Joshua 8 Cross References - MSB

¹ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. See, I have delivered into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. ² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.” ³ So Joshua and the whole army set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out at night ⁴ with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready. ⁵ Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ So as we flee from them, ⁷ you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. ⁸ And when you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do as the LORD has commanded! See, I have given you orders.” ⁹ So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. ¹⁰ Joshua got up early the next morning and mobilized his men, and he and the elders of Israel marched before them up to Ai. ¹¹ Then all the troops who were with him marched up and approached the city. They arrived in front of Ai and camped to the north of it, with the valley between them and the city. ¹² Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. ¹³ So the forces were stationed with the main camp to the north of the city and the rear guard to the west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the valley. ¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he hurried out early in the morning with the men of the city to engage them in battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set up against him behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel let themselves be beaten back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. ¹⁶ Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city wide open while they pursued Israel. ¹⁸ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out your battle lance toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out his battle lance toward Ai, ¹⁹ and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire. ²⁰ When the men of Ai turned and looked back, the smoke of the city was rising into the sky. They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now became the pursuers. ²¹ When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned around and struck down the men of Ai. ²² Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces on both sides. So Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained. ²³ But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. ²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well. ²⁵ A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. ²⁶ Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai. ²⁷ Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day. ²⁹ He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. ³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel, ³¹ just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used.” And on it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD, and they sacrificed peace offerings. ³² And there in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. ³³ All Israel, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded earlier, to bless the people of Israel. ³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.

²¹ See, the LORD your God has placed the land before you. Go up and take possession of it as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

¹⁸ But do not be afraid of them. Be sure to remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt:

⁸ The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

⁹ Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

² And the LORD said to Joshua, “Behold, I have delivered Jericho into your hand, along with its king and its mighty men of valor.

⁶ Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown before the ark of the LORD until evening, as did the elders of Israel; and they all sprinkled dust on their heads. ⁷ “O, Lord GOD,” Joshua said, “why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be destroyed? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!

⁹ When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?”

¹ Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

³ For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them.

¹¹ The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹⁰ Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness. ¹¹ Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish. ¹² You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing. ¹³ For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you. ¹⁴ Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. ¹⁶ You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.

²⁷ But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.

²¹ He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

²⁵ You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.

³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

²⁶ “You of little faith,” Jesus replied, “why are you so afraid?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it was perfectly calm.

² But the LORD said to me, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, along with all his people and his land. Do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

¹⁴ But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you.

²¹ At the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.

⁷ you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁹ So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people.

¹² Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

¹⁴ When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, he hurried out early in the morning with the men of the city to engage them in battle at an appointed place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set up against him behind the city.

¹⁹ and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well.

²⁷ Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day. ²⁹ He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.

¹ Now Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai and devoted it to destruction—doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king—and that the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living near them.

²⁸ On that day Joshua captured Makkedah and put it to the sword, along with its king. He devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. So he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

²⁹ So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah. ³⁰ On the third day the Israelites went up against the Benjamites and arrayed themselves against Gibeah as they had done before. ³¹ The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah. ³² “We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites. But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.” ³³ So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

¹³ Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to ambush from the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah, the ambush was behind them.

²² The moment they began their shouts and praises, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.

¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay, ¹⁷ what he lays up, the righteous will wear, and his silver will be divided by the innocent.

⁶ Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

²² A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.

²⁰ A faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

¹¹ Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay is the man who makes a fortune unjustly. In the middle of his days his riches will desert him, and in the end he will be the fool.”

¹² Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; post the guard; station the watchmen; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both devised and accomplished what He spoke against the people of Babylon.

²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’ ²¹ This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”

³⁹ And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.

⁵⁰ The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.

⁶ At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’

² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

¹⁰ But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

¹⁶ Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

²⁵ The leaders of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelech on the hilltops, and they robbed all who passed by them on the road. So this was reported to Abimelech.

²⁹ So Israel set up an ambush around Gibeah.

³³ So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

³⁶ Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt.

⁵ Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

¹⁹ Wisdom makes the wise man stronger than ten rulers in a city.

¹⁶ And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

²¹ Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they are ready now, awaiting your consent.”

⁵ And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them, chasing them from the gate as far as the quarries and striking them down on the slopes. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

¹⁶ Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

³ For Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.’

⁹ The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

³² “We are defeating them as before,” said the Benjamites. But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city onto the roads.”

¹¹ When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.

¹² For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

¹ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. See, I have delivered into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land.

