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Book of Joel

Oct 282008

1:1 The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.

1:2 Hear this, you elders,
And listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
Has this ever happened in your days,
or in the days of your fathers?
1:3 Tell your children about it,
and have your children tell their children,
and their children, another generation.
1:4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten.
What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten.
What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine;
for it is cut off from your mouth.
1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number.
His teeth are the teeth of a lion,
and he has the fangs of a lioness.
1:7 He has laid my vine waste,
and stripped my fig tree.
He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away.
Its branches are made white.
1:8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! 1:9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from Yahweh’s house.
The priests, Yahweh’s ministers, mourn.
1:10 The field is laid waste.
The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed,
The new wine has dried up,
and the oil languishes.
1:11 Be confounded, you farmers!
Wail, you vineyard keepers;
for the wheat and for the barley;
for the harvest of the field has perished.
1:12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered;
the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree,
even all of the trees of the field are withered;
for joy has withered away from the sons of men.
1:13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests!
Wail, you ministers of the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,
for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
1:14 Sanctify a fast.
Call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders,
and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God,
and cry to Yahweh.
1:15 Alas for the day!
For the day of Yahweh is at hand,
and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
1:16 Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes;
joy and gladness from the house of our God?
1:17 The seeds rot under their clods.
The granaries are laid desolate.
The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
1:18 How the animals groan!
The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture.
Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
1:19 Yahweh, I cry to you,
For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness,
and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
1:20 Yes, the animals of the field pant to you,
for the water brooks have dried up,
And the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion,
and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of Yahweh comes,
for it is close at hand:
2:2 A day of darkness and gloominess,
a day of clouds and thick darkness.
As the dawn spreading on the mountains,
a great and strong people;
there has never been the like,
neither will there be any more after them,
even to the years of many generations.
2:3 A fire devours before them,
and behind them, a flame burns.
The land is as the garden of Eden before them,
and behind them, a desolate wilderness.
Yes, and no one has escaped them.
2:4 Their appearance is as the appearance of horses,
and as horsemen, so do they run.
2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap,
like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble,
as a strong people set in battle array.
2:6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish.
All faces have grown pale.
2:7 They run like mighty men.
They climb the wall like warriors.
They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course.
2:8 Neither does one jostle another;
they march everyone in his path,
and they burst through the defenses,
and don’t break ranks.
2:9 They rush on the city.
They run on the wall.
They climb up into the houses.
They enter in at the windows like thieves.
2:10 The earth quakes before them.
The heavens tremble.
The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
2:11 Yahweh thunders his voice before his army;
for his forces are very great;
for he is strong who obeys his command;
for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome,
and who can endure it?
2:12 “Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
2:13 Tear your heart, and not your garments,
and turn to Yahweh, your God;
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness,
and relents from sending calamity.
2:14 Who knows? He may turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion!
Sanctify a fast.
Call a solemn assembly.
2:16 Gather the people.
Sanctify the assembly.
Assemble the elders.
Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts.
Let the bridegroom go forth from his room,
and the bride out of her room.
2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar,
and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh,
and don’t give your heritage to reproach,
that the nations should rule over them.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
2:18 Then Yahweh was jealous for his land,
And had pity on his people.
2:19 Yahweh answered his people,
“Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil,
and you will be satisfied with them;
and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
2:20 But I will remove the northern army far away from you,
and will drive it into a barren and desolate land,
its front into the eastern sea,
and its back into the western sea;
and its stench will come up,
and its bad smell will rise.”
Surely he has done great things.
2:21 Land, don’t be afraid.
Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things.
2:22 Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field;
for the pastures of the wilderness spring up,
for the tree bears its fruit.
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
2:23 “Be glad then, you children of Zion,
and rejoice in Yahweh, your God;
for he gives you the former rain in just measure,
and he causes the rain to come down for you,
the former rain and the latter rain,
as before.
2:24 The threshing floors will be full of wheat,
and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
2:25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar,
my great army, which I sent among you.
2:26 You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied,
and will praise the name of Yahweh, your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you;
and my people will never again be disappointed.
2:27 You will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else;
and my people will never again be disappointed.
2:28 “It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions.
2:29 And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days,
I will pour out my Spirit.
2:30 I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
blood, fire, and pillars of smoke.
2:31 The sun will be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood,
before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
2:32 It will happen that whoever will call on the name of Yahweh shall be saved;
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape,
as Yahweh has said,
and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.

3:1 “For, behold, in those days,
and in that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
3:2 I will gather all nations,
and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat;
and I will execute judgment on them there for my people,
and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.
They have divided my land,
3:3 and have cast lots for my people,
and have given a boy for a prostitute,
and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
3:4 “Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon,
and all the regions of Philistia?
Will you repay me?
And if you repay me,
I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
3:5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
3:6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,
that you may remove them far from their border.
3:7 Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them,
and will return your repayment on your own head;
3:8 and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
to a faraway nation,
for Yahweh has spoken it.”
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Stir up the mighty men.
Let all the warriors draw near.
Let them come up. 3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
3:11 Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves together.”
Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh.
3:12 “Let the nations arouse themselves,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
3:13 Put in the sickle;
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the winepress is full,
the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
3:15 The sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
3:16 Yahweh will roar from Zion,
and thunder from Jerusalem;
and the heavens and the earth will shake;
but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people,
and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
3:17 “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God,
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
and no strangers will pass through her any more.
3:18 It will happen in that day,
that the mountains will drop down sweet wine,
the hills will flow with milk,
all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters,
and a fountain will come forth from the house of Yahweh,
and will water the valley of Shittim.
3:19 Egypt will be a desolation,
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
for the violence done to the children of Judah,
because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
3:20 But Judah will be inhabited forever,
and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
3:21 I will cleanse their blood,
that I have not cleansed:
for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”

Notes:

[1] back to 1:1 “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.

[2] back to 1:13 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.”

Book of Joshua

Oct 282008

1:1 Now it happened after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, 1:2 “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you, and all this people, to the land which I give to them, even to the children of Israel. 1:3 I have given you every place that the sole of your foot will tread on, as I told Moses. 1:4 From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border. 1:5 No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.

1:6 “Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 1:7 Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. 1:9 Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed: for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.”

1:10 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, 1:11 “Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare food; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.’”

1:12 Joshua spoke to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, saying, 1:13 “Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, ‘Yahweh your God gives you rest, and will give you this land. 1:14 Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock, shall live in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them 1:15 until Yahweh has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they have also possessed the land which Yahweh your God gives them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.’”

1:16 They answered Joshua, saying, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 1:17 Just as we listened to Moses in all things, so will we listen to you. Only may Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses. 1:18 Whoever rebels against your commandment, and doesn’t listen to your words in all that you command him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”

2:1 Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.

2:2 The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”

2:3 The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land.”

2:4 The woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from. 2:5 It happened about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly; for you will overtake them.” 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof. 2:7 The men pursued them the way to the Jordan to the fords: and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. 2:8 Before they had laid down, she came up to them on the roof; 2:9 and she said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 2:10 For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 2:11 As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath. 2:12 Now therefore, please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true token; 2:13 and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.”

2:14 The men said to her, “Our life for yours, if you don’t talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when Yahweh gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.”

2:15 Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall. 2:16 She said to them, “Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.”

2:17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless of this your oath which you have made us to swear. 2:18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. You shall gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 2:19 It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him. 2:20 But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you have made us to swear.”

2:21 She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away, and they departed. She tied the scarlet line in the window.

2:22 They went, and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but didn’t find them. 2:23 Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had happened to them. 2:24 They said to Joshua, “Truly Yahweh has delivered into our hands all the land. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”

3:1 Joshua rose up early in the morning; and they moved from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel. They lodged there before they passed over. 3:2 It happened after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp; 3:3 and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall move from your place, and follow it. 3:4 Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Don’t come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way before.”

3:5 Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.”

3:6 Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people.” They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

3:7 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 3:8 You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

3:9 Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.” 3:10 Joshua said, “Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite out from before you. 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan. 3:12 Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man. 3:13 It shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, even the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand in one heap.”

3:14 It happened, when the people moved from their tents to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people, 3:15 and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), 3:16 that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over right against Jericho. 3:17 The priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation had passed completely over the Jordan.

4:1 It happened, when all the nation had completely passed over the Jordan, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, 4:2 “Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 4:3 and command them, saying, ‘Take from out of the middle of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place, where you will lodge tonight.’”

4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 4:5 Joshua said to them, “Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; 4:6 that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do you mean by these stones?’ 4:7 then you shall tell them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.’”

4:8 The children of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 4:9 Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day. 4:10 For the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua; and the people hurried and passed over. 4:11 It happened, when all the people had completely passed over, that the ark of Yahweh passed over, with the priests, in the presence of the people.

4:12 The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them. 4:13 About forty thousand men, ready and armed for war passed over before Yahweh to battle, to the plains of Jericho. 4:14 On that day, Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

4:15 Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, 4:16 “Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.”

4:17 Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, “Come up out of the Jordan!” 4:18 It happened, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before. 4:19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho.

4:20 Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, in Gilgal. 4:21 He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 4:22 Then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. 4:23 For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until you had passed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had passed over; 4:24 that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Yahweh, that it is mighty; that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.’”

5:1 It happened, when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. 5:2 At that time, Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.” 5:3 Joshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 5:4 This is the reason Joshua circumcised: all the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. 5:5 For all the people who came out were circumcised; but all the people who were born in the wilderness by the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 5:6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, even the men of war who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh. Yahweh swore to them that he wouldn’t let them see the land which Yahweh swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 5:7 Their children, whom he raised up in their place, were circumcised by Joshua; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them on the way. 5:8 It happened, when they were done circumcising all the nation, that they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed.

5:9 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day. 5:10 The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. 5:11 They ate unleavened cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, in the same day. 5:12 The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

5:13 It happened, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him, and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”

5:14 He said, “No; but I have come now as commander of Yahweh’s army.”

Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshipped, and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

5:15 The prince of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, “Take your shoes off of your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

6:1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in. 6:2 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Behold, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the mighty men of valor. 6:3 All your men of war shall march around the city, going around the city once. You shall do this six days. 6:4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 6:5 It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.”

6:6 Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of Yahweh.”

6:7 They said to the people, “Advance! March around the city, and let the armed men pass on before Yahweh’s ark.”

6:8 It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh advanced, and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh followed them. 6:9 The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the ark went after them. The trumpets sounded as they went.

6:10 Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” 6:11 So he caused the ark of Yahweh to go around the city, going about it once. Then they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. 6:12 Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh. 6:13 The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of Yahweh went on continually, and blew the trumpets: and the armed men went before them. The rear guard came after the ark of Yahweh. The trumpets sounded as they went. 6:14 The second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. They did this six days.

6:15 It happened on the seventh day, that they rose early at the dawning of the day, and marched around the city in the same way seven times. Only on this day they marched around the city seven times. 6:16 It happened at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city! 6:17 The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is in it, to Yahweh. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 6:18 But as for you, only keep yourselves from the devoted thing, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so would you make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it. 6:19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are holy to Yahweh. They shall come into Yahweh’s treasury.”

6:20 So the people shouted, and the priests blew the trumpets. It happened, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 6:21 They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword. 6:22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house, and bring out from there the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.” 6:23 The young men who were spies went in, and brought out Rahab with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They also brought out all her relatives, and they set them outside of the camp of Israel. 6:24 They burnt the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only they put the silver, the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron into the treasury of Yahweh’s house. 6:25 But Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all that she had, Joshua saved alive. She lived in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

6:26 Joshua commanded them with an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed is the man before Yahweh, who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.” 6:27 So Yahweh was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel. 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.”

The men went up and spied out Ai.

7:3 They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.” 7:4 So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 7:5 The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water. 7:6 Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7:7 Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! 7:8 Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”

7:10 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Get up! Why are you fallen on your face like that? 7:11 Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. 7:12 Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

7:13 “Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing in the midst of you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.”

7:14 “‘In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which Yahweh selects shall come near by families. The family which Yahweh selects shall come near by households. The household which Yahweh selects shall come near man by man. 7:15 It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

7:16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes. The tribe of Judah was selected. 7:17 He brought near the family of Judah; and he selected the family of the Zerahites. He brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was selected. 7:18 He brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected. 7:19 Joshua said to Achan, “My son, please give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!”

7:20 Achan answered Joshua, and said, “I have truly sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done. 7:21 When I saw among the spoil a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”

7:22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. Behold, it was hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. 7:23 They took them from the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel. They laid them down before Yahweh. 7:24 Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. 7:25 Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 7:26 They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called “The valley of Achor” to this day.

8:1 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land. 8:2 You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except its spoil and its livestock, you shall take for a plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”

8:3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night. 8:4 He commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 8:5 I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them. 8:6 They will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They flee before us, like the first time.’ So we will flee before them, 8:7 and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand. 8:8 It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to the word of Yahweh. Behold, I have commanded you.”

8:9 Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night. 8:10 Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 8:11 All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. 8:12 He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 8:13 So they set the people, even all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. 8:14 It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn’t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 8:15 Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. 8:16 All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 8:17 There was not a man left in Ai or Beth El who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel.

8:18 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.”

Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

8:19 The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. They hurried and set the city on fire. 8:20 When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers. 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai. 8:22 The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 8:23 They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.

8:24 It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword. 8:25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. 8:26 For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 8:27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which he commanded Joshua. 8:28 So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. 8:29 He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at the sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day.

8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, 8:31 as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, on which no man had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, and sacrificed peace offerings. 8:32 He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. 8:33 All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. 8:34 Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them.

9:1 It happened, when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it 9:2 that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord. 9:3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 9:4 they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins, old and torn and bound up, 9:5 and old and patched shoes on their feet, and wore old garments. All the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. 9:6 They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us.”

9:7 The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “What if you live among us. How could we make a covenant with you?”

9:8 They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.”

Joshua said to them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?”

9:9 They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the name of Yahweh your God; for we have heard of his fame, all that he did in Egypt, 9:10 and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. 9:11 Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provision in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and tell them, “We are your servants. Now make a covenant with us.”’ 9:12 This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we went out to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy. 9:13 These wineskins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our shoes have become old because of the very long journey.”

9:14 The men sampled their provisions, and didn’t ask counsel from the mouth of Yahweh. 9:15 Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them. 9:16 It happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them. 9:17 The children of Israel traveled and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. 9:18 The children of Israel didn’t strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes. 9:19 But all the princes said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. 9:20 This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.” 9:21 The princes said to them, “Let them live, so they became wood cutters and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them.”

9:22 Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you live among us? 9:23 Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be bondservants, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.”

9:24 They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how Yahweh your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 9:25 Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do.”

9:26 He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them. 9:27 That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, in the place which he should choose.

10:1 Now it happened when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; 10:2 that they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty. 10:3 Therefore Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying, 10:4 “Come up to me, and help me, and let us strike Gibeon; for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.” 10:5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their armies, and encamped against Gibeon, and made war against it. 10:6 The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, “Don’t abandon your servants! Come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country have gathered together against us.”

10:7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. 10:8 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t fear them, for I have delivered them into your hands. Not a man of them will stand before you.”

10:9 Joshua therefore came on them suddenly. He went up from Gilgal all night. 10:10 Yahweh confused them before Israel, and he killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them to Azekah and to Makkedah. 10:11 It happened, as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, that Yahweh cast down great stones from the sky on them to Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than who the children of Israel killed with the sword.

10:12 Then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!”

10:13 The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day. 10:14 There was no day like that before it or after it, that Yahweh listened to the voice of a man; for Yahweh fought for Israel.

10:15 Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal. 10:16 These five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah. 10:17 Joshua was told, saying, “The five kings are found, hidden in the cave at Makkedah.”

10:18 Joshua said, “Roll large stones to the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to guard them; 10:19 but don’t stay. Pursue your enemies, and them from the rear. Don’t allow them to enter into their cities; for Yahweh your God has delivered them into your hand.”

10:20 It happened, when Joshua and the children of Israel had finished killing them with a very great slaughter until they were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities, 10:21 that all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. 10:22 Then Joshua said, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out of the cave to me.”

10:23 They did so, and brought those five kings out of the cave to him: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. 10:24 It happened, when they brought those kings out to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, “Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.”

They came near, and put their feet on their necks.

10:25 Joshua said to them, “Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for Yahweh will do this to all your enemies against whom you fight.”

