrothed young woman, only her father and her husband together can nullify her vows? How could a yavam nullify the vows without the father of the yevama, if he is not considered a full-fledged husband? Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said that this proof can be rejected by interpreting the mishna as follows: What is the meaning of the phrase: He nullifies? That he nullifies her vows only in conjunction with her father.The Gemara questions this reading of the mishna: And according to the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, who said that for Beit Shammai levirate betrothal acquires the woman only insofar as it precludes a rival wife from entering levirate marriage, and it is not a full-fledged acquisition, why should the yavamnullify her vows, even if he does so in conjunction with her father? The Gemara answers: Rabbi Eliezer could have said to you: One can say that when I said that levirate betrothal acquires the woman only insofar as it precludes the rival wife from entering levirate marriage, it was to emphasize that a bill of divorce would not suffice for her, but rather she also requires ḥalitza. However, with regard to the matter of nullifying her vows, do we say that levirate betrothal is not effective, and that he cannot nullify her vows alone?And if you wish, say an alternate explanation: Rabbi Elazar could have said to you: And as for Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak, does this resolution that the mishna is only referring to a case where the father and the yavam can nullify her vows together work out well? Did the mishna teach that they can nullify her vows? It teaches that he can nullify her vows in the singular, implying that he nullifies the vows alone and not in conjunction with anyone else. Rather, the mishna must be explained differently: With what are we dealing here? It is a case where the yavam, regardless of whether or not he performed levirate betrothal, did not want to consummate the levirate marriage or perform ḥalitza. Therefore, the yevamastood in court so as to compel him to consummate the levirate marriage or perform ḥalitza, and it ruled that he must supply her sustenance. Because she is bound to him and cannot marry another, the court ruled that he was responsible for her livelihood.And this is in accordance with the statement that Rav Pineḥas said in the name of Rava, as Rav Pineḥas said in the name of Rava: Any woman who makes a vow, makes her vow with the consent of her husband. Because she is dependent upon her husband for her livelihood, she does not act without his consent. In this case, because the yavam is responsible to supply the yevama with sustenance, it is assumed that her vows are also made with his consent. It is for this reason that he can nullify her vows without her father. Consequently, no conclusive proof can be derived from here with regard to the strength of acquisition through levirate betrothal.

(1) The altar is placed extremely precisely and may never ever be placed anywhere else as it says "This is the Altar for the offerings of Israel." And it was in the temple that Isaac was bound as it says "and go to the land of Moriah" and it says "Solomon built the temple on Mt. Moriah."

(2) And it is a tradition accepted by all, that the place where David and Solomon built the altar at the threshing floor of Arauna was the place that Abraham built the altar and bound Isaac upon it, and that was the place that Noah built upon when he left the ark, and that was the altar upon which Kain and Abel sacrificed, and upon which Adam the First sacrificed when he was created. And from there was born the saying of the sages that "Man was created from the place of his atonement."

(3) The measurements of the Altar are very exact and its shape is known [by tradition] from man to man. The altar that those who ascended from the [Babylonian] exile built was made like the one which will be built in the future. It is forbidden to add or subtract from its dimensions.

(4) Of the three prophets who ascended with them from the exile, one testified as to the Altar's location, one to its dimensions, and one to the Law that the could bring offerings on the altar even though the there was no Temple [yet].

(5) The Altar that Moses made, that Solomon made, that the returnees of the [First] Exile made, and that will be made in the future are all 10 cubits high, and that which is stated in the Torah: "and three cubits its height, that is the place of the pyre alone (above the ledge of the Altar). And the dimensions of the Altar that the returnees of the Exile made and the one that will be built in the future are 32 cubits by 32 cubits.

(6) The ten cubits of the height of the Altar, some of them are of a 5-handbreadth cubit and some are of a 6-handbreadth cubit, and the rest of the cubits of the building are of 6 handbreadths. The height of the entire Altar is 58 handbreadths.

(7) These are its dimensions and its shape: [Starting from the 32x32 cubit square at ground level] it goes up five hand-breadths and in five hand-breadths, [making] the base. Now it is 30 cubits and two hand-breadths. It goes up thirty hand-breadths and in five hand-breadths, making the ledge. [From there,] it went up another eighteen hand-breadths and this was the place of the pyre. Its width [on each side at the top] works out to [a square of] 28 cubits and four hand-breadths by 28 cubits and four hand-breadths. [From the top], it went up [another] eighteen hand-breadths built as a hollow structure at each corner. The place for the "horns" was one cubit by one cubit, and the path for the priests was one cubit by one cubit, so the [dimensions of the] place of the pyre works out to 24 cubits and four handbreadths by 24 cubits and four hand-breadths.