¹ Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

³⁰ There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD. ³¹ A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory is of the LORD.

¹⁶ So they answered Joshua, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go.

²⁴ Then the Israelites burned up the city and everything in it. However, they put the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house.

²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.

⁶ She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the LORD, the God of Israel, is commanding you: ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, taking with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun.

²⁸ Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”

⁸ From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.

²¹ So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

² Meanwhile, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the land.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

²⁸ the men of Bethel and Ai, 223;

³² the men of Bethel and Ai, 123;

³ So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

¹ Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.

¹² Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests took the ark of the LORD.

¹⁶ So Joshua arose early the next morning and had Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was selected.

⁶⁰ I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.

² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.” ³ So Joshua and the whole army set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out at night

⁸ And when you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do as the LORD has commanded! See, I have given you orders.”

¹ These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—in the Arabah opposite Suph—between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

⁵ Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them.

³⁴ Then 10,000 select men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjamites did not realize that disaster was upon them. ³⁵ The LORD defeated Benjamin in the presence of Israel, and on that day the Israelites slaughtered 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah.

¹¹ The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”?

¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools; the princes of Memphis are deceived. The cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

³¹ While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “It is decreed to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that the kingdom has departed from you.

¹ Now about the times and seasons, brothers, we do not need to write to you. ² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ For while people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

⁶¹ These were in the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah,

¹ The allotment for the descendants of Joseph extended from the Jordan at Jericho to the waters of Jericho on the east, through the wilderness that goes up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.

¹² On the north side their border began at the Jordan, went up past the northern slope of Jericho, headed west through the hill country, and came out at the wilderness of Beth-aven.

⁵ Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them. ⁶ They will pursue us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ So as we flee from them,

³¹ The Benjamites came out against them and were drawn away from the city. They began to attack the people as before, killing about thirty men of Israel in the fields and on the roads, one of which led up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.

³⁶ Then the Benjamites realized they had been defeated. Now the men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin because they were relying on the ambush they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷ The men in ambush rushed suddenly against Gibeah; they advanced and put the whole city to the sword. ³⁸ The men of Israel had arranged a signal with the men in ambush: When they sent up a great cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹ the men of Israel would turn in the battle. When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.”

¹⁶ The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

¹¹ You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will come against a tranquil people who dwell securely, all of them living without walls or bars or gates— ¹² in order to seize the spoil and carry off the plunder, to turn a hand against the desolate places now inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and possessions and who live at the center of the land.’ ¹³ Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’ ¹⁴ Therefore prophesy, son of man, and tell Gog that this is what the Lord GOD says: On that day when My people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not take notice of this? ¹⁵ And you will come from your place out of the far north—you and many peoples with you, all riding horses—a mighty horde, a huge army. ¹⁶ You will advance against My people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the latter days, O Gog, that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy in you before their eyes. ¹⁷ This is what the Lord GOD says: Are you the one of whom I have spoken in former days through My servants, the prophets of Israel, who in those times prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸ Now on that day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, My wrath will flare up. ¹⁹ In My zeal and fiery rage I proclaim that on that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that crawls upon the ground, and all mankind on the face of the earth will tremble at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹ And I will summon a sword against Gog on all My mountains, declares the Lord GOD, and every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²² I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

¹⁴ These are demonic spirits that perform signs and go out to all the kings of the earth, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of the One seated on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

³⁰ But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.

³ So Joshua and the whole army set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out at night

²⁴ When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai who had pursued them into the field and wilderness, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and put it to the sword as well. ²⁵ A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.

²⁰ For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.

¹¹ The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings”? ¹² Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and reveal what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt. ¹³ The princes of Zoan have become fools; the princes of Memphis are deceived. The cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray.

⁵ And the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers and canals and ponds, and cause the frogs to come up onto the land of Egypt.’”

¹⁶ And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

⁹ So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down.

²⁶ Joshua did not draw back the hand that held his battle lance until he had devoted to destruction all who lived in Ai.

⁶ and he had armor of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders.

⁴¹ Now the Philistine came closer and closer to David, with his shield-bearer before him.

⁴⁵ But David said 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 armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

²⁵ For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

²³ A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.

²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; they will hope for their last breath.”

⁵ They saw and were astounded; they fled in terror. ⁶ Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.

⁵ The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

¹⁰ It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.