10:26 Afterward Joshua struck them, put them to death, and hanged them on five trees. They were hanging on the trees until the evening. 10:27 It happened at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave in which they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day.

10:28 Joshua took Makkedah on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, with its king. He utterly destroyed them and all the souls who were in it. He left none remaining. He did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

10:29 Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, to Libnah, and fought against Libnah. 10:30 Yahweh delivered it also, with its king, into the hand of Israel. He struck it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls who were in it. He left none remaining in it. He did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

10:31 Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it. 10:32 Yahweh delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel. He took it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, with all the souls who were in it, according to all that he had done to Libnah. 10:33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua struck him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.

10:34 Joshua passed from Lachish, and all Israel with him, to Eglon; and they encamped against it fought against it. 10:35 They took it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed all the souls who were in it that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

10:36 Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, to Hebron; and they fought against it. 10:37 They took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, with its king and all its cities, and all the souls who were in it. He left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but he utterly destroyed it, and all the souls who were in it.

10:38 Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir, and fought against it. 10:39 He took it, with its king and all its cities. They struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls who were in it. He left none remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to its king; as he had done also to Libnah, and to its king. 10:40 So Joshua struck all the land, the hill country, and the South, and the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but he utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded. 10:41 Joshua struck them from Kadesh Barnea even to Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even to Gibeon. 10:42 Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time, because Yahweh, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. 10:43 Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal.

11:1 It happened, when Jabin king of Hazor heard of it, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, 11:2 and to the kings who were on the north, in the hill country, in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west, 11:3 to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 11:4 They went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, even as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. 11:5 All these kings met together; and they came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel.

11:6 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid because of them; for tomorrow at this time, I will deliver them up all slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.”

11:7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and fell on them. 11:8 Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth Maim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward. They struck them until they left them none remaining. 11:9 Joshua did to them as Yahweh told him. He hamstrung their horses and burnt their chariots with fire. 11:10 Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and struck its king with the sword: for Hazor used to be the head of all those kingdoms. 11:11 They struck all the souls who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was no one left who breathed. He burnt Hazor with fire. 11:12 Joshua captured all the cities of those kings, with their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded. 11:13 But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, except Hazor only. Joshua burned that. 11:14 The children of Israel took all the spoil of these cities, with the livestock, as spoils for themselves; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They didn’t leave any who breathed.

11:15 As Yahweh commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua. Joshua did so. He left nothing undone of all that Yahweh commanded Moses. 11:16 So Joshua captured all that land, the hill country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel, and the lowland of the same; 11:17 from Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir, even to Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon. He took all their kings, struck them, and put them to death. 11:18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 11:19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle. 11:20 For it was of Yahweh to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Yahweh commanded Moses. 11:21 Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel: Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. 11:22 There were none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain. 11:23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. The land had rest from war.

12:1 Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward: 12:2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon; 12:3 and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward, the way to Beth Jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah: 12:4 and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, 12:5 and ruled in Mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

12:6 Moses the servant of Yahweh and the children of Israel struck them. Moses the servant of Yahweh gave it for a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 12:7 These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck beyond the Jordan westward, from Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon even to Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir. Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions; 12:8 in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah, and in the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the South; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 12:9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one; 12:10 the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; 12:11 the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one; 12:12 the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one; 12:13 the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one; 12:14 the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; 12:15 the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; 12:16 the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one; 12:17 the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one; 12:18 the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one; 12:19 the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; 12:20 the king of Shimron Meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one; 12:21 the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one; 12:22 the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one; 12:23 the king of Dor in the height of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one; 12:24 the king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty-one.

13:1 Now Joshua was old and well advanced in years. Yahweh said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

13:2 “This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; 13:3 from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, which is counted as Canaanite; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim, 13:4 on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; 13:5 and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath; 13:6 all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth Maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allocate it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. 13:7 Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.” 13:8 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them: 13:9 from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon; 13:10 and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon; 13:11 and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; 13:12 all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for Moses attacked these, and drove them out. 13:13 Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day. 13:14 Only he gave no inheritance to the tribe of Levi. The offerings of Yahweh, the God of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, as he spoke to him. 13:15 Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families. 13:16 Their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba; 13:17 Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, Bamoth Baal, Beth Baal Meon, 13:18 Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath, 13:19 Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth Shahar in the mount of the valley, 13:20 Beth Peor, the slopes of Pisgah, Beth Jeshimoth, 13:21 all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land. 13:22 The children of Israel alse killed Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, with the sword, among the rest of their slain.

13:23 The border of the children of Reuben was the bank of the Jordan. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and its villages.

13:24 Moses gave to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad, according to their families. 13:25 Their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer that is before Rabbah; 13:26 and from Heshbon to Ramath Mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir; 13:27 and in the valley, Beth Haram, Beth Nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan’s bank, to the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward. 13:28 This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and its villages.

13:29 Moses gave an inheritance to the half-tribe of Manasseh. It was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families. 13:30 Their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities. 13:31 Half Gilead, Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.

13:32 These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward. 13:33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance. Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he spoke to them.

14:1 These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them, 14:2 by the lot of their inheritance, as Yahweh commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe. 14:3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. 14:4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: and they gave no portion to the Levites in the land, except cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for their livestock and for their property. 14:5 The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

14:6 Then the children of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know the thing that Yahweh spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh Barnea. 14:7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of Yahweh sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 14:8 Nevertheless, my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Yahweh my God. 14:9 Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where you walked shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed Yahweh my God.’

14:10 “Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that Yahweh spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old, today. 14:11 As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, to go out and to come in. 14:12 Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh spoke.”

14:13 Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14:14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day; because he wholly followed Yahweh, the God of Israel. 14:15 Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba, after the greatest man among the Anakim. The land had rest from war.

15:1 The lot for the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families was to the border of Edom, even to the wilderness of Zin southward, at the uttermost part of the south. 15:2 Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward; 15:3 and it went out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up by the south of Kadesh Barnea, and passed along by Hezron, went up to Addar, and turned about to Karka; 15:4 and it passed along to Azmon, went out at the brook of Egypt; and the border ended at the sea. This shall be your south border. 15:5 The east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. The border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan. 15:6 The border went up to Beth Hoglah, and passed along by the north of Beth Arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. 15:7 The border went up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, looking toward Gilgal, that is over against the ascent of Adummim, which is on the south side of the river. The border passed along to the waters of En Shemesh, and ended at En Rogel. 15:8 The border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite southward (the same is Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the farthest part of the valley of Rephaim northward. 15:9 The border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron; and the border extended to Baalah (the same is Kiriath Jearim); 15:10 and the border turned about from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, and passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (the same is Chesalon), and went down to Beth Shemesh, and passed along by Timnah; 15:11 and the border went out to the side of Ekron northward; and the border extended to Shikkeron, and passed along to Mount Baalah, and went out at Jabneel; and the goings out of the border were at the sea. 15:12 The west border was to the shore of the great sea. This is the border of the children of Judah according to their families.

15:13 To Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of Yahweh to Joshua, even Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (the same is Hebron). 15:14 Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. 15:15 He went up against the inhabitants of Debir: now the name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher. 15:16 Caleb said, “He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.” 15:17 Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 15:18 It happened, when she came, that she had him ask her father fore a field. She got off of her donkey, and Caleb said, “What do you want?”

15:19 She said, “Give me a blessing. Because you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water.”

He gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

15:20 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families. 15:21 The farthest cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, 15:22 Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, 15:23 Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, 15:24 Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, 15:25 Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (the same is Hazor), 15:26 Amam, Shema, Moladah, 15:27 Hazar Gaddah, Heshmon, Beth Pelet, 15:28 Hazar Shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah, 15:29 Baalah, Iim, Ezem, 15:30 Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah, 15:31 Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, 15:32 Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon. All the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages. 15:33 In the lowland, Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, 15:34 Zanoah, En Gannim, Tappuah, Enam, 15:35 Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah, 15:36 Shaaraim, Adithaim and Gederah (or Gederothaim); fourteen cities with their villages. 15:37 Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal Gad, 15:38 Dilean, Mizpeh, Joktheel, 15:39 Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, 15:40 Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, 15:41 Gederoth, Beth Dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen cities with their villages. 15:42 Libnah, Ether, Ashan, 15:43 Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, 15:44 Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages. 15:45 Ekron, with its towns and its villages; 15:46 from Ekron even to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages. 15:47 Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea with its coastline. 15:48 In the hill country, Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, 15:49 Dannah, Kiriath Sannah (which is Debir), 15:50 Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim, 15:51 Goshen, Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages. 15:52 Arab, Dumah, Eshan, 15:53 Janim, Beth Tappuah, Aphekah, 15:54 Humtah, Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron), and Zior; nine cities with their villages. 15:55 Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Jutah, 15:56 Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, 15:57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages. 15:58 Halhul, Beth Zur, Gedor, 15:59 Maarath, Beth Anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages. 15:60 Kiriath Baal (the same is Kiriath Jearim), and Rabbah; two cities with their villages. 15:61 In the wilderness, Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, 15:62 Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En Gedi; six cities with their villages.

15:63 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn’t drive them out; but the Jebusites live with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

16:1 The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill country to Bethel. 16:2 It went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth; 16:3 and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth Horon the lower, even to Gezer; and ended at the sea.

16:4 The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance. 16:5 This was the border of the children of Ephraim according to their families. The border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth Addar, to Beth Horon the upper. 16:6 The border went out westward at Michmethath on the north. The border turned about eastward to Taanath Shiloh, and passed along it on the east of Janoah. 16:7 It went down from Janoah to Ataroth, to Naarah, reached to Jericho, and went out at the Jordan. 16:8 From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and ended at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families; 16:9 together with the cities which were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages. 16:10 They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do forced labor.

17:1 This was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan. 17:2 So this was for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: for the children of Abiezer, for the children of Helek, for the children of Asriel, for the children of Shechem, for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families. 17:3 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 17:4 They came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, “Yahweh commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.” Therefore according to the commandment of Yahweh he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father. 17:5 Ten parts fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is beyond the Jordan; 17:6 because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons. The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh. 17:7 The border of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem. The border went along to the right hand, to the inhabitants of En Tappuah. 17:8 The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh; but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim. 17:9 The border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook. These cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and ended at the sea. 17:10 Southward it was Ephraim’s, and northward it was Manasseh’s, and the sea was his border. They reached to Asher on the north, and to Issachar on the east. 17:11 Manasseh had three heights in Issachar, in Asher Beth Shean and its towns, and Ibleam and its towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns. 17:12 Yet the children of Manasseh couldn’t drive out the inhabitants of those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

17:13 It happened, when the children of Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn’t utterly drive them out. 17:14 The children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me just one lot and one part for an inheritance, since I am a great people, because Yahweh has blessed me so far?”

17:15 Joshua said to them, “If you are a great people, go up to the forest, and clear land for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”

17:16 The children of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. All the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both those who are in Beth Shean and its towns, and those who are in the valley of Jezreel.”

17:17 Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, “You are a great people, and have great power. You shall not have one lot only; 17:18 but the hill country shall be yours. Although it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and it’s farthest extent shall be yours; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”

18:1 The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the Tent of Meeting there. The land was subdued before them. 18:2 Seven tribes remained among the children of Israel, which had not yet divided their inheritance. 18:3 Joshua said to the children of Israel, “How long will you neglect to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you? 18:4 Appoint for yourselves three men from each tribe. I will send them, and they shall arise, walk through the land, and describe it according to their inheritance; and they shall come to me. 18:5 They shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall live in his borders on the south, and the house of Joseph shall live in their borders on the north. 18:6 You shall survey the land into seven parts, and bring the description here to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh our God. 18:7 For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance. Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them.”

18:8 The men arose and went. Joshua commanded those who went to survey the land, saying, “Go walk through the land, survey it, and come again to me. I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh.”

18:9 The men went and passed through the land, and surveyed it by cities into seven portions in a book. They came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh. 18:10 Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh. There Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.

18:11 The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families. The border of their lot went out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. 18:12 Their border on the north quarter was from the Jordan. The border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the hill country westward. It ended at the wilderness of Beth Aven. 18:13 The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz (the same is Bethel), southward. The border went down to Ataroth Addar, by the mountain that lies on the south of Beth Horon the lower. 18:14 The border extended, and turned around on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth Horon southward; and ended at Kiriath Baal (the same is Kiriath Jearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the west quarter. 18:15 The south quarter was from the farthest part of Kiriath Jearim. The border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah. 18:16 The border went down to the farthest part of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of Rephaim northward. It went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En Rogel. 18:17 It extended northward, went out at En Shemesh, and went out to Geliloth, which is over against the ascent of Adummim. It went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben. 18:18 It passed along to the side over against the Arabah northward, and went down to the Arabah. 18:19 The border passed along to the side of Beth Hoglah northward; and the border ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the south border. 18:20 The Jordan was its border on the east quarter. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by the borders around it, according to their families. 18:21 Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, 18:22 Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 18:23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 18:24 Chephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages. 18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 18:26 Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah, 18:27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 18:28 Zelah, Eleph, the Jebusite (the same is Jerusalem), Gibeath, and Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.

19:1 The second lot came out for Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. Their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah. 19:2 They had for their inheritance Beersheba (or Sheba), Moladah, 19:3 Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem, 19:4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah, 19:5 Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah, 19:6 Beth Lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages; 19:7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether, and Ashan; four cities with their villages; 19:8 and all the villages that were around these cities to Baalath Beer, Ramah of the South. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families. 19:9 Out of the part of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them. Therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.

19:10 The third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families. The border of their inheritance was to Sarid. 19:11 Their border went up westward, even to Maralah, and reached to Dabbesheth. It reached to the brook that is before Jokneam. 19:12 It turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrise to the border of Chisloth Tabor. It went out to Daberath, and went up to Japhia. 19:13 From there it passed along eastward to Gath Hepher, to Ethkazin; and it went out at Rimmon which stretches to Neah. 19:14 The border turned around it on the north to Hannathon; and it ended at the valley of Iphtah El; 19:15 Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages. 19:16 This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

19:17 The fourth lot came out for Issachar, even for the children of Issachar according to their families. 19:18 Their border was to Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem, 19:19 Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath, 19:20 Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez, 19:21 Remeth, Engannim, En Haddah, and Beth Pazzez. 19:22 The border reached to Tabor, Shahazumah, and Beth Shemesh. Their border ended at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages. 19:23 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities with their villages.

19:24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families. 19:25 Their border was Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph, 19:26 Allammelech, Amad, Mishal. It reached to Carmel westward, and to Shihorlibnath. 19:27 It turned toward the sunrise to Beth Dagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Iphtah El northward to Beth Emek and Neiel. It went out to Cabul on the left hand, 19:28 and Ebron, Rehob, Hammon, and Kanah, even to great Sidon. 19:29 The border turned to Ramah, to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah. It ended at the sea by the region of Achzib; 19:30 Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages. 19:31 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.

19:32 The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families. 19:33 Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, Adaminekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum. It ended at the Jordan. 19:34 The border turned westward to Aznoth Tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise. 19:35 The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth, 19:36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 19:37 Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 19:38 Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath, and Beth Shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages. 19:39 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.

19:40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families. 19:41 The border of their inheritance was Zorah, Eshtaol, Irshemesh, 19:42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 19:43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 19:44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 19:45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 19:46 Me Jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border over against Joppa. 19:47 The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father. 19:48 This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.

19:49 So they made an end of distributing the land for inheritance by its borders. The children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun in their midst. 19:50 According to the commandment of Yahweh, they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnathserah in the hill country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived there. 19:51 These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. So they made an end of dividing the land.

20:1 Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, 20:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Assign the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you by Moses, 20:3 that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there. They shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood. 20:4 He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city. They shall take him into the city with them, and give him a place, that he may live among them. 20:5 If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, and didn’t hate him before. 20:6 He shall dwell in that city until he stands before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days. Then the manslayer shall return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city he fled from.’”

20:7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (the same is Hebron) in the hill country of Judah. 20:8 Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 20:9 These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the alien who lives among them, that whoever kills any person unintentionally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stands before the congregation.

21:1 Then the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel. 21:2 They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, “Yahweh commanded Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their suburbs for our livestock.”

