Remember How God Led You Forward

1. These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suf, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 3. In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them; 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. 5. Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, 6. “Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have lived long enough at this mountain. 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, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 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 offspring after them.’” 9. I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. 10. Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. 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! 12. How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? 13. Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.” 14. You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have spoken is good to do.” 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. 16. I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. 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. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18. I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. 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. 20. I said to you, “You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us. 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.” 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.” 23. The thing pleased me well. I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe. 24. They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. 25. They took some 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.” 26. Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God. 27. You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’” 29. Then I said to you, “Don’t dread, neither be afraid of them. 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, 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.” 32. Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yahweh your God, 33. who went before you on the way, to seek out a place for you to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. 34. Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, 35. “Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, 36. except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. I will give the land that he has trodden on to him, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh.” 37. Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, “You also shall not go in there. 38. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. 39. Moreover your little ones, whom you said would be captured or killed, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, shall go in there. I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. 40. But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.” 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.” Every man of you put on his weapons of war, and presumed to go up into the hill country. 42. Yahweh said to me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t go up and don’t fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.’” 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. 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. 45. You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn’t listen to your voice, nor turn his ear to you. 46. So you stayed in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained. 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. Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 3. “You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward. 4. Command 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. Therefore be careful. 5. Don’t contend with them; for I will not give you any 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. 6. You shall purchase food from them for money, that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them for money, that you may drink.’” 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. 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. 9. Yahweh said to me, “Don’t bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you any of his land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.” 10. (The Emim lived therein before, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim. 11. These also are considered to be Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim. 12. The Horites also lived in Seir before, but the children of Esau succeeded them. 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.) 13. “Now rise up, and cross over the brook Zered.” We went over the brook Zered. 14. The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the middle of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them. 15. Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed. 16. So, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people, 17. Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 18. “You are to pass over Ar, the border of Moab, today. 19. When you come near the border of the children of Ammon, don’t bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.” 20. (That also is considered a land of Rephaim: Rephaim lived there before; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim, 21. a great people, many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place; 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: 23. and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived in their place.) 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. 25. Today I will 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.” 26. I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 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. 28. You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink. Just let me pass through on my feet, 29. as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me; until I pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us.” 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 it is today. 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.” 32. Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33. Yahweh our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, his sons, and all his people. 34. We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining. 35. Only the livestock we took for plunder for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities which we had taken. 36. From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and 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. 37. Only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn’t come near; all the banks of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us. 1. Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2. Yahweh said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people, and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.” 3. So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining. 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. 5. All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides a great many villages without walls. 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. 7. But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves. 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. 9. (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.) 10. We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 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 width, after the cubit of a man.) 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, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites: 13. and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim. 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.) 15. I gave Gilead to Machir. 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 its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 17. the Arabah also, and the Jordan and its border, from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward. 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. 19. But your wives, and your little ones, and your livestock, (I know that you have much livestock), shall live in your cities which I have given you, 20. until Yahweh gives 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 each return to his own possession, which I have given you.” 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. 22. You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God himself fights for you.” 23. I begged Yahweh at that time, saying, 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 works like yours, and mighty acts like yours? 25. Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine mountain, and Lebanon.” 26. But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn’t listen to me. Yahweh said to me, “Let this satisfy you. Speak no more to me of this matter. 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. 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.” 29. So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

1. Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2. You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3. You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4. You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”? 6. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7. Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11. Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12. Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? 13. Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14. Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15. For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16. But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17. To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin. 1. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 2. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you. 7. Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 8. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9. Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. 10. Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11. Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the perseverance of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12. But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your “no”, “no”; so that you don’t fall into hypocrisy. 13. Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. 14. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 15. and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16. Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. 17. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18. He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. 19. Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, 20. let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

1. Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad! 2. Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. 3. A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries on every side. 4. His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles. 5. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 6. The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory. 7. Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods! 8. Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of your judgments, Yahweh. 9. For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. 10. You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. 11. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. 12. Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.