¹⁴ Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life. ¹⁵ The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet of foot will not escape, and the horseman will not save his life. ¹⁶ Even the bravest of mighty men will flee naked on that day,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. ¹⁷ For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”

⁹ Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.

³ And a second time they called out: “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.”

² and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

¹¹ The Israelites put everyone in Hazor to the sword, devoting them to destruction. Nothing that breathed remained, and Joshua burned down Hazor itself. ¹² Joshua captured all these kings and their cities and put them to the sword. He devoted them to destruction, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.

⁵ the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?

²⁶ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ It will be just like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

³ For while people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

²⁹ He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.

¹⁷ And Joshua was informed: “The five kings have been found; they are hiding in the cave at Makkedah.”

⁸ He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.

²⁰ But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

²⁴ And Israel put him to the sword and took possession of his land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok—but only up to the border of the Ammonites, because it was fortified.

³⁰ And the LORD also delivered that city and its king into the hand of Israel, and Joshua put all the people to the sword, leaving no survivors. And he did to the king of Libnah as he had done to the king of Jericho. ³¹ And Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish. They laid siege to it and fought against it. ³² And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, and Joshua captured it on the second day. He put all the people to the sword, just as he had done to Libnah. ³³ At that time Horam king of Gezer went to help Lachish, but Joshua struck him down along with his people, leaving no survivors. ³⁴ So Joshua moved on from Lachish to Eglon, and all Israel with him. They laid siege to it and fought against it. ³⁵ That day they captured Eglon and put it to the sword, and Joshua devoted to destruction everyone in the city, just as he had done to Lachish. ³⁶ Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and fought against it. ³⁷ They captured it and put to the sword its king, all its villages, and all the people. Joshua left no survivors, just as he had done at Eglon; he devoted to destruction Hebron and everyone in it. ³⁸ Finally Joshua and all Israel with him turned toward Debir and fought against it. ³⁹ And they captured Debir, its king, and all its villages. They put them to the sword and devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. Joshua did to Debir and its king as he had done to Hebron and as he had done to Libnah and its king. ⁴⁰ So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded. ⁴¹ Joshua conquered the area from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and the whole region of Goshen as far as Gibeon.

¹⁰ At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword, because Hazor was formerly the head of all these kingdoms. ¹¹ The Israelites put everyone in Hazor to the sword, devoting them to destruction. Nothing that breathed remained, and Joshua burned down Hazor itself. ¹² Joshua captured all these kings and their cities and put them to the sword. He devoted them to destruction, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded. ¹³ Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds, except Hazor, which Joshua burned. ¹⁴ The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁸ Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out your battle lance toward Ai, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out his battle lance toward Ai,

²² Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—

²⁶ “You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the congregation are to take a count of what was captured, both of man and beast.

² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”

⁴ So these kings came out with all their armies, a multitude as numerous as the sand on the seashore, along with a great number of horses and chariots.

¹⁰ for every beast of the forest is Mine—the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹⁵ Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

¹⁶ And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

⁹ Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

²⁵ Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.

¹ This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.

² Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.

¹¹ “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD.

²⁶ Come against her from the farthest border. Break open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain. Devote her to destruction; leave her no survivors.

¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

²² If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, ²³ you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

²⁶ And they heaped over Achan a large pile of rocks that remains to this day. So the LORD turned from His burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.

²⁶ After this, Joshua struck down and killed the kings, and he hung their bodies on five trees and left them there until evening. ²⁷ At sunset Joshua ordered that they be taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave in which they had hidden. Then large stones were placed against the mouth of the cave, and the stones are there to this day. ²⁸ On that day Joshua captured Makkedah and put it to the sword, along with its king. He devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. So he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³⁰ And the LORD also delivered that city and its king into the hand of Israel, and Joshua put all the people to the sword, leaving no survivors. And he did to the king of Libnah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³³ At that time Horam king of Gezer went to help Lachish, but Joshua struck him down along with his people, leaving no survivors.

¹⁷ They took Absalom, cast him into a large pit in the forest, and piled a huge mound of stones over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled, each to his home.

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

⁴⁰ He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

⁵ The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.

²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

¹⁷ Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men, of horses and riders, of everyone slave and free, small and great.”

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸ From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.

²⁴ You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

⁴ And when you have crossed the Jordan, you are to set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you are to coat them with plaster. ⁵ Moreover, you are to build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You must not use any iron tool on them. ⁶ You shall build the altar of the LORD your God with uncut stones and offer upon it burnt offerings to the LORD your God.