21:3 The children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of Yahweh, these cities with their suburbs. 21:4 The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. The children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had thirteen cities by lot out of the tribe of Judah, out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin. 21:5 The rest of the children of Kohath had ten cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh. 21:6 The children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, out of the tribe of Asher, out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan. 21:7 The children of Merari according to their families had twelve cities out of the tribe of Reuben, out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun. 21:8 The children of Israel gave these cities with their suburbs by lot to the Levites, as Yahweh commanded by Moses. 21:9 They gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are mentioned by name: 21:10 and they were for the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for theirs was the first lot. 21:11 They gave them Kiriath Arba, named after the father of Anak (the same is Hebron), in the hill country of Judah, with its suburbs around it. 21:12 But they gave the fields of the city and its villages to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession. 21:13 To the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, Libnah with its suburbs, 21:14 Jattir with its suburbs, Eshtemoa with its suburbs, 21:15 Holon with its suburbs, Debir with its suburbs, 21:16 Ain with its suburbs, Juttah with its suburbs, and Beth Shemesh with its suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes. 21:17 Out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs, 21:18 Anathoth with its suburbs, and Almon with its suburbs; four cities. 21:19 All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

21:20 The families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the rest of the children of Kohath, had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim. 21:21 They gave them Shechem with its suburbs in the hill country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Gezer with its suburbs, 21:22 Kibzaim with its suburbs, and Beth Horon with its suburbs; four cities. 21:23 Out of the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its suburbs, Gibbethon with its suburbs, 21:24 Aijalon with its suburbs, Gath Rimmon with its suburbs; four cities. 21:25 Out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its suburbs, and Gath Rimmon with its suburbs; two cities. 21:26 All the cities of the families of the rest of the children of Kohath were ten with their suburbs.

21:27 They gave to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be Eshterah with its suburbs; two cities. 21:28 Out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its suburbs, Daberath with its suburbs, 21:29 Jarmuth with its suburbs, En Gannim with its suburbs; four cities. 21:30 Out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its suburbs, Abdon with its suburbs, 21:31 Helkath with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs; four cities. 21:32 Out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, Hammothdor with its suburbs, and Kartan with its suburbs; three cities. 21:33 All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

21:34 To the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its suburbs, Kartah with its suburbs, 21:35 Dimnah with its suburbs, and Nahalal with its suburbs; four cities. 21:36 Out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its suburbs, Jahaz with its suburbs, 21:37 Kedemoth with its suburbs, and Mephaath with its suburbs; four cities. 21:38 Out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Mahanaim with its suburbs, 21:39 Heshbon with its suburbs, Jazer with its suburbs; four cities in all. 21:40 All these were the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites. Their lot was twelve cities.

21:41 All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their suburbs. 21:42 Each of these cities included their suburbs around them. It was this way with all these cities.

21:43 So Yahweh gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers. They possessed it, and lived in it. 21:44 Yahweh gave them rest all around, according to all that he swore to their fathers. Not a man of all their enemies stood before them. Yahweh delivered all their enemies into their hand. 21:45 Nothing failed of any good thing which Yahweh had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.

22:1 Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 22:2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you. 22:3 You have not left your brothers these many days to this day, but have performed the duty of the commandment of Yahweh your God. 22:4 Now Yahweh your God has given rest to your brothers, as he spoke to them. Therefore now return and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan. 22:5 Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

22:6 So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to their tents. 22:7 Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given inheritance in Bashan; but to the other half gave Joshua among their brothers beyond the Jordan westward. Moreover when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them, 22:8 and spoke to them, saying, “Return with much wealth to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

22:9 The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they owned, according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses. 22:10 When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look at. 22:11 The children of Israel heard this, “Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertains to the children of Israel.” 22:12 When the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war. 22:13 The children of Israel sent to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 22:14 and with him ten princes, one prince of a fathers’ house for each of the tribes of Israel; and they were everyone of them head of their fathers’ houses among the thousands of Israel. 22:15 They came to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying, 22:16 “Thus says the whole congregation of Yahweh, ‘What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following Yahweh, in that you have built yourselves an altar, to rebel this day against Yahweh? 22:17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh, 22:18 that you must turn away this day from following Yahweh? It will be, since you rebel today against Yahweh, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. 22:19 However, if the land of your possession is unclean, then pass over to the land of the possession of Yahweh, in which Yahweh’s tabernacle dwells, and take possession among us; but don’t rebel against Yahweh, nor rebel against us, in building an altar other than the altar of Yahweh our God. 22:20 Didn’t Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the devoted thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? That man didn’t perish alone in his iniquity.’”

22:21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered, and spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel, 22:22 “The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, the Mighty One, God, Yahweh, he knows; and Israel shall know: if it was in rebellion, or if in trespass against Yahweh (don’t save us this day), 22:23 that we have built us an altar to turn away from following Yahweh; or if to offer burnt offering or meal offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings, let Yahweh himself require it.

22:24 “If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, “What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel? 22:25 For Yahweh has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in Yahweh.”’ So your children might make our children cease from fearing Yahweh.

22:26 “Therefore we said, ‘Let’s now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; 22:27 but it will be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we may perform the service of Yahweh before him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings;’ that your children may not tell our children in time to come, ‘You have no portion in Yahweh.’

22:28 “Therefore we said, ‘It shall be, when they tell us or our generations this in time to come, that we shall say, “Behold the pattern of the altar of Yahweh, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you.”’

22:29 “Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away this day from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt offering, for meal offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tabernacle!”

22:30 When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well. 22:31 Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, “Today we know that Yahweh is in the midst of us, because you have not committed this trespass against Yahweh. Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of Yahweh.” 22:32 Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again. 22:33 The thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and spoke no more of going up against them to war, to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad lived. 22:34 The children of Reuben and the children of Gad named the altar “A Witness Between Us that Yahweh is God.”

23:1 It happened after many days, when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around, and Joshua was old and well advanced in years, 23:2 that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, “I am old and well advanced in years. 23:3 You have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is Yahweh your God who has fought for you. 23:4 Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun. 23:5 Yahweh your God will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight. You shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.

23:6 “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left; 23:7 that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; 23:8 but hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.

23:9 “For Yahweh has driven great and strong nations out from before you. But as for you, no man has stood before you to this day. 23:10 One man of you shall chase a thousand; for it is Yahweh your God who fights for you, as he spoke to you. 23:11 Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.

23:12 “But if you do at all go back, and hold fast to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you; 23:13 know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

23:14 “Behold, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you. All have happened to you. Not one thing has failed of it. 23:15 It shall happen that as all the good things have come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so Yahweh will bring on you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you, 23:16 when you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them. Then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.”

24:1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. 24:2 Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. 24:3 I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. 24:4 I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

24:5 “‘I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in its midst: and afterward I brought you out. 24:6 I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea. 24:7 When they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived in the wilderness many days.

24:8 “‘I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you. 24:9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you; 24:10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.

24:11 “‘You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand. 24:12 I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow. 24:13 I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn’t build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you didn’t plant.’

24:14 “Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh. 24:15 If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”

24:16 The people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; 24:17 for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed. 24:18 Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.”

24:19 Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. 24:20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”

24:21 The people said to Joshua, “No; but we will serve Yahweh.” 24:22 Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh yourselves, to serve him.”

They said, “We are witnesses.”

24:23 “Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”

24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice.”

24:25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 24:26 Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh. 24:27 Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.” 24:28 So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

24:29 It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred and ten years old. 24:30 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 24:31 Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had worked for Israel. 24:32 They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. 24:33 Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

Notes:

[1] back to 1:1 “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.

[2] back to 1:9 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.”

[3] back to 2:10 or, Sea of Reeds

[4] back to 3:11 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”

[5] back to 4:23 or, Sea of Reeds

[6] back to 5:9 “Gilgal” sounds like the Hebrew for “roll.”

[7] back to 24:6 or, Sea of Reeds

Book of Job

Oct 282008

1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. 1:2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 1:3 His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. 1:4 His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 1:5 It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

1:6 Now it happened on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, that Satan also came among them. 1:7 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

1:8 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

1:9 Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 1:10 Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 1:11 But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

1:12 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t put forth your hand.”

So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh.

1:13 It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 1:14 that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, 1:15 and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1:16 While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1:17 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1:18 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, 1:19 and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

1:20 Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. 1:21 He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh.” 1:22 In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

2:1 Again it happened on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before Yahweh, that Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh. 2:2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”

2:3 Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”

2:4 Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 2:5 But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

2:6 Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life.”

2:7 So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. 2:8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes. 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”

2:10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.
2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. 2:12 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. 2:13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

3:1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 3:2 Job answered:

3:3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
3:4 Let that day be darkness.
Don’t let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it.
3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
Let a cloud dwell on it.
Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
3:6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months.
3:7 Behold, let that night be barren.
Let no joyful voice come therein.
3:8 Let them curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
3:9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none,
neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
3:10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
3:11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb?
Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
3:12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
3:13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up waste places for themselves;
3:15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver:
3:16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
as infants who never saw light.
3:17 There the wicked cease from troubling.
There the weary are at rest.
3:18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
3:19 The small and the great are there.
The servant is free from his master.
3:20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
life to the bitter in soul,
3:21 Who long for death, but it doesn’t come;
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
3:22 who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they can find the grave?
3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
3:24 For my sighing comes before I eat.
My groanings are poured out like water.
3:25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,
That which I am afraid of comes to me.
3:26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
but trouble comes.”

4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

4:2 “If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
4:3 Behold, you have instructed many,
you have strengthened the weak hands.
4:4 Your words have supported him who was falling,
You have made firm the feeble knees.
4:5 But now it has come to you, and you faint.
It touches you, and you are troubled.
4:6 Isn’t your piety your confidence?
Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
4:7 “Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent?
Or where were the upright cut off?
4:8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity,
and sow trouble,
reap the same.
4:9 By the breath of God they perish.
By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
4:10 The roaring of the lion,
and the voice of the fierce lion,
the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
4:11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey.
The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
4:12 “Now a thing was secretly brought to me.
My ear received a whisper of it.
4:13 In thoughts from the visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
4:14 fear came on me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face.
The hair of my flesh stood up.
4:16 It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes.
Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
4:17 ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
4:18 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants.
He charges his angels with error.
4:19 How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed before the moth!
4:20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed.
They perish forever without any regarding it.
4:21 Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them?
They die, and that without wisdom.’

5:1 “Call now; is there any who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
5:2 For resentment kills the foolish man,
and jealousy kills the simple.
5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root,
but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
5:4 His children are far from safety.
They are crushed in the gate.
Neither is there any to deliver them,
5:5 whose harvest the hungry eats up,
and take it even out of the thorns.
The snare gapes for their substance.
5:6 For affliction doesn’t come forth from the dust,
neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
5:7 but man is born to trouble,
as the sparks fly upward.
5:8 “But as for me, I would seek God.
I would commit my cause to God,
5:9 who does great things that can’t be fathomed,
marvelous things without number;
5:10 who gives rain on the earth,
and sends waters on the fields;
5:11 so that he sets up on high those who are low,
those who mourn are exalted to safety.
5:12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise.
5:13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.
5:14 They meet with darkness in the day time,
and grope at noonday as in the night.
5:15 But he saves from the sword of their mouth,
even the needy from the hand of the mighty.
5:16 So the poor has hope,
and injustice shuts her mouth.
5:17 “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects.
Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
5:18 For he wounds, and binds up.
He injures, and his hands make whole.
5:19 He will deliver you in six troubles;
yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
5:20 In famine he will redeem you from death;
in war, from the power of the sword.
5:21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.
5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.
5:23 For you shall be allied with the stones of the field.
The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.
5:24 You shall know that your tent is in peace.
You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.
5:25 You shall know also that your seed shall be great,
Your offspring as the grass of the earth.
5:26 You shall come to your grave in a full age,
like a shock of grain comes in its season.
5:27 Look this, we have searched it, so it is.
Hear it, and know it for your good.”

6:1 Then Job answered,

6:2 “Oh that my anguish were weighed,
and all my calamity laid in the balances!
6:3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas,
therefore have my words been rash.
6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me.
My spirit drinks up their poison.
The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
6:5 Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass?
Or does the ox low over his fodder?
6:6 Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt?
Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
6:7 My soul refuses to touch them.
They are as loathsome food to me.
6:8 “Oh that I might have my request,
that God would grant the thing that I long for,
6:9 even that it would please God to crush me;
that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
6:10 Be it still my consolation,
yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare,
that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
What is my end, that I should be patient?
6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones?
Or is my flesh of brass?
6:13 Isn’t it that I have no help in me,
That wisdom is driven quite from me?
6:14 “To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend;
even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
6:15 My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook,
as the channel of brooks that pass away;
6:16 Which are black by reason of the ice,
in which the snow hides itself.
6:17 In the dry season, they vanish.
When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
6:18 The caravans that travel beside them turn aside.
They go up into the waste, and perish.
6:19 The caravans of Tema looked.
The companies of Sheba waited for them.
6:20 They were distressed because they were confident.
They came there, and were confounded.
6:21 For now you are nothing.
You see a terror, and are afraid.
6:22 Did I say, ‘Give to me?’
or, ‘Offer a present for me from your substance?’
6:23 or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?’
or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?’
6:24 “Teach me, and I will hold my peace.
Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
6:25 How forcible are words of uprightness!
But your reproof, what does it reprove?
6:26 Do you intend to reprove words,
since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?
6:27 Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless,
and make merchandise of your friend.
6:28 Now therefore be pleased to look at me,
for surely I shall not lie to your face.
6:29 Please return.
Let there be no injustice.
Yes, return again.
My cause is righteous.
6:30 Is there injustice on my tongue?
Can’t my taste discern mischievous things?

7:1 “Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth?
Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
7:2 As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow,
as a hireling who looks for his wages,
7:3 so am I made to possess months of misery,
wearisome nights are appointed to me.
7:4 When I lie down, I say,
‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’
I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.
7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust.
My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and are spent without hope.
7:7 Oh remember that my life is a breath.
My eye shall no more see good.
7:8 The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more.
Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.
7:9 As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away,
so he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.
7:10 He shall return no more to his house,
neither shall his place know him any more.
7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea monster,
that you put a guard over me?
7:13 When I say, ‘My bed shall comfort me.
My couch shall ease my complaint;’
7:14 then you scare me with dreams,
and terrify me through visions:
7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling,
death rather than my bones.
7:16 I loathe my life.
I don’t want to live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
7:17 What is man, that you should magnify him,
that you should set your mind on him,
7:18 that you should visit him every morning,
and test him every moment?
7:19 How long will you not look away from me,
nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?
7:20 If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men?
Why have you set me as a mark for you,
so that I am a burden to myself?
7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust.
You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

8:2 “How long will you speak these things?
Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
8:3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
8:4 If your children have sinned against him,
He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
8:5 If you want to seek God diligently,
make your supplication to the Almighty.
8:6 If you were pure and upright,
surely now he would awaken for you,
and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.
8:7 Though your beginning was small,
yet your latter end would greatly increase.
8:8 “Please inquire of past generations.
Find out about the learning of their fathers.
8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
because our days on earth are a shadow.)
8:10 Shall they not teach you, tell you,
and utter words out of their heart?
8:11 “Can the papyrus grow up without mire?
Can the rushes grow without water?
8:12 While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down,
it withers before any other reed.
8:13 So are the paths of all who forget God.
The hope of the godless man shall perish,
8:14 Whose confidence shall break apart,
Whose trust is a spider’s web.
8:15 He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand.
He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.
8:16 He is green before the sun.
His shoots go forth over his garden.
8:17 His roots are wrapped around the rock pile.
He sees the place of stones.
8:18 If he is destroyed from his place,
then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
8:19 Behold, this is the joy of his way:
out of the earth, others shall spring.
8:20 “Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man,
neither will he uphold the evildoers.
8:21 He will still fill your mouth with laughter,
your lips with shouting.
8:22 Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame.
The tent of the wicked shall be no more.”