(8) The height of each corner piece is five hand-breadths and [each was] one cubit square. The four corner pieces were hollow inside and the place of the Pyre was 18 hand-breadths high. [Thus we] find that half the height of the altar was 29 hand-breadths from the ledge down.

(9) A red stripe girdled the Altar in the middle (about six hand-breadths below the ledge) to separate between the blood of the Higher [half] and the blood of the Lower [half]. And its height from the ground comes to nine cubits less one hand-breadth.

(10) The base of the Altar did not surround it on all four sides, rather it went along the entire north and west sides, one cubit on the south and one cubit on the east, and the southeast corner had no base.

(11) The southwest corner had two holes like thin pipes called "shittin" through which the blood drained into the [underground stream] at that corner and went out to the Kidron.

(12) And below that corner there was a trapdoor in the floor by which they could go down to the "shittin" and clean them.

(13) A ramp was built at the south of the altar 32 cubits long by sixteen wide and took up 30 cubits of floor from the side of the altar, and spread out a cubit over the base and a cubit over the ledge, and a little air space was between the ramp and the altar to allow the limbs [of the sacrifices] to be thrown, and the ramp was nine cubits high less one sixth to parallel the pyre.

(14) Two small ramps branched out from the [large] ramp to the base and the ledge and they were separated from the altar itself by a hair and there was a niche in the west side of the ramp where invalidated bird offerings were left until they decayed and were brought out to the place of burning.

(15) And two tables were at the west of the ramp, one of marble on which they put the limbs [of the offerings] and one was of silver on which they put the vessels.

(16) The altar is built completely solid like a pillar without any hollow bits at all. They bring whole stones, large and small, mortar, tar and plaster and they mix it and dump it all into a big form. And they make a hollow wooden or stone structure in the southeast corner the size of the base and at each corner [on top] so that the southeast corner won't have a base and the corner pieces will stay hollow.

(17) The four corner-pieces of the altar, its base, and its squareness are all essential and any altar that does not have corner-pieces, a base, a ramp, and squareness is invalid for they are all essential, however its length, width, and height are not essential as long as it is not less than one cubit [wide] by once cubit [long] by three cubits [high] like the pyre-space of the Altar in the desert.

(18) An altar that [has a piece] broken off of its structure is valid as long as the missing piece is less than a hand-breadth and so long as what is left does not contain a chipped stone.

(1) The Menorah's shape is described explicitly in the Torah, and there were four cups, two knobs, and two flowers on the stem as it says "and on the Menorah there were four cups, decorated with its knobs and its flowers." There was a third flower near the leg as it says "from its leg to its flower."

(2) It also had three legs and three more knobs on the stem where the six branches came out, three on each side. There were three cups, a flower, and a knob on each branch and all of them were made like almonds.

(3) The [sums] work out to twenty-two cups, nine flowers, and eleven knobs, all of which are absolutely necessary. If even one of the forty-two [decorations] are missing, it prevents all of them [from being valid.]

(4) When is the above law [that all the decorations are essential] true? When it is made of gold. However, [if it were made of] other metals, we do not make the cups, knobs, and flowers. Similarly, a golden Menorah must be one talent of gold, including the candles, and hammered out solid while [in the case of Menorahs made of] other metals we do not care about the weight, and it is Kosher even if it is hollow.

(5) It is never made out of scraps whether [scraps of] gold or of other metals.

(6) The tongs, the pans, and the oil vessels are not part of the talent [of gold] as it says [in the commandment to make a Menorah] "pure gold," then repeats itself and says "the tongs and the pans of pure gold." It does not say "pure gold lamps" because the lamps are part of the Menorah and [therefore] part of the talent.

(7) The seven branches of the Menorah each impede each other and the seven lamps impede each other whether it is made of gold or other metals and all of the lamps are fastened to the branches.

(8) The six lamps which are attached to the six branches all point towards the middle lamp which is on the stem of the Menorah, and this middle lamp points towards the Holy of Holies and is called the "Western Lamp."

(9) The "goblets" look like Alexandrian cups with wide mouths and narrow bottoms (like martini glasses without the stems --translator). The "knobs" looked like the apples from Keros which are slightly elongated like an egg with both ends rounded. The "flowers" look like the flowers on [top of] columns, like bowls with the lip folded outwards.

(10) The Menorah was eighteen hand breadths tall. The legs and the [bottom] flower were three hand breadths, then two smooth hand breadths [on the stem] then a hand breadth with a goblet, knob, and flower; then two smooth hand breadths; then a hand breadth with a knob and two branches extending one on each side up to the height of the Menorah; then one smooth hand breadth; then a hand breadth with a knob and two branches extending one on each side up to the height of the Menorah; then one smooth hand breadth;then a hand breadth with a knob and two branches extending one on each side up to the height of the Menorah; leaving three hand breadths which had three goblets, a knob and a flower.