¹² Then Moses’ father-in-law Jethro brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.

²⁴ You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. ²⁵ Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.

⁵ Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.

⁵ Moreover, you are to build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You must not use any iron tool on them. ⁶ You shall build the altar of the LORD your God with uncut stones and offer upon it burnt offerings to the LORD your God. ⁷ There you are to sacrifice your peace offerings, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God.

⁸ This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

³⁴ Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.

³¹ And Elijah took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, “Israel shall be your name.” ³² And with the stones, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

⁶ Yet he did not put the sons of the murderers to death, but acted according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD!” And he gave it to Shaphan, who read it.

⁴ Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”

¹² They set aside the burnt offerings to be given to the divisions of the families of the people to offer to the LORD, as is written in the Book of Moses; and they did the same with the bulls.

¹⁸ They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

¹ At that time the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and in it they found the passage stating that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God,

²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?

² And on the day you cross the Jordan into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, set up large stones and coat them with plaster. ³ Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁸ And you shall write distinctly upon these stones all the words of this law.”

⁴⁹ The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

²² You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the LORD your God.’”

¹⁶ The same law and the same ordinance will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing with you.”

²⁹ You shall have the same law for the one who acts in error, whether he is a native-born Israelite or a foreigner residing among you.

²⁹ When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

¹¹ On that day Moses commanded the people: ¹² “When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. ¹³ And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to deliver the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. ¹⁴ Then the Levites shall proclaim in a loud voice to every Israelite:

¹⁰ All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—

⁹ So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹² Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law.

²⁵ he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD:

³ and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.

⁶ And he said to the priests, “Take the ark of the covenant and go on ahead of the people.” So they carried the ark of the covenant and went ahead of them.

¹⁴ So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

¹⁰ Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until the people had completed everything the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell them, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried across,

¹⁸ When the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the Jordan and their feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their course and overflowed all the banks as before.

⁶ So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said, “Take up the ark of the covenant and have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the LORD.”

³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel, ³¹ just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used.” And on it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD, and they sacrificed peace offerings. ³² And there in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua inscribed on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

² he summoned all Israel, including its elders, leaders, judges, and officers. “I am old and well along in years,” he said,

¹ Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

¹¹ David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹² And he said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³ It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.” ¹⁴ So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁵ And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.

¹ “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God. ² You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD. ³ If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments, ⁴ I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land. ⁶ And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. ⁸ Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. ⁹ I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new. ¹¹ And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. ¹³ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness. ¹⁴ If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, ¹⁶ then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷ And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you. ¹⁸ And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, ²⁰ and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit. ²¹ If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins. ²² I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate. ²³ And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, ²⁴ then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵ And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy. ²⁶ When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied. ²⁷ But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me, ²⁸ then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁹ You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. ³⁰ I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you. ³¹ I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices. ³² And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled. ³³ But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste. ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it. ³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them. ³⁷ They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies. ³⁸ You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers. ⁴⁰ But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me— ⁴¹ and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. ⁴³ For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. ⁴⁵ But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.” ⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

¹⁴ Then the Levites shall proclaim in a loud voice to every Israelite: ¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁷ ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁸ ‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²¹ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²² ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²³ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁴ ‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁶ ‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁴ Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them. ¹⁵ If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ¹⁷ Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. ¹⁸ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him. ²¹ The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. ²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. ²⁷ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you. ³⁰ You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. ³³ A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. ³⁴ You will be driven mad by the sights you see. ³⁵ The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. ³⁶ The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you. ³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. ³⁹ You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. ⁴¹ You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. ⁴² Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. ⁴⁶ These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵² They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³ Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. ⁵⁴ The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. ⁵⁸ If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— ⁵⁹ He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. ⁶² You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. ⁶⁶ So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see. ⁶⁸ The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

²⁰ The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven ²¹ and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

¹⁵ See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. ¹⁶ For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, ²⁰ and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹ when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. ¹² Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law.

² On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand. ³ So Ezra read it aloud from daybreak until noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate, in front of the men and women and those who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

³ While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.

³⁸ And a mixed multitude also went up with them, along with great droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

² You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you.

¹¹ your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—

¹ While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and falling facedown before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites—men, women, and children—gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly as well.

² On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand.

² “This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.

¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

²⁷ For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.

⁵ But when our time there had ended, we set out on our journey. All the disciples, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city and knelt down on the beach to pray with us.