9:1 Then Job answered,

9:2 “Truly I know that it is so,
but how can man be just with God?
9:3 If he is pleased to contend with him,
he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
9:4 God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength:
who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
9:5 He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it,
when he overturns them in his anger.
9:6 He shakes the earth out of its place.
Its pillars tremble.
9:7 He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise,
and seals up the stars.
9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens,
and treads on the waves of the sea.
9:9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
and the rooms of the south.
9:10 He does great things past finding out;
yes, marvelous things without number.
9:11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him.
He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.
9:12 Behold, he snatches away.
Who can hinder him?
Who will ask him, ‘What are you doing?’
9:13 “God will not withdraw his anger.
The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
9:14 How much less shall I answer him,
And choose my words to argue with him?
9:15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer him.
I would make supplication to my judge.
9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me,
yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.
9:17 For he breaks me with a storm,
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
9:18 He will not allow me to catch my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
9:19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’
9:20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me.
Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
9:21 I am blameless.
I don’t respect myself.
I despise my life.
9:22 “It is all the same.
Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
9:23 If the scourge kills suddenly,
he will mock at the trial of the innocent.
9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.
He covers the faces of its judges.
If not he, then who is it?
9:25 “Now my days are swifter than a runner.
They flee away, they see no good,
9:26 They have passed away as the swift ships,
as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
9:27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;’
9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that you will not hold me innocent.
9:29 I shall be condemned.
Why then do I labor in vain?
9:30 If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
9:31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
My own clothes shall abhor me.
9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,
that we should come together in judgment.
9:33 There is no umpire between us,
that might lay his hand on us both.
9:34 Let him take his rod away from me.
Let his terror not make me afraid;
9:35 then I would speak, and not fear him,
for I am not so in myself.

10:1 “My soul is weary of my life.
I will give free course to my complaint.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
10:2 I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me.
Show me why you contend with me.
10:3 Is it good to you that you should oppress,
that you should despise the work of your hands,
and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
10:4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Or do you see as man sees?
10:5 Are your days as the days of mortals,
or your years as man’s years,
10:6 that you inquire after my iniquity,
and search after my sin?
10:7 Although you know that I am not wicked,
there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
10:8 “‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether,
yet you destroy me.
10:9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay.
Will you bring me into dust again?
10:10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk,
and curdled me like cheese?
10:11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh,
and knit me together with bones and sinews.
10:12 You have granted me life and loving kindness.
Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
10:13 Yet you hid these things in your heart.
I know that this is with you:
10:14 if I sin, then you mark me.
You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me.
If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head,
being filled with disgrace,
and conscious of my affliction.
10:16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion.
Again you show yourself powerful to me.
10:17 You renew your witnesses against me,
and increase your indignation on me.
Changes and warfare are with me.
10:18 “‘Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb?
I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
10:19 I should have been as though I had not been.
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
10:20 Aren’t my days few?
Cease then.
Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
10:21 before I go where I shall not return from,
to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
10:22 the land dark as midnight,
of the shadow of death,
without any order,
where the light is as midnight.’”

11:1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

11:2 “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered?
Should a man full of talk be justified?
11:3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace?
When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
11:4 For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure.
I am clean in your eyes.’
11:5 But oh that God would speak,
and open his lips against you,
11:6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom!
For true wisdom has two sides.
Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
11:7 “Can you fathom the mystery of God?
Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
11:8 They are high as heaven. What can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth,
and broader than the sea.
11:10 If he passes by, or confines,
or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
11:11 For he knows false men.
He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn’t consider it.
11:12 An empty-headed man becomes wise
when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.
11:13 “If you set your heart aright,
stretch out your hands toward him.
11:14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away.
Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
11:15 Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot;
Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
11:16 for you shall forget your misery.
You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.
11:17 Life shall be clearer than the noonday.
Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
11:18 You shall be secure, because there is hope.
Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.
11:19 Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.
Yes, many shall court your favor.
11:20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail.
They shall have no way to flee.
Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”

12:1 Then Job answered,

12:2 “No doubt, but you are the people,
and wisdom shall die with you.
12:3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
12:4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor,
I, who called on God, and he answered.
The just, the blameless man is a joke.
12:5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune.
It is ready for them whose foot slips.
12:6 The tents of robbers prosper.
Those who provoke God are secure,
who carry their God in their hands.
12:7 “But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you;
the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you.
The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
12:9 Who doesn’t know that in all these,
the hand of Yahweh has done this,
12:10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind?
12:11 Doesn’t the ear try words,
even as the palate tastes its food?
12:12 With aged men is wisdom,
in length of days understanding.
12:13 “With God is wisdom and might.
He has counsel and understanding.
12:14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again.
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
12:15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up.
Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
12:16 With him is strength and wisdom.
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
12:17 He leads counselors away stripped.
He makes judges fools.
12:18 He loosens the bond of kings.
He binds their waist with a belt.
12:19 He leads priests away stripped,
and overthrows the mighty.
12:20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted,
and takes away the understanding of the elders.
12:21 He pours contempt on princes,
and loosens the belt of the strong.
12:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness,
and brings out to light the shadow of death.
12:23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them.
He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
12:24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,
and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
12:25 They grope in the dark without light.
He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

13:1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this.
My ear has heard and understood it.
13:2 What you know, I know also.
I am not inferior to you.
13:3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty.
I desire to reason with God.
13:4 But you are forgers of lies.
You are all physicians of no value.
13:5 Oh that you would be completely silent!
Then you would be wise.
13:6 Hear now my reasoning.
Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
13:7 Will you speak unrighteously for God,
and talk deceitfully for him?
13:8 Will you show partiality to him?
Will you contend for God?
13:9 Is it good that he should search you out?
Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
13:10 He will surely reprove you
if you secretly show partiality.
13:11 Shall not his majesty make you afraid,
And his dread fall on you?
13:12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes,
Your defenses are defenses of clay.
13:13 “Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak.
Let come on me what will.
13:14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth,
and put my life in my hand?
13:15 Behold, he will kill me.
I have no hope.
Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
13:16 This also shall be my salvation,
that a godless man shall not come before him.
13:17 Hear diligently my speech.
Let my declaration be in your ears.
13:18 See now, I have set my cause in order.
I know that I am righteous.
13:19 Who is he who will contend with me?
For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
13:20 “Only don’t do two things to me;
then I will not hide myself from your face:
13:21 withdraw your hand far from me;
and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
13:22 Then call, and I will answer;
or let me speak, and you answer me.
13:23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
13:24 Why hide you your face,
and hold me for your enemy?
13:25 Will you harass a driven leaf?
Will you pursue the dry stubble?
13:26 For you write bitter things against me,
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
13:27 You also put my feet in the stocks,
and mark all my paths.
You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
13:28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14:1 “Man, who is born of a woman,
is of few days, and full of trouble.
14:2 He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down.
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
14:3 Do you open your eyes on such a one,
and bring me into judgment with you?
14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
14:5 Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
14:6 Look away from him, that he may rest,
until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
14:7 “For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
that the tender branch of it will not cease.
14:8 Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stock dies in the ground,
14:9 yet through the scent of water it will bud,
and put forth boughs like a plant.
14:10 But man dies, and is laid low.
Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
14:11 As the waters fail from the sea,
and the river wastes and dries up,
14:12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise.
Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake,
nor be roused out of their sleep.
14:13 “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait,
until my release should come.
14:15 You would call, and I would answer you.
You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
14:16 But now you number my steps.
Don’t you watch over my sin?
14:17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.
You fasten up my iniquity.
14:18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing.
The rock is removed out of its place;
14:19 The waters wear the stones.
The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.
So you destroy the hope of man.
14:20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs.
You change his face, and send him away.
14:21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.
They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
14:22 But his flesh on him has pain,
and his soul within him mourns.”

15:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

15:2 “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge,
and fill himself with the east wind?
15:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk,
or with speeches with which he can do no good?
15:4 Yes, you do away with fear,
and hinder devotion before God.
15:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I.
Yes, your own lips testify against you.
15:7 “Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth before the hills?
15:8 Have you heard the secret counsel of God?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
15:9 What do you know, that we don’t know?
What do you understand, which is not in us?
15:10 With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men,
much elder than your father.
15:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you,
even the word that is gentle toward you?
15:12 Why does your heart carry you away?
Why do your eyes flash,
15:13 That you turn your spirit against God,
and let such words go out of your mouth?
15:14 What is man, that he should be clean?
What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones.
Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight;
15:16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks iniquity like water!
15:17 “I will show you, listen to me;
that which I have seen I will declare:
15:18 (Which wise men have told by their fathers,
and have not hidden it;
15:19 to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them):
15:20 the wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.
15:21 A sound of terrors is in his ears.
In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
15:22 He doesn’t believe that he shall return out of darkness.
He is waited for by the sword.
15:23 He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
15:24 Distress and anguish make him afraid.
They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
15:25 Because he has stretched out his hand against God,
and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;
15:26 he runs at him with a stiff neck,
with the thick shields of his bucklers;
15:27 because he has covered his face with his fatness,
and gathered fat on his thighs.
15:28 He has lived in desolate cities,
in houses which no one inhabited,
which were ready to become heaps.
15:29 He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue,
neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.
15:30 He shall not depart out of darkness.
The flame shall dry up his branches.
By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.
15:31 Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself;
for emptiness shall be his reward.
15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time.
His branch shall not be green.
15:33 He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine,
and shall cast off his flower as the olive tree.
15:34 For the company of the godless shall be barren,
and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.
15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Their heart prepares deceit.”

16:1 Then Job answered,

16:2 “I have heard many such things.
You are all miserable comforters!
16:3 Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
16:4 I also could speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul’s place,
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you,
16:5 but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
The solace of my lips would relieve you.
16:6 “Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
Though I forbear, what am I eased?
16:7 But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
You have made desolate all my company.
16:8 You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
My leanness rises up against me.
It testifies to my face.
16:9 He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me.
He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
16:10 They have gaped on me with their mouth.
They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
They gather themselves together against me.
16:11 God delivers me to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
16:12 I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
He has also set me up for his target.
16:13 His archers surround me.
He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
He pours out my gall on the ground.
16:14 He breaks me with breach on breach.
He runs on me like a giant.
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and have thrust my horn in the dust.
16:16 My face is red with weeping.
Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
16:17 Although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
16:18 “Earth, don’t cover my blood.
Let my cry have no place to rest.
16:19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
He who vouches for me is on high.
16:20 My friends scoff at me.
My eyes pour out tears to God,
16:21 that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
of a son of man with his neighbor!
16:22 For when a few years have come,
I shall go the way of no return.

17:1 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me.
17:2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation.
17:3 “Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
17:4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them.
17:5 He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
17:7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
17:8 Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
17:9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, come on now again;
I shall not find a wise man among you.
17:11 My days are past, my plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness.
17:13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
17:14 If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’
to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
17:15 where then is my hope?
as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?”

18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

18:2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
18:3 Why are we counted as animals,
which have become unclean in your sight?
18:4 You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
18:5 “Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
The spark of his fire shall not shine.
18:6 The light shall be dark in his tent.
His lamp above him shall be put out.
18:7 The steps of his strength shall be shortened.
His own counsel shall cast him down.
18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he wanders into its mesh.
18:9 A snare will take him by the heel.
A trap will catch him.
18:10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the way.
18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
and shall chase him at his heels.
18:12 His strength shall be famished.
Calamity shall be ready at his side.
18:13 The members of his body shall be devoured.
The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
18:14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts.
He shall be brought to the king of terrors.
18:15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his.
Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.
18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath.
Above shall his branch be cut off.
18:17 His memory shall perish from the earth.
He shall have no name in the street.
18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness,
and chased out of the world.
18:19 He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people,
nor any remaining where he lived.
18:20 Those who come after shall be astonished at his day,
as those who went before were frightened.
18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous.
This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

19:1 Then Job answered,

19:2 “How long will you torment me,
and crush me with words?
19:3 You have reproached me ten times.
You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.
19:4 If it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
19:5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
and plead against me my reproach;
19:6 know now that God has subverted me,
and has surrounded me with his net.
19:7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
19:8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
and has set darkness in my paths.
19:9 He has stripped me of my glory,
and taken the crown from my head.
19:10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
My hope he has plucked up like a tree.
19:11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.
He counts me among his adversaries.
19:12 His troops come on together,
build a siege ramp against me,
and encamp around my tent.
19:13 “He has put my brothers far from me.
My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
19:14 My relatives have gone away.
My familiar friends have forgotten me.
19:15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight.
19:16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
I beg him with my mouth.
19:17 My breath is offensive to my wife.
I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.
19:18 Even young children despise me.
If I arise, they speak against me.
19:19 All my familiar friends abhor me.
They whom I loved have turned against me.
19:20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh.
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
19:21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends;
for the hand of God has touched me.
19:22 Why do you persecute me as God,
and are not satisfied with my flesh?
19:23 “Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
19:24 That with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
19:25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
19:26 After my skin is destroyed,
then in my flesh shall I see God,
19:27 Whom I, even I, shall see on my side.
My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger.
“My heart is consumed within me.
19:28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
because the root of the matter is found in me,
19:29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”

20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

20:2 “Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
even by reason of my haste that is in me.
20:3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame.
The spirit of my understanding answers me.
20:4 Don’t you know this from old time,
since man was placed on earth,
20:5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
the joy of the godless but for a moment?
20:6 Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,
20:7 yet he shall perish forever like his own dung.
Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’
20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found.
Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.
20:9 The eye which saw him shall see him no more,
neither shall his place any more see him.
20:10 His children shall seek the favor of the poor.
His hands shall give back his wealth.
20:11 His bones are full of his youth,
but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.
20:12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth,
though he hide it under his tongue,
20:13 though he spare it, and will not let it go,
but keep it still within his mouth;
20:14 yet his food in his bowels is turned.
It is cobra venom within him.
20:15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again.
God will cast them out of his belly.
20:16 He shall suck cobra venom.
The viper’s tongue shall kill him.
20:17 He shall not look at the rivers,
the flowing streams of honey and butter.
20:18 That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down.
According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.
20:19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor.
He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
20:20 “Because he knew no quietness within him,
he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.
20:21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,
therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him.
The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.
20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him.
It will rain on him while he is eating.
20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon.
The bronze arrow shall strike him through.
20:25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body.
Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.
Terrors are on him.
20:26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures.
An unfanned fire shall devour him.
It shall consume that which is left in his tent.
20:27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity.
The earth shall rise up against him.
20:28 The increase of his house shall depart.
They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.
20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
the heritage appointed to him by God.”