(11) There was a stone in front of the Menorah with three steps [cut] in it on which the High Priest would stand and set up the lamps and he would rest the tweezers and oil vessels etc. on it when setting them up.

(12) The Table was twelve hand breadths long and six hand breadths wide. It was placed with its length parallel to the length of the Temple and its width to the width of the Temple. Similarly, all the other Temple vessels were placed lengthwise except the Ark which was placed with its long axis parallel to the width of the Temple and the lamps of the Menorah (but not the Menorah itself --translator) which were placed parallel to the width of the Temple, from north to south.

(13) The table had four forked pieces on which were placed the racks for the showbread, two for each arrangement. These are what the Torah calls "its kesot."

(14) There were 28 golden rods [on the racks] each one [shaped] like a hollow half-pipe, fourteen for each arrangement which are called "its menakiyot" [in the Torah]; and the two bowls that they placed the frankincense in beside the racks are the [scriptural] "kapot"; and the forms which they used to shape the showbread are the [scriptural] "k'arot".

(15) These fourteen rods [were used as follows]: They would place the first loaf on the Table itself, then three rods between the first and second and so on; three rods between every two loaves; between the fifth and the sixth they only put two rods because there was nothing on top of the sixth. It works out that there were fourteen rods on each side.

(16) There were two [more] tables in the foyer by the entrance to the Temple: one of marble where they put the showbread on its way in and one of gold where they put the showbread on its way out since we always increase in holiness and never decrease.

(17) The incense altar was a one cubit by one cubit square and was placed in the Sanctuary at the midpoint between the north and south [walls of the Temple] between the table and the Menorah but slightly outward (further away from the Inner Sanctum --translator). All three of them were in the inner third of the Sanctuary close to the curtain which divided between the Sanctuary and the Sanctum Sanctorum.

(18) The laver had twelve faucets so that all the priests officiating at the morning Offering could sanctify [by washing their hands and feet] from it at once. They made a machine so it would always have water inside, and [the machine] was (left) unconsecrated so that the water inside would not become invalid by being left overnight since the laver is a sacred vessel and anything that was sanctified by [being stored in] a sacred vessel becomes invalid [for whatever purpose it was put in there] by being left overnight.

(1) There was a stone at the western side of the Holy of Holies, on which the Ark was placed, and in front of it there was the jar of manna as well as the staff of Aaron. When Solomon built the Temple, knowing that it would at the end be destroyed, he constructed underneath a place where to hide the Ark in deep and winding secret tunnels. At the command of King Josiah, it was concealed in the place which Solomon had built.— — Along with it were concealed the staff of Aaron, the jar of manna, and the anointing oil. None of these reappeared in the Second Temple. Even the Urim and Tummim, which were available in the Second Temple, no longer responded prophetically, nor were they consulted.— —

(2) ...In the first temple, there was a wall dividing between the Holy and the Holy of Holies, a cubit in thickness. And when they built the second temple they were unsure if the thickness of the wall was included in the measurement of the Holy or the measurement of the Holy of Holies, therefore they made the Holy of Holies twenty full cubits and they made the Holy forty full cubits and they left an extra cubit between the Holy and the Holy of Holies. And they didn't build the wall in the second temple, but they made two curtains: one on the side of the Holy of Holies and one on the side of the Holy. And between them was a cubit, corresponding to the thickness of the wall that had been in the first [temple]. But in the first temple there was only one curtain, as it is said, "And the curtain divided them..." (Exodus 26:33)

(3) ...The Sanctuary that the descendants of the exiles built was 100 cubits by 100 cubits

(1) One who eats foods fitting for human consumption of the size of a thick date — which is slightly smaller than a [large] egg (kabeitsah) — on Yom Kippur is liable. And all foods combine to this measure. Similarly, one who drinks beverages fitting for human drinking of the [full] volume of the cheek of the drinker — each and everyone according to his cheek — is liable. How much is the [full] volume of his cheek? It is such that if he pushed [the liquid] to one side, it looks like his cheek is full. This measure in an average person is less than a reviit. And all beverages combine to this measure; but eating and drinking do not combine to one measure.

(2) Whether one eats permitted foods or forbidden foods — such as sacrificial meat that was slaughtered with the intent to eat it after the designated time, sacrificial meat that was (actually) left over past the time, untithed food, meat from an unslaughtered (or improperly slaughtered) animal, meat from an animal with a mortal defect, forbidden fat, or blood — seeing as he ate foods fitting for human consumption, he is surely liable for excision on account of eating on Yom Kippur.

