Chosen, Tested, and Sustained by Grace

1. When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; 2. and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. 3. You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. 4. For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5. But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire. 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. 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: 8. but because Yahweh loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9. Know therefore that Yahweh your God himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 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. 11. You shall therefore keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you today, to do them. 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. 13. He will love you, 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. 14. You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. 15. Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and he will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16. You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you. Your eye shall not pity them. You shall not serve their gods; for that would be a snare to you. 17. If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?” 18. you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt: 19. the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, 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. 20. Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. 21. You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God. 22. Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. 23. But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24. He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 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. 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. 1. You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers. 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. 3. He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth. 4. Your clothing didn’t grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years. 5. You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Yahweh your God disciplines you. 6. You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 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. a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey; 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. 10. You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. 11. Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today; 12. lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses, and lived in them; 13. and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14. then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; 15. who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint; 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: 17. and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” 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 it is today. 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 today that you shall surely perish. 20. As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice. 1. Hear, Israel! You are to pass over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky, 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?” 3. Know therefore today, 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 perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you. 4. Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 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. 6. Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. 7. Remember, and don’t forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you left the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. 8. Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. 9. When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10. Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11. It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. 12. Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!” 13. Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 14. Leave 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.” 15. So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16. I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. 17. I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18. I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. 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. 20. Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21. I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22. At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath. 23. When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn’t believe him, nor listen to his voice. 24. You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you. 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. 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 out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t look at the stubbornness of this people, nor at their wickedness, nor at their sin, 28. lest the land you brought us out from 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.’ 29. Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”

1. Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; 2. that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3. For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries. 4. They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming: 5. who will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6. For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit. 7. But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. 8. And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10. As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms. 11. If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 12. Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. 13. But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy. 14. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. 15. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. 16. But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter. 17. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God? 18. “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?” 19. Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator. 1. Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed. 2. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly; 3. neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. 4. When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away. 5. Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 6. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; 7. casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you. 8. Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. 10. But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. 12. Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. 13. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you; and so does Mark, my son. 14. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. Yahweh reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned among the cherubim. Let the earth be moved. 2. Yahweh is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples. 3. Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is Holy! 4. The King’s strength also loves justice. You do establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob. 5. Exalt Yahweh our God. Worship at his footstool. He is Holy! 6. Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who call on his name; they called on Yahweh, and he answered them. 7. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies, the statute that he gave them. 8. You answered them, Yahweh our God. You are a God who forgave them, although you took vengeance for their doings. 9. Exalt Yahweh, our God. Worship at his holy hill, for Yahweh, our God, is holy!