21:1 Then Job answered,

21:2 “Listen diligently to my speech.
Let this be your consolation.
21:3 Allow me, and I also will speak;
After I have spoken, mock on.
21:4 As for me, is my complaint to man?
Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
21:5 Look at me, and be astonished.
Lay your hand on your mouth.
21:6 When I remember, I am troubled.
Horror takes hold of my flesh.
21:7 “Why do the wicked live,
become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
21:8 Their child is established with them in their sight,
their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them.
21:10 Their bulls breed without fail.
Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
21:11 They send forth their little ones like a flock.
Their children dance.
21:12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
21:13 They spend their days in prosperity.
In an instant they go down to Sheol.
21:14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
for we don’t want to know about your ways.
21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
21:16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
21:17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
that their calamity comes on them,
that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
21:18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
as chaff that the storm carries away?
21:19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’
Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction.
Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21:21 For what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off?
21:22 “Shall any teach God knowledge,
since he judges those who are high?
21:23 One dies in his full strength,
being wholly at ease and quiet.
21:24 His pails are full of milk.
The marrow of his bones is moistened.
21:25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
and never tastes of good.
21:26 They lie down alike in the dust.
The worm covers them.
21:27 “Behold, I know your thoughts,
the devices with which you would wrong me.
21:28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
21:29 Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?
Don’t you know their evidences,
21:30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,
That they are led forth to the day of wrath?
21:31 Who shall declare his way to his face?
Who shall repay him what he has done?
21:32 Yet he will be borne to the grave.
Men shall keep watch over the tomb.
21:33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him.
All men shall draw after him,
as there were innumerable before him.
21:34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

22:2 “Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
22:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous?
Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?
22:4 Is it for your piety that he reproves you,
that he enters with you into judgment?
22:5 Isn’t your wickedness great?
Neither is there any end to your iniquities.
22:6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing,
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
22:7 You haven’t given water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
22:8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth.
The honorable man, he lived in it.
22:9 You have sent widows away empty,
and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
22:10 Therefore snares are around you.
Sudden fear troubles you,
22:11 or darkness, so that you can not see,
and floods of waters cover you.
22:12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven?
See the height of the stars, how high they are!
22:13 You say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the thick darkness?
22:14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see.
He walks on the vault of the sky.’
22:15 Will you keep the old way,
which wicked men have trodden,
22:16 who were snatched away before their time,
whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
22:17 who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’
and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’
22:18 Yet he filled their houses with good things,
but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
22:19 The righteous see it, and are glad.
The innocent ridicule them,
22:20 saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off.
The fire has consumed their remnant.’
22:21 “Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace.
Thereby good shall come to you.
22:22 Please receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
22:23 If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up,
if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.
22:24 Lay your treasure in the dust,
the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
22:25 The Almighty will be your treasure,
and precious silver to you.
22:26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty,
and shall lift up your face to God.
22:27 You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you.
You shall pay your vows.
22:28 You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you.
Light shall shine on your ways.
22:29 When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’
He will save the humble person.
22:30 He will even deliver him who is not innocent.
Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

23:1 Then Job answered,

23:2 “Even today my complaint is rebellious.
His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him!
That I might come even to his seat!
23:4 I would set my cause in order before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me,
and understand what he would tell me.
23:6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No, but he would listen to me.
23:7 There the upright might reason with him,
so I should be delivered forever from my judge.
23:8 “If I go east, he is not there;
if west, I can’t find him;
23:9 He works to the north, but I can’t see him.
He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him.
23:10 But he knows the way that I take.
When he has tried me, I shall come forth like gold.
23:11 My foot has held fast to his steps.
I have kept his way, and not turned aside.
23:12 I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
23:13 But he stands alone, and who can oppose him?
What his soul desires, even that he does.
23:14 For he performs that which is appointed for me.
Many such things are with him.
23:15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence.
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
23:16 For God has made my heart faint.
The Almighty has terrified me.
23:17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

24:1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty?
Why don’t those who know him see his days?
24:2 There are people who remove the landmarks.
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless,
and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
24:4 They turn the needy out of the way.
The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
24:5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,
they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food.
The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
24:6 They cut their provender in the field.
They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
24:7 They lie all night naked without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
24:8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
24:9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor,
24:10 So that they go around naked without clothing.
Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
24:11 They make oil within the walls of these men.
They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
24:12 From out of the populous city, men groan.
The soul of the wounded cries out,
yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
24:13 “These are of those who rebel against the light.
They don’t know its ways,
nor stay in its paths.
24:14 The murderer rises with the light.
He kills the poor and needy.
In the night he is like a thief.
24:15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’
He disguises his face.
24:16 In the dark they dig through houses.
They shut themselves up in the daytime.
They don’t know the light.
24:17 For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness,
for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
24:18 “They are foam on the surface of the waters.
Their portion is cursed in the earth.
They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.
24:19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters,
so does Sheol those who have sinned.
24:20 The womb shall forget him.
The worm shall feed sweetly on him.
He shall be no more remembered.
Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.
24:21 He devours the barren who don’t bear.
He shows no kindness to the widow.
24:22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power.
He rises up who has no assurance of life.
24:23 God gives them security, and they rest in it.
His eyes are on their ways.
24:24 They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone.
Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others,
and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
24:25 If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar,
and make my speech worth nothing?”

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

25:2 “Dominion and fear are with him.
He makes peace in his high places.
25:3 Can his armies be counted?
On whom does his light not arise?
25:4 How then can man be just with God?
Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
25:5 Behold, even the moon has no brightness,
and the stars are not pure in his sight;
25:6 How much less man, who is a worm,
the son of man, who is a worm!”

26:1 Then Job answered,

26:2 “How have you helped him who is without power!
How have you saved the arm that has no strength!
26:3 How have you counseled him who has no wisdom,
and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
26:4 To whom have you uttered words?
Whose spirit came forth from you?
26:5 “Those who are deceased tremble,
those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
26:6 Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.
26:7 He stretches out the north over empty space,
and hangs the earth on nothing.
26:8 He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not burst under them.
26:9 He encloses the face of his throne,
and spreads his cloud on it.
26:10 He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters,
and to the confines of light and darkness.
26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished at his rebuke.
26:12 He stirs up the sea with his power,
and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.
26:13 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished.
His hand has pierced the swift serpent.
26:14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways.
How small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

27:1 Job again took up his parable, and said,

27:2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right,
the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.
27:3 (For the length of my life is still in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
27:4 surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,
neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
27:5 Far be it from me that I should justify you.
Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
27:6 I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
27:7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked.
Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
27:8 For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
27:10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty,
and call on God at all times?
27:11 I will teach you about the hand of God.
That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
27:12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
why then have you become altogether vain?
27:13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
27:14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword.
His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
27:15 Those who remain of him shall be buried in death.
His widows shall make no lamentation.
27:16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,
and prepare clothing as the clay;
27:17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,
and the innocent shall divide the silver.
27:18 He builds his house as the moth,
as a booth which the watchman makes.
27:19 He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again.
He opens his eyes, and he is not.
27:20 Terrors overtake him like waters.
A storm steals him away in the night.
27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he departs.
It sweeps him out of his place.
27:22 For it hurls at him, and does not spare,
as he flees away from his hand.
27:23 Men shall clap their hands at him,
and shall hiss him out of his place.

28:1 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
and a place for gold which they refine.
28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted out of the ore.
28:3 Man sets an end to darkness,
and searches out, to the furthest bound,
the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
28:4 He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.
They are forgotten by the foot.
They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
28:5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread;
Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
28:6 Sapphires come from its rocks.
It has dust of gold.
28:7 That path no bird of prey knows,
neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
28:8 The proud animals have not trodden it,
nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
28:9 He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock,
and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
28:10 He cuts out channels among the rocks.
His eye sees every precious thing.
28:11 He binds the streams that they don’t trickle.
The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.
28:12 “But where shall wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
28:13 Man doesn’t know its price;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
28:14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’
The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
28:15 It can’t be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
28:16 It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
28:17 Gold and glass can’t equal it,
neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
28:18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal.
Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
28:20 Where then does wisdom come from?
Where is the place of understanding?
28:21 Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the birds of the sky.
28:22 Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
28:23 “God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
28:24 For he looks to the ends of the earth,
and sees under the whole sky.
28:25 He establishes the force of the wind.
Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
28:26 When he made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
28:27 then he saw it, and declared it.
He established it, yes, and searched it out.
28:28 To man he said,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
To depart from evil is understanding.’”

29:1 Job again took up his parable, and said,

29:2 “Oh that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me;
29:3 when his lamp shone on my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
29:4 as I was in the ripeness of my days,
when the friendship of God was in my tent,
29:5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
and my children were around me,
29:6 when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
29:7 when I went forth to the city gate,
when I prepared my seat in the street.
29:8 The young men saw me and hid themselves.
The aged rose up and stood.
29:9 The princes refrained from talking,
and laid their hand on their mouth.
29:10 The voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
29:11 For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
and when the eye saw me, it commended me:
29:12 Because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the fatherless also, who had none to help him,
29:13 the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.
My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
29:15 I was eyes to the blind,
and feet to the lame.
29:16 I was a father to the needy.
The cause of him who I didn’t know, I searched out.
29:17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous,
and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
29:18 Then I said, ‘I shall die in my own house,
I shall number my days as the sand.
29:19 My root is spread out to the waters.
The dew lies all night on my branch.
29:20 My glory is fresh in me.
My bow is renewed in my hand.’
29:21 “Men listened to me, waited,
and kept silence for my counsel.
29:22 After my words they didn’t speak again.
My speech fell on them.
29:23 They waited for me as for the rain.
Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence.
They didn’t reject the light of my face.
29:25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief.
I lived as a king in the army,
as one who comforts the mourners.

30:1 “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
30:2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
men in whom ripe age has perished?
30:3 They are gaunt from lack and famine.
They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
30:4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
The roots of the broom are their food.
30:5 They are driven out from the midst of men.
They cry after them as after a thief;
30:6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
30:7 Among the bushes they bray;
and under the nettles they are gathered together.
30:8 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men.
They were flogged out of the land.
30:9 “Now I have become their song.
Yes, I am a byword to them.
30:10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
and they have thrown off restraint before me.
30:12 On my right hand rise the rabble.
They thrust aside my feet,
They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
30:13 They mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
without anyone’s help.
30:14 As through a wide breach they come,
in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
30:15 Terrors have turned on me.
They chase my honor as the wind.
My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
30:16 “Now my soul is poured out within me.
Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
30:17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
30:18 By great force is my garment disfigured.
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
30:19 He has cast me into the mire.
I have become like dust and ashes.
30:20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me.
I stand up, and you gaze at me.
30:21 You have turned to be cruel to me.
With the might of your hand you persecute me.
30:22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You dissolve me in the storm.
30:23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
To the house appointed for all living.
30:24 “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
30:25 Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble?
Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
30:26 When I looked for good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, there came darkness.
30:27 My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest.
Days of affliction have come on me.
30:28 I go mourning without the sun.
I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
30:29 I am a brother to jackals,
and a companion to ostriches.
30:30 My skin grows black and peels from me.
My bones are burned with heat.
30:31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes,
how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
31:2 For what is the portion from God above,
and the heritage from the Almighty on high?
31:3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,
and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
31:4 Doesn’t he see my ways,
and number all my steps?
31:5 “If I have walked with falsehood,
and my foot has hurried to deceit
31:6 (let me be weighed in an even balance,
that God may know my integrity);
31:7 if my step has turned out of the way,
if my heart walked after my eyes,
if any defilement has stuck to my hands,
31:8 then let me sow, and let another eat.
Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.
31:9 “If my heart has been enticed to a woman,
and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
31:10 then let my wife grind for another,
and let others sleep with her.
31:11 For that would be a heinous crime.
Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:
31:12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction,
and would root out all my increase.
31:13 “If I have despised the cause of my male servant
or of my female servant,
when they contended with me;
31:14 What then shall I do when God rises up?
When he visits, what shall I answer him?
31:15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him?
Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
31:16 “If I have withheld the poor from their desire,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
31:17 or have eaten my morsel alone,
and the fatherless has not eaten of it
31:18 (no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
her have I guided from my mother’s womb);
31:19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,
or that the needy had no covering;
31:20 if his heart hasn’t blessed me,
if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;
31:21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,
because I saw my help in the gate,
31:22 then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade,
and my arm be broken from the bone.
31:23 For calamity from God is a terror to me.
Because his majesty, I can do nothing.
31:24 “If I have made gold my hope,
and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’
31:25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
and because my hand had gotten much;
31:26 if I have seen the sun when it shined,
or the moon moving in splendor,
31:27 and my heart has been secretly enticed,
and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
31:28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
for I should have denied the God who is above.
31:29 “If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted up myself when evil found him;
31:30 (yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
by asking his life with a curse);
31:31 if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’
31:32 (the foreigner has not lodged in the street,
but I have opened my doors to the traveler);
31:33 if like Adam I have covered my transgressions,
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
31:34 because I feared the great multitude,
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—
31:35 oh that I had one to hear me!
(behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me);
let the accuser write my indictment!
31:36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
and I would bind it to me as a crown.
31:37 I would declare to him the number of my steps.
as a prince would I go near to him.
31:38 If my land cries out against me,
and its furrows weep together;
31:39 if I have eaten its fruits without money,
or have caused its owners to lose their life,
31:40 let briars grow instead of wheat,
and stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.

32:1 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 32:2 Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God. 32:3 Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. 32:4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he. 32:5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.

32:6 Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered,

“I am young, and you are very old;
Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.
32:7 I said, ‘Days should speak,
and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’
32:8 But there is a spirit in man,
and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
32:9 It is not the great who are wise,
nor the aged who understand justice.
32:10 Therefore I said, ‘Listen to me;
I also will show my opinion.’
32:11 “Behold, I waited for your words,
and I listened for your reasoning,
while you searched out what to say.
32:12 Yes, I gave you my full attention,
but there was no one who convinced Job,
or who answered his words, among you.
32:13 Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom,
God may refute him, not man;’
32:14 for he has not directed his words against me;
neither will I answer him with your speeches.
32:15 “They are amazed. They answer no more.
They don’t have a word to say.
32:16 Shall I wait, because they don’t speak,
because they stand still, and answer no more?
32:17 I also will answer my part,
and I also will show my opinion.
32:18 For I am full of words.
The spirit within me constrains me.
32:19 Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent;
like new wineskins it is ready to burst.
32:20 I will speak, that I may be refreshed.
I will open my lips and answer.
32:21 Please don’t let me respect any man’s person,
neither will I give flattering titles to any man.
32:22 For I don’t know how to give flattering titles;
or else my Maker would soon take me away.

33:1 “However, Job, please hear my speech,
and listen to all my words.
33:2 See now, I have opened my mouth.
My tongue has spoken in my mouth.
33:3 My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart.
That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.
33:4 The Spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
33:5 If you can, answer me.
Set your words in order before me, and stand forth.
33:6 Behold, I am toward God even as you are.
I am also formed out of the clay.
33:7 Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid,
neither shall my pressure be heavy on you.
33:8 “Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
I have heard the voice of your words, saying,
33:9 ‘I am clean, without disobedience.
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me.
33:10 Behold, he finds occasions against me.
He counts me for his enemy.
33:11 He puts my feet in the stocks.
He marks all my paths.’
33:12 “Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just,
for God is greater than man.
33:13 Why do you strive against him,
because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?
33:14 For God speaks once,
yes twice, though man pays no attention.
33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
in slumbering on the bed;
33:16 Then he opens the ears of men,
and seals their instruction,
33:17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose,
and hide pride from man.
33:18 He keeps back his soul from the pit,
and his life from perishing by the sword.
33:19 He is chastened also with pain on his bed,
with continual strife in his bones;
33:20 So that his life abhors bread,
and his soul dainty food.
33:21 His flesh is so consumed away, that it can’t be seen.
His bones that were not seen stick out.
33:22 Yes, his soul draws near to the pit,
and his life to the destroyers.
33:23 “If there is beside him an angel,
an interpreter, one among a thousand,
to show to man what is right for him;
33:24 then God is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the pit,
I have found a ransom.’
33:25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s.
He returns to the days of his youth.
33:26 He prays to God, and he is favorable to him,
so that he sees his face with joy.
He restores to man his righteousness.
33:27 He sings before men, and says,
‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,
and it didn’t profit me.
33:28 He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit.
My life shall see the light.’
33:29 “Behold, God works all these things,
twice, yes three times, with a man,
33:30 to bring back his soul from the pit,
that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.
33:31 Mark well, Job, and listen to me.
Hold your peace, and I will speak.
33:32 If you have anything to say, answer me.
Speak, for I desire to justify you.
33:33 If not, listen to me.
Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”

34:1 Moreover Elihu answered,

34:2 “Hear my words, you wise men.
Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.
34:3 For the ear tries words,
as the palate tastes food.
34:4 Let us choose for us that which is right.
Let us know among ourselves what is good.
34:5 For Job has said, ‘I am righteous,
God has taken away my right:
34:6 Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar.
My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’
34:7 What man is like Job,
who drinks scorn like water,
34:8 Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity,
and walks with wicked men?
34:9 For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
that he should delight himself with God.’
34:10 “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding:
far be it from God, that he should do wickedness,
from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.
34:11 For the work of a man he will render to him,
and cause every man to find according to his ways.
34:12 Yes surely, God will not do wickedly,
neither will the Almighty pervert justice.
34:13 Who put him in charge of the earth?
or who has appointed him over the whole world?
34:14 If he set his heart on himself,
If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,
34:15 all flesh would perish together,
and man would turn again to dust.
34:16 “If now you have understanding, hear this.
Listen to the voice of my words.
34:17 Shall even one who hates justice govern?
Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?—
34:18 Who says to a king, ‘Vile!’
or to nobles, ‘Wicked!’?
34:19 Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes,
nor respects the rich more than the poor;
for they all are the work of his hands.
34:20 In a moment they die, even at midnight.
The people are shaken and pass away.
The mighty are taken away without a hand.
34:21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man.
He sees all his goings.
34:22 There is no darkness, nor thick gloom,
where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
34:23 For he doesn’t need to consider a man further,
that he should go before God in judgment.
34:24 He breaks in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out,
and sets others in their place.
34:25 Therefore he takes knowledge of their works.
He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
34:26 He strikes them as wicked men
in the open sight of others;
34:27 because they turned aside from following him,
and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,
34:28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him.
He heard the cry of the afflicted.
34:29 When he gives quietness, who then can condemn?
When he hides his face, who then can see him?
Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,
34:30 that the godless man may not reign,
that there be no one to ensnare the people.
34:31 “For has any said to God,
‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.
34:32 Teach me that which I don’t see.
If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
34:33 Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it?
For you must choose, and not I.
Therefore speak what you know.
34:34 Men of understanding will tell me,
yes, every wise man who hears me:
34:35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge.
His words are without wisdom.’
34:36 I wish that Job were tried to the end,
because of his answering like wicked men.
34:37 For he adds rebellion to his sin.
He claps his hands among us,
and multiplies his words against God.”