(3) [If] one ate or drank less than this measure, he is not liable for excision. Even though [consuming] a partial measure is Biblically forbidden, we are only liable for excision for a [full] measure. However, one who eats or drinks a partial measure receives (rabbinic) lashes for rebellion.

(4) [If] one ate a little and then ate again: If the time that elapsed from the beginning of the first eating to the end of the second eating was less than the time it takes to eat three eggs, they combine to the measure; but if not, they do not combine to the measure. [If] one drank a little and then drank again: If the time that elapsed from the beginning of the first drinking to the end of the second drinking was less than the time it takes to drink a reviit, they combine to one measure; but if not, they do not combine [to one measure].

(5) [If] one ate foods that are not fitting for human consumption, such as bitter grasses or foul syrups; or drank liquids that are not fitting for human drinking, such as [fish-]broth, fish oil or undiluted vinegar, he is exempt from excision — even [if] he ate or drank a lot. However he receives lashes for rebellion.

(6) [If] one drank vinegar diluted in water, he is liable. One who chews peppercorns or dry ginger and that which is similar to them is exempt; but [if it was] fresh ginger, [he is] liable. If one ate grape leaves, he is exempt; grapevine tendrils, he is liable. These are grapevine tendrils — anything that blooms in the Land of Israel from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur. Beyond this, they are surely like wood — so [he is] exempt; and likewise all that is similar to these.

(7) [If] one ate roasted meat in salt, the salt combines with the meat [for the measure]; broth that is on a vegetable combines [with the vegetables] — because [food-items that help] prepare the food, [and] that are mixed with the food, are considered like [the] food. If one was full from gluttonous eating — [meaning] that he ate until he spurned his food — and [then] ate more than his fill, he is exempt like one who ate foods that are not fit for eating. As even though this extra food is fit for one who is hungry, it is not fit for any one who is full like this.

(8) If a patient who is seriously ill asks for food on Yom Kippur, he should be given to eat as he desires, until he says "enough," even though competent physicians say that he does not need any food. If the patient says that he does not require food, and the physician says that he does, he should be fed in accordance with the physician's order, provided that the physician is competent. If one physician says that the patient needs food and another says that he does not, he should be given food. [If] some physicians say he needs to and others say he does not need to, we go according to the majority or [according to] the more expert ones. And this is so long as the ill person does not say, "I need [to eat]." But if he says, "I need [to eat]," we feed him. [If] the ill person does not say that he needs [to eat] and the physicians disagree and all of them were experts and those who said that he does not need to [eat] are of the same number as those who said he needs [to eat], we feed him.

(9) [In a case of] a pregnant woman who smelled [food and wants to eat it], we whisper in her ear that it is Yom Kippur. If she calmed down with this reminder, [all] is well (and we do not feed her); but if not, we feed her until she calms down. And likewise do we feed one who is struck with bulmos (a dangerous disease similar to bulimia that causes ravenous hunger), until his eyes light up. We even feed him unslaughtered animals and disgusting animals immediately; and we do not delay until things that are permissible are found.

(10) A boy of nine years [or] of ten years should be trained to fast by the hours. For example, if he is used to eat at eight o'clock in the morning, he should be fed at nine; if he is used to eat at nine, he should be fed at ten; the number of hours is to be increased in accordance with the physical strength of the boy. A boy or a girl of eleven should fast the entire day, according to a rabbinical enactment, so as to be trained in the observance of religious duties.

(11) A girl of twelve years and one day (i.e. twelve complete years) and a boy of thirteen years and one day who have grown two [pubic] hairs are [considered] like adults for all commandments, and are Biblically obligated to complete the fast. But if they did not grow two hairs, they are still [considered] minors and are only [rabbinically] obligated to complete the fast. We do not have a child under nine afflict himself on Yom Kippur, so that he does not come to a danger.

(3) Small fringed garments (talit katan) of ours that are customarily worn, even though they are not wrapped, they fulfill our obligation for fringes. And it is good that one places it over one's head, the long way, and wrap it. He should stand this way wrapped for at least the amount of time it would take to walk four cubits. After this he can pull it over his head and wear it normally.

(4) One should return two of the fringes in front, and two behind, in order to be surrounded by the commandments.

(5) One should bless "to wrap oneself in fringes". If two or three are wrapped as one fringed garment (that is, each in their own but garment but at the same time) they each bless. If they want, one can bless, and the others can answer Amen.

(6) He commands the snow, “Fall to the ground!” And the downpour of rain, His mighty downpour of rain,