35:1 Moreover Elihu answered,

35:2 “Do you think this to be your right,
or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’
35:3 That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you?
What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’
35:4 I will answer you,
and your companions with you.
35:5 Look to the heavens, and see.
See the skies, which are higher than you.
35:6 If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him?
If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?
35:7 If you are righteous, what do you give him?
Or what does he receive from your hand?
35:8 Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are,
and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
35:9 “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out.
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.
35:10 But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
35:11 who teaches us more than the animals of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?’
35:12 There they cry, but none gives answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
35:13 Surely God will not hear an empty cry,
neither will the Almighty regard it.
35:14 How much less when you say you don’t see him.
The cause is before him, and you wait for him!
35:15 But now, because he has not visited in his anger,
neither does he greatly regard arrogance.
35:16 Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk,
and he multiplies words without knowledge.”

36:1 Elihu also continued, and said,

36:2 “Bear with me a little, and I will show you;
for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.
36:3 I will get my knowledge from afar,
and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
36:4 For truly my words are not false.
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.
36:5 “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone.
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
36:6 He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked,
but gives to the afflicted their right.
36:7 He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne,
he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
36:8 If they are bound in fetters,
and are taken in the cords of afflictions,
36:9 then he shows them their work,
and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
36:10 He also opens their ears to instruction,
and commands that they return from iniquity.
36:11 If they listen and serve him,
they shall spend their days in prosperity,
and their years in pleasures.
36:12 But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword;
they shall die without knowledge.
36:13 “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger.
They don’t cry for help when he binds them.
36:14 They die in youth.
Their life perishes among the unclean.
36:15 He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,
and opens their ear in oppression.
36:16 Yes, he would have allured you out of distress,
into a broad place, where there is no restriction.
That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.
36:17 “But you are full of the judgment of the wicked.
Judgment and justice take hold of you.
36:18 Don’t let riches entice you to wrath,
neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
36:19 Would your wealth sustain you in distress,
or all the might of your strength?
36:20 Don’t desire the night,
when people are cut off in their place.
36:21 Take heed, don’t regard iniquity;
for you have chosen this rather than affliction.
36:22 Behold, God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
36:23 Who has prescribed his way for him?
Or who can say, ‘You have committed unrighteousness?’
36:24 “Remember that you magnify his work,
whereof men have sung.
36:25 All men have looked thereon.
Man sees it afar off.
36:26 Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him.
The number of his years is unsearchable.
36:27 For he draws up the drops of water,
which distill in rain from his vapor,
36:28 Which the skies pour down
and which drop on man abundantly.
36:29 Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds,
and the thunderings of his pavilion?
36:30 Behold, he spreads his light around him.
He covers the bottom of the sea.
36:31 For by these he judges the people.
He gives food in abundance.
36:32 He covers his hands with the lightning,
and commands it to strike the mark.
36:33 Its noise tells about him,
and the livestock also concerning the storm that comes up.

37:1 “Yes, at this my heart trembles,
and is moved out of its place.
37:2 Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice,
the sound that goes out of his mouth.
37:3 He sends it forth under the whole sky,
and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
37:4 After it a voice roars.
He thunders with the voice of his majesty.
He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.
37:5 God thunders marvelously with his voice.
He does great things, which we can’t comprehend.
37:6 For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’
likewise to the shower of rain,
and to the showers of his mighty rain.
37:7 He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he has made may know it.
37:8 Then the animals take cover,
and remain in their dens.
37:9 Out of its room comes the storm,
and cold out of the north.
37:10 By the breath of God, ice is given,
and the breadth of the waters is frozen.
37:11 Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture.
He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.
37:12 It is turned around by his guidance,
that they may do whatever he commands them
on the surface of the habitable world,
37:13 Whether it is for correction, or for his land,
or for loving kindness, that he causes it to come.
37:14 “Listen to this, Job.
Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.
37:15 Do you know how God controls them,
and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?
37:16 Do you know the workings of the clouds,
the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
37:17 You whose clothing is warm,
when the earth is still by reason of the south wind?
37:18 Can you, with him, spread out the sky,
which is strong as a cast metal mirror?
37:19 Teach us what we shall tell him,
for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.
37:20 Shall it be told him that I would speak?
Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?
37:21 Now men don’t see the light which is bright in the skies,
but the wind passes, and clears them.
37:22 Out of the north comes golden splendor.
With God is awesome majesty.
37:23 We can’t reach the Almighty.
He is exalted in power.
In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.
37:24 Therefore men revere him.
He doesn’t regard any who are wise of heart.”

38:1 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

38:2 “Who is this who darkens counsel
by words without knowledge?
38:3 Brace yourself like a man,
for I will question you, then you answer me!
38:4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if you have understanding.
38:5 Who determined its measures, if you know?
Or who stretched the line on it?
38:6 Whereupon were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
38:7 when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
38:8 “Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it broke forth from the womb,
38:9 when I made clouds its garment,
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
38:10 marked out for it my bound,
set bars and doors,
38:11 and said, ‘Here you may come, but no further.
Here your proud waves shall be stayed?’
38:12 “Have you commanded the morning in your days,
and caused the dawn to know its place;
38:13 that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and shake the wicked out of it?
38:14 It is changed as clay under the seal,
and stands forth as a garment.
38:15 From the wicked, their light is withheld.
The high arm is broken.
38:16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?
38:17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
38:18 Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth?
Declare, if you know it all.
38:19 “What is the way to the dwelling of light?
As for darkness, where is its place,
38:20 that you should take it to its bound,
that you should discern the paths to its house?
38:21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
38:22 Have you entered the treasuries of the snow,
or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
38:23 which I have reserved against the time of trouble,
against the day of battle and war?
38:24 By what way is the lightning distributed,
or the east wind scattered on the earth?
38:25 Who has cut a channel for the flood water,
or the path for the thunderstorm;
38:26 To cause it to rain on a land where no man is;
on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
38:27 to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,
to cause the tender grass to spring forth?
38:28 Does the rain have a father?
Or who fathers the drops of dew?
38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice?
The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?
38:30 The waters become hard like stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen.
38:31 “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,
or loosen the cords of Orion?
38:32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season?
Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?
38:33 Do you know the laws of the heavens?
Can you establish its dominion over the earth?
38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover you?
38:35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are?’
38:36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?
Or who has given understanding to the mind?
38:37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,
38:38 when the dust runs into a mass,
and the clods of earth stick together?
38:39 “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
38:40 when they crouch in their dens,
and lie in wait in the thicket?
38:41 Who provides for the raven his prey,
when his young ones cry to God,
and wander for lack of food?

39:1 “Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth?
Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
39:2 Can you number the months that they fulfill?
Or do you know the time when they give birth?
39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young,
they end their labor pains.
39:4 Their young ones become strong.
They grow up in the open field.
They go forth, and don’t return again.
39:5 “Who has set the wild donkey free?
Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,
39:6 Whose home I have made the wilderness,
and the salt land his dwelling place?
39:7 He scorns the tumult of the city,
neither does he hear the shouting of the driver.
39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture,
He searches after every green thing.
39:9 “Will the wild ox be content to serve you?
Or will he stay by your feeding trough?
39:10 Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness?
Or will he till the valleys after you?
39:11 Will you trust him, because his strength is great?
Or will you leave to him your labor?
39:12 Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed,
and gather the grain of your threshing floor?
39:13 “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly;
but are they the feathers and plumage of love?
39:14 For she leaves her eggs on the earth,
warms them in the dust,
39:15 and forgets that the foot may crush them,
or that the wild animal may trample them.
39:16 She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers.
Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,
39:17 because God has deprived her of wisdom,
neither has he imparted to her understanding.
39:18 When she lifts up herself on high,
she scorns the horse and his rider.
39:19 “Have you given the horse might?
Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?
39:20 Have you made him to leap as a locust?
The glory of his snorting is awesome.
39:21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength.
He goes out to meet the armed men.
39:22 He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed,
neither does he turn back from the sword.
39:23 The quiver rattles against him,
the flashing spear and the javelin.
39:24 He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage,
neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
39:25 As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’
He smells the battle afar off,
the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
39:26 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
and stretches her wings toward the south?
39:27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up,
and makes his nest on high?
39:28 On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home,
on the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.
39:29 From there he spies out the prey.
His eyes see it afar off.
39:30 His young ones also suck up blood.
Where the slain are, there he is.”

40:1 Moreover Yahweh answered Job,

40:2 “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

40:3 Then Job answered Yahweh,

40:4 “Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
40:5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

40:6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

40:7 “Now brace yourself like a man.
I will question you, and you will answer me.
40:8 Will you even annul my judgment?
Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?
40:9 Or do you have an arm like God?
Can you thunder with a voice like him?
40:10 “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity.
Array yourself with honor and majesty.
40:11 Pour out the fury of your anger.
Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
40:12 Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him.
Crush the wicked in their place.
40:13 Hide them in the dust together.
Bind their faces in the hidden place.
40:14 Then I will also admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.
40:15 “See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you.
He eats grass as an ox.
40:16 Look now, his strength is in his thighs.
His force is in the muscles of his belly.
40:17 He moves his tail like a cedar.
The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
40:18 His bones are like tubes of brass.
His limbs are like bars of iron.
40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God.
He who made him gives him his sword.
40:20 Surely the mountains produce food for him,
where all the animals of the field play.
40:21 He lies under the lotus trees,
in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.
40:22 The lotuses cover him with their shade.
The willows of the brook surround him.
40:23 Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble.
He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.
40:24 Shall any take him when he is on the watch,
or pierce through his nose with a snare?

41:1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook,
or press down his tongue with a cord?
41:2 Can you put a rope into his nose,
or pierce his jaw through with a hook?
41:3 Will he make many petitions to you,
or will he speak soft words to you?
41:4 Will he make a covenant with you,
that you should take him for a servant forever?
41:5 Will you play with him as with a bird?
Or will you bind him for your girls?
41:6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they part him among the merchants?
41:7 Can you fill his skin with barbed irons,
or his head with fish spears?
41:8 Lay your hand on him.
Remember the battle, and do so no more.
41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain.
Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him?
41:10 None is so fierce that he dare stir him up.
Who then is he who can stand before me?
41:11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Everything under the heavens is mine.
41:12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,
nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.
41:13 Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who shall come within his jaws?
41:14 Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.
41:15 Strong scales are his pride,
shut up together with a close seal.
41:16 One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them.
41:17 They are joined one to another.
They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart.
41:18 His sneezing flashes out light.
His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
41:19 Out of his mouth go burning torches.
Sparks of fire leap forth.
41:20 Out of his nostrils a smoke goes,
as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.
41:21 His breath kindles coals.
A flame goes forth from his mouth.
41:22 There is strength in his neck.
Terror dances before him.
41:23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together.
They are firm on him.
They can’t be moved.
41:24 His heart is as firm as a stone,
yes, firm as the lower millstone.
41:25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid.
They retreat before his thrashing.
41:26 If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail;
nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.
41:27 He counts iron as straw;
and brass as rotten wood.
41:28 The arrow can’t make him flee.
Sling stones are like chaff to him.
41:29 Clubs are counted as stubble.
He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.
41:30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds,
leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
41:31 He makes the deep to boil like a pot.
He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
41:32 He makes a path shine after him.
One would think the deep had white hair.
41:33 On earth there is not his equal,
that is made without fear.
41:34 He sees everything that is high.
He is king over all the sons of pride.”

42:1 Then Job answered Yahweh,

42:2 “I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
42:3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
42:4 You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you will answer me.’
42:5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you.
42:6 Therefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”

42:7 It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has. 42:8 Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”

42:9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.

42:10 Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before. 42:11 Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

42:12 So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 42:14 He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. 42:15 In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 42:16 After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations. 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

Notes:

[1] back to 1:1 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “Elohim.”

[2] back to 1:6 “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.

[3] back to 7:9 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[4] back to 11:8 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[5] back to 14:13 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[6] back to 17:13 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[7] back to 17:16 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[8] back to 21:13 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[9] back to 24:19 Sheol is the place of the dead.

[10] back to 26:6 Sheol is the lower world or the grave.

[11] back to 26:6 Abaddon means Destroyer.

[12] back to 28:16 or, lapis lazuli

[13] back to 28:28 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”

[14] back to 41:1 Leviathan is a name for a crocodile or similar creature.

[15] back to 42:11 literally, kesitah, a unit of money, probably silver

Book of Ruth

Oct 282008

It happened in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. They came into the country of Moab, and continued there. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. They took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they lived there about ten years. Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that Yahweh had visited his people in giving them bread. She went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house: Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me. Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.”

Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”

Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons; would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me much for your sakes, for the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.”

They lifted up their voices, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth joined with her. She said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Ruth said, “Don’t entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried. Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death part you and me.”

When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.

So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. It happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they asked, “Is this Naomi?”

She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty; why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.”

She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “Yahweh be with you.”

They answered him, “Yahweh bless you.”

Then Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, “Whose young lady is this?”

The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she stayed a little in the house.”

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field, and don’t go from here, but stay here close to my maidens. Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Haven’t I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink from that which the young men have drawn.”

Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?”

Boaz answered her, “It has fully been shown me, all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband; and how you have left your father and your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before. May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your handmaid, though I am not as one of your handmaidens.”

At meal time Boaz said to her, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.”

She sat beside the reapers, and they reached her parched grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left some of it.

When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don’t reproach her. Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and don’t rebuke her.”

So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. She took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she was sufficed.

Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.”

She showed her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of Yahweh, who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall stay close to my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.’”

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.” So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Now isn’t Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? Behold, he winnows barley tonight in the threshing floor. Therefore wash yourself, anoint yourself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor, but don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall mark the place where he shall lie, and you shall go in, and uncover his feet, and lay down; then he will tell you what you shall do.”

She said to her, “All that you say I will do.” She went down to the threshing floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law told her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. She came softly, uncovered his feet, and laid her down. It happened at midnight, that the man was startled and turned himself; and behold, a woman lay at his feet. He said, “Who are you?”

She answered, “I am Ruth your handmaid. Therefore spread your skirt over your handmaid; for you are a near kinsman.”

He said, “Blessed are you by Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as you didn’t follow young men, whether poor or rich. Now, my daughter, don’t be afraid; I will do to you all that you say; for all the city of my people does know that you are a worthy woman. Now it is true that I am a near kinsman; however there is a kinsman nearer than I. Stay this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform for you the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman’s part. But if he will not do the part of a kinsman for you, then will I do the part of a kinsman for you, as Yahweh lives. Lie down until the morning.”

She lay at his feet until the morning. She rose up before one could discern another. For he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” He said, “Bring the mantle that is on you, and hold it.” She held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her; and he went into the city.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did it go, my daughter?”

She told her all that the man had done to her.

She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley; for he said, ‘Don’t go empty to your mother-in-law.’”

Then she said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will fall; for the man will not rest, until he has finished the thing this day.”

Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. Behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; to whom he said, “Come over here, friend, and sit down!” He turned aside, and sat down. He took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here.” They sat down. He said to the near kinsman, “Naomi, who has come back out of the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s. I thought to disclose it to you, saying, ‘Buy it before those who sit here, and before the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know. For there is no one to redeem it besides you; and I am after you.”

He said, “I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance.”

The near kinsman said, “I can’t redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself; for I can’t redeem it.”

Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of attestation in Israel. So the near kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” He took off his shoe.

Boaz said to the elders, and to all the people, “You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day.”

All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem. Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which Yahweh shall give you of this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son. The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it. The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi”; and they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron, and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon, and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

Book of Deuteronomy

Oct 182008

1:1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 1:2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 1:3 It happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them; 1:4 after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 1:5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, 1:6 Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain: 1:7 turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all the places near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 1:8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them. 1:9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone: 1:10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude. 1:11 Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you! 1:12 How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden, and your strife? 1:13 Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. 1:14 You answered me, and said, The thing which you have spoken is good for us to do. 1:15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. 1:16 I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. 1:17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it. 1:18 I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 1:19 We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. 1:20 I said to you, You are come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. 1:21 Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed. 1:22 You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come. 1:23 The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe: 1:24 and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. 1:25 They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which Yahweh our God gives to us. 1:26 Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God: 1:27 and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 1:28 Where are we going up? our brothers have made our heart to melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. 1:29 Then I said to you, Don’t dread, neither be afraid of them. 1:30 Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 1:31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that Yahweh your God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place. 1:32 Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yahweh your God, 1:33 who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. 1:34 Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, 1:35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, 1:36 save Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh. 1:37 Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, You also shall not go in there: 1:38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 1:39 Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it. 1:40 But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. 1:41 Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Yahweh, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us. You girded on every man his weapons of war, and were forward to go up into the hill country. 1:42 Yahweh said to me, Tell them, Don’t go up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies. 1:43 So I spoke to you, and you didn’t listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill country. 1:44 The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah. 1:45 You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn’t listen to your voice, nor gave ear to you. 1:46 So you abode in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you abode there.

2:1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount Seir many days. 2:2 Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 2:3 You have encircled this mountain long enough: turn you northward. 2:4 Command you the people, saying, You are to pass through the border of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you: take good heed to yourselves therefore; 2:5 don’t contend with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession. 2:6 You shall purchase food of them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink. 2:7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; he has known your walking through this great wilderness: these forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing. 2:8 So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 2:9 Yahweh said to me, Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you of his land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession. 2:10 (The Emim lived therein before, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim: 2:11 these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 2:12 The Horites also lived in Seir before, but the children of Esau succeeded them; and they destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them.) 2:13 Now rise up, and get you over the brook Zered. We went over the brook Zered. 2:14 The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. 2:15 Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed. 2:16 So it happened, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 2:17 that Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 2:18 You are this day to pass over Ar, the border of Moab: 2:19 and when you come near over against the children of Ammon, don’t bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession. 2:20 (That also is accounted a land of Rephaim: Rephaim lived therein before; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 2:21 a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place; 2:22 as he did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day: 2:23 and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived in their place.) 2:24 Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle. 2:25 This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you. 2:26 I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 2:27 Let me pass through your land: I will go along by the highway, I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. 2:28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only let me pass through on my feet, 2:29 as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us. 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day. 2:31 Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you: begin to possess, that you may inherit his land. 2:32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 2:33 Yahweh our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, and his sons, and all his people. 2:34 We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining: 2:35 only the livestock we took for a prey to ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we had taken. 2:36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; Yahweh our God delivered up all before us: 2:37 only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn’t come near; all the side of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.

3:1 Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 3:2 Yahweh said to me, Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon. 3:3 So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining. 3:4 We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn’t take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 3:5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many. 3:6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. 3:7 But all the livestock, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves. 3:8 We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon; 3:9 (which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir;) 3:10 all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 3:11 (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, after the cubit of a man.) 3:12 This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead, and its cities, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites: 3:13 and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 3:14 Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth Jair, to this day.) 3:15 I gave Gilead to Machir. 3:16 To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border of it, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 3:17 the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border of it, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. 3:18 I commanded you at that time, saying, Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor. 3:19 But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall abide in your cities which I have given you, 3:20 until Yahweh give rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then you shall return every man to his possession, which I have given you. 3:21 I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings: so shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over. 3:22 You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you. 3:23 I begged Yahweh at that time, saying, 3:24 Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to your works, and according to your mighty acts? 3:25 Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. 3:26 But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn’t listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter. 3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes: for you shall not go over this Jordan. 3:28 But commission Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see. 3:29 So we abode in the valley over against Beth Peor.

4:1 Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you. 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you. 4:3 Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from the midst of you. 4:4 But you who did cleave to Yahweh your God are alive everyone of you this day. 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it. 4:6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. 4:7 For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? 4:8 What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? 4:9 Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children; 4:10 the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children. 4:11 You came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 4:12 Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; only you heard a voice. 4:13 He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone. 4:14 Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. 4:15 Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire. 4:16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 4:17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 4:18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; 4:19 and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 4:20 But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day. 4:21 Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance: 4:22 but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land. 4:23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. 4:24 For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. 4:25 When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger; 4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed. 4:27 Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh shall lead you away. 4:28 There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 4:29 But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4:30 When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice: 4:31 for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? 4:33 Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 4:34 Or has God tried to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 4:35 To you it was shown, that you might know that Yahweh he is God; there is none else besides him. 4:36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 4:37 Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; 4:38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day. 4:39 Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else. 4:40 You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever. 4:41 Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 4:42 that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 4:43 namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. 4:44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel: 4:45 these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt, 4:46 beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt. 4:47 They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 4:48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (the same is Hermon), 4:49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

5:1 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them. 5:2 Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 5:3 Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 5:4 Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, 5:5 (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you the word of Yahweh: for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain;) saying, 5:6 “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 5:7 You shall have no other gods before me.

5:8 “You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5:9 you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me; 5:10 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

5:11 “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

5:12 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 5:13 You shall labor six days, and do all your work; 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 5:15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

5:17 “You shall not murder.

5:18 “Neither shall you commit adultery.

5:19 “Neither shall you steal.

5:20 “Neither shall you give false testimony against your neighbor.

5:21 “Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

5:22 These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me. 5:23 It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 5:24 and you said, Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives. 5:25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then we shall die. 5:26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 5:27 Go you near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say: and speak you to us all that Yahweh our God shall speak to you; and we will hear it, and do it. 5:28 Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken. 5:29 Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! 5:30 Go tell them, Return you to your tents. 5:31 But as for you, stand you here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. 5:32 You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 5:33 You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

6:1 Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it; 6:2 that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 6:3 Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 6:4 Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one: 6:5 and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6:6 These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart; 6:7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 6:8 You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. 6:9 You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates. 6:10 It shall be, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build, 6:11 and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; 6:12 then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 6:13 You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 6:14 You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; 6:15 for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 6:16 You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 6:17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 6:18 You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 6:19 to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 6:20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you? 6:21 then you shall tell your son, We were Pharaoh’s bondservants in Egypt: and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 6:22 and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 6:23 and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 6:24 Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. 6:25 It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.

7:1 When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; 7:2 and when Yahweh your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them; 7:3 neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. 7:4 For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so the anger of Yahweh would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 7:5 But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire. 7:6 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7:7 Yahweh didn’t set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: 7:8 but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 7:9 Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 7:10 and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face. 7:11 You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them. 7:12 It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers: 7:13 and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. 7:14 You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. 7:15 Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, he will put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 7:16 You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you. 7:17 If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? 7:18 you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt; 7:19 the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out: so shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 7:20 Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. 7:21 You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God. 7:22 Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. 7:23 But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed. 7:24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky: there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 7:25 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 7:26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

8:1 You shall observe to do all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. 8:2 You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. 8:3 He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live. 8:4 Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 8:5 You shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh your God chastens you. 8:6 You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 8:7 For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills; 8:8 a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 8:9 a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper. 8:10 You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. 8:11 Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you this day: 8:12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and lived therein; 8:13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 8:14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; 8:15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint; 8:16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn’t know; that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end: 8:17 and lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. 8:18 But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. 8:19 It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. 8:20 As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

9:1 Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, 9:2 a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? 9:3 Know therefore this day, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you: so you shall drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. 9:4 Don’t speak in your heart, after that Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh does drive them out from before you. 9:5 Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 9:6 Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. 9:7 Remember, don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 9:8 Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. 9:9 When I was gone up onto the mountain to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. 9:10 Yahweh delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. 9:11 It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. 9:12 Yahweh said to me, Arise, get you down quickly from hence; for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. 9:13 Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people: 9:14 let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they. 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. 9:16 I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made you a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you. 9:17 I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 9:18 I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also. 9:20 Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 9:21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 9:22 At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. 9:23 When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him, nor listen to his voice. 9:24 You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. 9:25 So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you. 9:26 I prayed to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don’t look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin, 9:28 lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness. 9:29 Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

10:1 At that time Yahweh said to me, Cut two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 10:2 I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tables of stone like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tables in my hand. 10:4 He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me. 10:5 I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me. 10:6 (The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place. 10:7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. 10:8 At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. 10:9 Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.) 10:10 I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you. 10:11 Yahweh said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them. 10:12 Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 10:13 to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good? 10:14 Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. 10:15 Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day. 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. 10:17 For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t regard persons, nor takes reward. 10:18 He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. 10:19 Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 10:20 You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. 10:21 He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. 10:22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

11:1 Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always. 11:2 Know you this day: for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm, 11:3 and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 11:4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day; 11:5 and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; 11:6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel: 11:7 but your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did. 11:8 Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it; 11:9 and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. 11:10 For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn’t as the land of Egypt, from whence you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; 11:11 but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinks water of the rain of the sky, 11:12 a land which Yahweh your God cares for: the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. 11:13 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 11:14 that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil. 11:15 I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 11:16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 11:17 and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you. 11:18 Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. 11:19 You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 11:20 You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates; 11:21 that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth. 11:22 For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to him; 11:23 then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 11:24 Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border. 11:25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on, as he has spoken to you. 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 11:27 the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day; 11:28 and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known. 11:29 It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 11:30 Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 11:31 For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein. 11:32 You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.

12:1 These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth. 12:2 You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree: 12:3 and you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods; and you shall destroy their name out of that place. 12:4 You shall not do so to Yahweh your God. 12:5 But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even to his habitation you shall seek, and there you shall come; 12:6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock: 12:7 and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. 12:8 You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 12:9 for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you. 12:10 But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety; 12:11 then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh. 12:12 You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your male servants, and your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 12:13 Take heed to yourself that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 12:14 but in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. 12:15 Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart. 12:16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water. 12:17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand; 12:18 but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to. 12:19 Take heed to yourself that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. 12:20 When Yahweh your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul desires to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, after all the desire of your soul. 12:21 If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul. 12:22 Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so you shall eat of it: the unclean and the clean may eat of it alike. 12:23 Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 12:24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth as water. 12:25 You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh. 12:26 Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose: 12:27 and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God; and you shall eat the flesh. 12:28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. 12:29 When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land; 12:30 take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 12:31 You shall not do so to Yahweh your God: for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods. 12:32 Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

13:1 If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder, 13:2 and the sign or the wonder come to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them; 13:3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams: for Yahweh your God proves you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 13:4 You shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave to him. 13:5 That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

13:6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers; 13:7 of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; 13:8 you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him: 13:9 but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 13:10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13:11 All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you.

13:12 If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, saying, 13:13 Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known; 13:14 then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in the midst of you, 13:15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword. 13:16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its spoil every whit, to Yahweh your God: and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again. 13:17 There shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand; that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers; 13:18 when you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

14:1 You are the children of Yahweh your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 14:2 For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 14:3 You shall not eat any abominable thing. 14:4 These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 14:5 the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the ibex, and the antelope, and the chamois. 14:6 Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat. 14:7 Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit; because they chew the cud but don’t part the hoof, they are unclean to you. 14:8 The pig, because it has a split hoof but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you: of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. 14:9 These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat; 14:10 and whatever doesn’t have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you. 14:11 Of all clean birds you may eat. 14:12 But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the vulture, and the osprey, 14:13 and the red kite, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind, 14:14 and every raven after its kind, 14:15 and the ostrich, and the owl, and the seagull, and the hawk after its kind, 14:16 the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl, 14:17 and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant, 14:18 and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. 14:19 All winged creeping things are unclean to you: they shall not be eaten. 14:20 Of all clean birds you may eat. 14:21 You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner: for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. 14:22 You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes forth from the field year by year. 14:23 You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always. 14:24 If the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Yahweh your God shall choose, to set his name there, when Yahweh your God shall bless you; 14:25 then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: 14:26 and you shall bestow the money for whatever your soul desires, for cattle, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. 14:27 The Levite who is within your gates, you shall not forsake him; for he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 14:28 At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates: 14:29 and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

15:1 At the end of every seven years you shall make a release. 15:2 This is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because Yahweh’s release has been proclaimed. 15:3 Of a foreigner you may exact it: but whatever of your is with your brother your hand shall release. 15:4 However there shall be no poor with you; (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it;) 15:5 if only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day. 15:6 For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you: and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. 15:7 If there be with you a poor man, one of your brothers, within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; 15:8 but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wants. 15:9 Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you. 15:10 You shall surely give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because that for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to. 15:11 For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land. 15:12 If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold to you, and serve you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 15:13 When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty: 15:14 you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress; as Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. 15:15 You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you: therefore I command you this thing today. 15:16 It shall be, if he tell you, I will not go out from you; because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you; 15:17 then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise. 15:18 It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for to the double of the hire of a hireling has he served you six years: and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do. 15:19 All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock you shall sanctify to Yahweh your God: you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 15:20 You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household. 15:21 If it have any blemish, as if it be lame or blind, any ill blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God. 15:22 You shall eat it within your gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart. 15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground as water.

16:1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. 16:3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 16:4 There shall be no yeast seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. 16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you; 16:6 but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt. 16:7 You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents. 16:8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work therein. 16:9 You shall count seven weeks to you: from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to number seven weeks. 16:10 You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you: 16:11 and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. 16:12 You shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes. 16:13 You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after that you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress: 16:14 and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates. 16:15 You shall keep a feast to Yahweh your God seven days in the place which Yahweh shall choose; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful. 16:16 Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents; and they shall not appear before Yahweh empty: 16:17 every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you. 16:18 You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 16:19 You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 16:20 You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16:21 You shall not plant you an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make you. 16:22 Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar; which Yahweh your God hates.

17:1 You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, or anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17:2 If there be found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, in transgressing his covenant, 17:3 and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded; 17:4 and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel, 17:5 then you shall bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones. 17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 17:7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 17:8 If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then you shall arise, and go up to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose; 17:9 and you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment. 17:10 You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which Yahweh shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you: 17:11 according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left. 17:12 The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Israel. 17:13 All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. 17:14 When you are come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me; 17:15 you shall surely set him king over you, whom Yahweh your God shall choose: one from among your brothers you shall set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 17:16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way. 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. 17:18 It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: 17:19 and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; 17:20 that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

18:1 The priests the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and his inheritance. 18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. 18:3 This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. 18:4 The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 18:5 For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, him and his sons for ever. 18:6 If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose; 18:7 then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh. 18:8 They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony. 18:9 When you are come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. 18:10 There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, 18:11 or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 18:12 For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you. 18:13 You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God. 18:14 For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do. 18:15 Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him. 18:16 This is according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die. 18:17 Yahweh said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken. 18:18 I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. 18:19 It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. 18:20 But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. 18:21 If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken? 18:22 when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

19:1 When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses; 19:2 you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. 19:3 You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there. 19:4 This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; 19:5 as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to chop wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live: 19:6 lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn’t hate him in time past. 19:7 Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you. 19:8 If Yahweh your God enlarge your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers; 19:9 if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then you shall add three cities more for you, besides these three: 19:10 that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you. 19:11 But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities; 19:12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 19:13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. 19:14 You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it. 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established. 19:16 If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing, 19:17 then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; 19:18 and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother; 19:19 then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 19:20 Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you. 19:21 Your eyes shall not pity; life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20:1 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 20:2 It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, 20:3 and shall tell them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; 20:4 for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 20:5 The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 20:6 What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 20:7 What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. 20:8 The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart. 20:9 It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people. 20:10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 20:11 It shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you. 20:12 If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it: 20:13 and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword: 20:14 but the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its spoil, you shall take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. 20:15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 20:16 But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 20:17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you; 20:18 that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God. 20:19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you? 20:20 Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.

21:1 If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him; 21:2 then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain: 21:3 and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke; 21:4 and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 21:5 The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be. 21:6 All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; 21:7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 21:8 Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood to remain in the midst of your people Israel. The blood shall be forgiven them. 21:9 So you shall put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh. 21:10 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, 21:11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife; 21:12 then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; 21:13 and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 21:14 It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her. 21:15 If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated; 21:16 then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn: 21:17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his. 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them; 21:19 then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place; 21:20 and they shall tell the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21:21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 21:22 If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree; 21:23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

22:1 You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother. 22:2 If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him. 22:3 So you shall do with his donkey; and so you shall do with his garment; and so you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost, and you have found: you may not hide yourself. 22:4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again. 22:5 A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 22:6 If a bird’s nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young: 22:7 you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days. 22:8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you don’t bring blood on your house, if any man fall from there. 22:9 You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. 22:10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 22:11 You shall not wear a mixed stuff, wool and linen together. 22:12 You shall make yourselves fringes on the four borders of your cloak, with which you cover yourself. 22:13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and hates her, 22:14 and accuses her of shameful things, and brings up an evil name on her, and says, I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity; 22:15 then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate; 22:16 and the young lady’s father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her; 22:17 and behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. They shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 22:18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him; 22:19 and they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 22:20 But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady; 22:21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 22:22 If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman: so you shall put away the evil from Israel. 22:23 If there be a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 22:24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 22:25 But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die: 22:26 but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter; 22:27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was none to save her. 22:28 If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; 22:29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days. 22:30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

23:1 He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh. 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh. 23:3 An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever: 23:4 because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 23:5 Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn’t listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you. 23:6 You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever. 23:7 You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother: you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you lived as a foreigner in his land. 23:8 The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh. 23:9 When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep you from every evil thing. 23:10 If there be among you any man, who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp: 23:11 but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp. 23:12 You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad: 23:13 and you shall have a paddle among your weapons; and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which comes from you: 23:14 for Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you. 23:15 You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you: 23:16 he shall dwell with you, in the midst of you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best: you shall not oppress him. 23:17 There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel. 23:18 You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 23:19 You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of food, interest of anything that is lent on interest: 23:20 to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it. 23:21 When you shall vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it: for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you. 23:22 But if you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you. 23:23 That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth. 23:24 When you come into your neighbor’s vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your vessel. 23:25 When you come into your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

24:1 When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 24:2 When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 24:3 If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; 24:4 her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. 24:5 When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken. 24:6 No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes a man’s life to pledge. 24:7 If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 24:8 Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. 24:9 Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt. 24:10 When you do lend your neighbor any manner of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 24:11 You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you. 24:12 If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge; 24:13 you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. 24:14 You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates: 24:15 in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 24:17 You shall not wrest the justice due to the foreigner, or to the fatherless, nor take the widow’s clothing to pledge; 24:18 but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing. 24:19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 24:20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 24:22 You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

25:1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked; 25:2 and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 25:3 Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you. 25:4 You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 25:5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. 25:6 It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. 25:7 If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me. 25:8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don’t want to take her; 25:9 then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house. 25:10 His name shall be called in Israel, The house of him who has his shoe untied. 25:11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets; 25:12 then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity. 25:13 You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small. 25:14 You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small. 25:15 You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 25:16 For all who do such things, even all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 25:17 Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt; 25:18 how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn’t fear God. 25:19 Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.

26:1 It shall be, when you are come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein, 26:2 that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you; and you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. 26:3 You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to Yahweh your God, that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us. 26:4 The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. 26:5 You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 26:6 The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard bondage: 26:7 and we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression; 26:8 and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders; 26:9 and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me. You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God. 26:11 You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you. 26:12 When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled. 26:13 You shall say before Yahweh your God, I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them: 26:14 I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me. 26:15 Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:16 This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances: you shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul. 26:17 You have declared Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice: 26:18 and Yahweh has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments; 26:19 and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.

27:1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day. 27:2 It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and plaster them with plaster: 27:3 and you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you are passed over; that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 27:4 It shall be, when you are passed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 27:5 There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones: you shall lift up no iron tool on them. 27:6 You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to Yahweh your God: 27:7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 27:8 You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. 27:9 Moses and the priests the Levites spoke to all Israel, saying, Keep silence, and listen, Israel: this day you are become the people of Yahweh your God. 27:10 You shall therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day. 27:11 Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 27:12 These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are passed over the Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin. 27:13 These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 27:14 The Levites shall answer, and tell all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 27:15 Cursed be the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer and say, Amen. 27:16 Cursed be he who sets light by his father or his mother. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:17 Cursed be he who removes his neighbor’s landmark. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:18 Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:19 Cursed be he who wrests the justice due to the foreigner, fatherless, and widow. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:20 Cursed be he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s skirt. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:21 Cursed be he who lies with any manner of animal. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:22 Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:23 Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:24 Cursed be he who strikes his neighbor in secret. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:25 Cursed be he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. All the people shall say, Amen. 27:26 Cursed be he who doesn’t confirm the words of this law to do them. All the people shall say, Amen.

28:1 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth: 28:2 and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 28:3 You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field. 28:4 You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock. 28:5 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed. 28:6 You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out. 28:7 Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways. 28:8 Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 28:9 Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways. 28:10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh; and they shall be afraid of you. 28:11 Yahweh will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. 28:12 Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow. 28:13 Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do them, 28:14 and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you. 28:16 You shall be cursed in the city, and you shall be cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your kneading trough shall be cursed. 28:18 The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock shall be cursed. 28:19 You shall be cursed when you come in, and you shall be cursed when you go out. 28:20 Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. 28:21 Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it. 28:22 Yahweh will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. 28:23 Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron. 28:24 Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed. 28:25 Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away. 28:27 Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. 28:28 Yahweh will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart; 28:29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you. 28:30 You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use its fruit. 28:31 Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you. 28:32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand. 28:33 The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don’t know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always; 28:34 so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. 28:35 Yahweh will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 28:36 Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. 28:37 You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where Yahweh shall lead you away. 28:38 You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it. 28:39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worm shall eat them. 28:40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast its fruit. 28:41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 28:42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess. 28:43 The foreigner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower. 28:44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. 28:45 All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you: 28:46 and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever. 28:47 Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; 28:48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he have destroyed you. 28:49 Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand; 28:50 a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, 28:51 and shall eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. 28:52 They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you. 28:53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 28:54 The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining; 28:55 so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates. 28:56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, 28:57 and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates. 28:58 If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD; 28:59 then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance. 28:60 He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you. 28:61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring on you, until you are destroyed. 28:62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh your God. 28:63 It shall happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it. 28:64 Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. 28:65 Among these nations you shall find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; 28:66 and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 28:67 In the morning you shall say, Would it were even! and at even you shall say, Would it were morning! for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see. 28:68 Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

29:1 These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. 29:2 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; 29:3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders: 29:4 but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. 29:5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoe has not grown old on your foot. 29:6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God. 29:7 When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them: 29:8 and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. 29:9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. 29:10 You stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 29:11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water; 29:12 that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day; 29:13 that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 29:14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, 29:15 but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day 29:16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; 29:17 and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them); 29:18 lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; 29:19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry. 29:20 Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky. 29:21 Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law. 29:22 The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick; 29:23 and that the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: 29:24 even all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger? 29:25 Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, 29:26 and went and served other gods, and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know, and that he had not given to them: 29:27 therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book; 29:28 and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day. 29:29 The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

30:1 It shall happen, when all these things are come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you, 30:2 and shall return to Yahweh your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; 30:3 that then Yahweh your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Yahweh your God has scattered you. 30:4 If any of your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will Yahweh your God gather you, and from there he will bring you back: 30:5 and Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers. 30:6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live. 30:7 Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 30:8 You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh, and do all his commandments which I command you this day. 30:9 Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good: for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers; 30:10 if you shall obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. 30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? 30:14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it. 30:15 Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil; 30:16 in that I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 30:17 But if your heart turn away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 30:18 I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed; 30:20 to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

31:1 Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 31:2 He said to them, I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and Yahweh has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan. 31:3 Yahweh your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 31:4 Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed. 31:5 Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you. 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, don’t be afraid, nor be scared of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you. 31:7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage: for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it. 31:8 Yahweh, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed. 31:9 Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel. 31:10 Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents, 31:11 when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 31:12 Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law; 31:13 and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it. 31:14 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting, that I may commission him. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the Tent of Meeting. 31:15 Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent. 31:16 Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. 31:17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, Haven’t these evils come on us because our God is not among us? 31:18 I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods. 31:19 Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. 31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant. 31:21 It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore. 31:22 So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. 31:23 He commissioned Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I will be with you. 31:24 It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 31:25 that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying, 31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 31:27 For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death? 31:28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 31:29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will happen to you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. 31:30 Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

32:1 Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak.
Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain.
My speech shall condense as the dew,
as the small rain on the tender grass,
as the showers on the herb.
32:3 For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh.
Ascribe greatness to our God!
32:4 The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice:
a God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and right is he.
32:5 They have dealt corruptly with him, they are not his children, it is their blemish.
They are a perverse and crooked generation.
32:6 Do you thus requite Yahweh,
foolish people and unwise?
Isn’t he your father who has bought you?
He has made you, and established you.
32:7 Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he separated the children of men,
he set the bounds of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
32:9 For Yahweh’s portion is his people.
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
32:10 He found him in a desert land,
in the waste howling wilderness.
He surrounded him.
He cared for him.
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
32:11 As an eagle that stirs up her nest,
that flutters over her young,
he spread abroad his wings, he took them,
he bore them on his feathers.
32:12 Yahweh alone led him.
There was no foreign god with him.
32:13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth.
He ate the increase of the field.
He caused him to suck honey out of the rock,
oil out of the flinty rock;
32:14 Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
with the finest of the wheat.
Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.
32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked.
You have grown fat.
You have grown thick.
You have become sleek.
Then he forsook God who made him,
and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
32:16 They moved him to jealousy with strange gods.
They provoked him to anger with abominations.
32:17 They sacrificed to demons, which were no God,
to gods that they didn’t know,
to new gods that came up of late,
which your fathers didn’t dread.
32:18 Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful,
and have forgotten God who gave you birth.
32:19 Yahweh saw it, and abhorred them,
because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
32:20 He said, I will hide my face from them.
I will see what their end shall be;
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.
They have provoked me to anger with their vanities.
I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people.
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
32:22 For a fire is kindled in my anger,
Burns to the lowest Sheol,
Devours the earth with its increase,
and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.
32:23 I will heap evils on them.
I will spend my arrows on them.
32:24 They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat
and bitter destruction.
I will send the teeth of animals on them,
With the poison of crawling things of the dust.
32:25 Outside the sword shall bereave,
and in the chambers, terror;
on both young man and virgin,
The suckling with the gray-haired man.
32:26 I said, I would scatter them afar.
I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;
32:27 were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy,
lest their adversaries should judge wrongly,
lest they should say, Our hand is exalted,
Yahweh has not done all this.
32:28 For they are a nation void of counsel.
There is no understanding in them.
32:29 Oh that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!
32:30 How could one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and Yahweh had delivered them up?
32:31 For their rock is not as our Rock,
even our enemies themselves being judges.
32:32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom,
of the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are grapes of gall,
Their clusters are bitter.
32:33 Their wine is the poison of serpents,
The cruel venom of asps.
32:34 Isn’t this laid up in store with me,
sealed up among my treasures?
32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
at the time when their foot slides;
for the day of their calamity is at hand.
The things that are to come on them shall make haste.
32:36 For Yahweh will judge his people,
and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone,
There is none remaining, shut up or left at large.
32:37 He will say, Where are their gods,
The rock in which they took refuge;
32:38 Which ate the fat of their sacrifices,
And drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you!
Let them be your protection.
32:39 See now that I, even I, am he,
There is no god with me.
I kill, and I make alive.
I wound, and I heal.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
32:40 For I lift up my hand to heaven,
And say, As I live forever,
32:41 if I whet my glittering sword,
My hand take hold on judgment;
I will render vengeance to my adversaries,
and will recompense those who hate me.
32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood.
My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the head of the leaders of the enemy.
32:43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants.
He will render vengeance to his adversaries,
And will make expiation for his land, for his people.

32:44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 32:45 Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel; 32:46 He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, even all the words of this law. 32:47 For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it. 32:48 Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 32:49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession; 32:50 and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people: 32:51 because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn’t sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel. 32:52 For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.

33:1 This is the blessing, with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. 33:2 He said,

Yahweh came from Sinai,
And rose from Seir to them.
He shone forth from Mount Paran.
He came from the ten thousands of holy ones.
At his right hand was a fiery law for them.
33:3 Yes, he loves the people.
All his saints are in your hand.
They sat down at your feet;
Everyone shall receive of your words.
33:4 Moses commanded us a law,
An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.
33:5 He was king in Jeshurun,
When the heads of the people were gathered,
All the tribes of Israel together.
33:6 Let Reuben live, and not die;
Nor let his men be few.

33:7 This is the blessing of Judah: and he said,

Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah.
Bring him in to his people.
With his hands he contended for himself.
You shall be a help against his adversaries.

33:8 Of Levi he said,

Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one,
whom you proved at Massah,
with whom you strove at the waters of Meribah;
33:9 who said of his father, and of his mother, I have not seen him;
Neither did he acknowledge his brothers,
Nor did he know his own children:
For they have observed your word,
and keep your covenant.
33:10 They shall teach Jacob your ordinances,
and Israel your law.
They shall put incense before you,
and whole burnt offering on your altar.
33:11 Yahweh, bless his substance.
Accept the work of his hands.
Strike through the hips of those who rise up against him,
of those who hate him, that they not rise again.

33:12 Of Benjamin he said,

The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by him.
He covers him all the day long.
He dwells between his shoulders.

33:13 Of Joseph he said,

His land is blessed by Yahweh,
for the precious things of the heavens, for the dew,
for the deep that couches beneath,
33:14 for the precious things of the fruits of the sun,
for the precious things of the growth of the moons,
33:15 for the chief things of the ancient mountains,
for the precious things of the everlasting hills,
33:16 for the precious things of the earth and its fullness,
the good will of him who lived in the bush.
Let the blessing come on the head of Joseph,
On the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
33:17 The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his.
His horns are the horns of the wild ox.
With them he shall push the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth:
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim.
They are the thousands of Manasseh.

33:18 Of Zebulun he said,

Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out;
and Issachar, in your tents.
33:19 They shall call the peoples to the mountain.
There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness,
for they shall draw out the abundance of the seas,
the hidden treasures of the sand.

33:20 Of Gad he said,

He who enlarges Gad is blessed.
He dwells as a lioness,
and tears the arm, yes, the crown of the head.
33:21 He provided the first part for himself,
for there was the lawgiver’s portion reserved.
He came with the heads of the people.
He executed the righteousness of Yahweh,
His ordinances with Israel.

33:22 Of Dan he said,

Dan is a lion’s cub
that leaps out of Bashan.

33:23 Of Naphtali he said,

Naphtali, satisfied with favor,
full of the blessing of Yahweh,
Possess the west and the south.

33:24 Of Asher he said,

Asher is blessed with children.
Let him be acceptable to his brothers.
Let him dip his foot in oil.
33:25 Your bars shall be iron and brass.
As your days, so your strength will be.
33:26 There is none like God, Jeshurun,
who rides on the heavens for your help,
In his excellency on the skies.
33:27 The eternal God is your dwelling place.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.
He thrust out the enemy from before you,
and said, Destroy.
33:28 Israel dwells in safety;
the fountain of Jacob alone,
In a land of grain and new wine.
Yes, his heavens drop down dew.
33:29 You are happy, Israel.
Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh,
the shield of your help,
the sword of your excellency!
Your enemies shall submit themselves to you.
You shall tread on their high places.

34:1 Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan, 34:2 and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the hinder sea, 34:3 and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar. 34:4 Yahweh said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed: I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. 34:5 So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh. 34:6 He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor: but no man knows of his tomb to this day. 34:7 Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 34:8 The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended. 34:9 Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands on him: and the children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses. 34:10 There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face, 34:11 in all the signs and the wonders, which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, 34:12 and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moses worked in the sight of all Israel.

The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians

Oct 182008

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely bestowed favor on us in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him; in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will; to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation – in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision,” (in the flesh, made by hands); that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News, of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.

For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love; being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” Now this, “He ascended,” what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you did not learn Christ that way; if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another. “Be angry, and don’t sin.” Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks.

Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light. Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly; because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. “For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.” This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly. Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”

You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ; not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.

You masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints: on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Good News, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

But that you also may know my affairs, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make known to you all things; whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts.

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Amen.

Book of Obadiah

Oct 182008

The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let’s rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there,” says Yahweh. “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night – oh, what disaster awaits you – wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes? How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out! All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him.”

“Won’t I in that day,” says Yahweh, “destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau? Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter. For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them. But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress. Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity. Don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don’t deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress. For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been. But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions. The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau.” Indeed, Yahweh has spoken.

Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead. The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev. Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.

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