Joshua 14-15
1 The following is a record of the territory assigned to the Israelites in the land of Canaan by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders. 2 The land assignments to the nine-and-a-half tribes were made by drawing lots, as the Lord had instructed Moses. 3 Now Moses had assigned land to the two-and-a-half tribes east of the Jordan, but he assigned no land to the Levites. 4 The descendants of Joseph were considered as two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites were allotted no territory, though they were assigned cities in which to live, along with the grazing areas for their cattle and possessions. 5 The Israelites followed the Lord’s instructions to Moses and divided up the land.
6 The men of Judah approached Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said about you and me to Moses, the man of God, at Kadesh Barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses, the Lord’s servant, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy on the land and I brought back to him an honest report. 8 My countrymen who accompanied me frightened the people, but I remained loyal to the Lord my God. 9 That day Moses made this solemn promise: ‘Surely the land on which you walked will belong to you and your descendants permanently, for you remained loyal to the Lord your God.’ 10 So now, look, the Lord has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the Lord spoke these words to Moses, while Israel traveled through the wilderness. See here, I am today eighty-five years old! 11 Today I am still as strong as when Moses sent me out. I can fight and go about my daily activities with the same energy I had then. 12 Now, assign me this hill country that the Lord promised me at that time! No doubt you heard then that the Anakites live there in large, fortified cities. But assuming the Lord is with me, I will conquer them, as the Lord promised.” 13 Joshua asked God to empower Caleb son of Jephunneh and assigned him Hebron. 14 So Hebron remains the assigned land of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this very day because he remained loyal to the Lord God of Israel. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba. Arba was a famous Anakite.) Then the land was free of war.
1 The land allotted to the tribe of Judah by its clans reached to the border of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin in the Negev far to the south. 2 Their southern border started at the southern tip of the Salt Sea, 3 extended south of the Scorpion Ascent, crossed to Zin, went up from the south to Kadesh Barnea, crossed to Hezron, went up to Addar, and turned toward Karka. 4 It then crossed to Azmon, extended to the Stream of Egypt, and ended at the Mediterranean Sea. This was their southern border.
5 The eastern border was the Salt Sea to the mouth of the Jordan River.
The northern border started north of the Salt Sea at the mouth of the Jordan, 6 went up to Beth Hoglah, crossed north of Beth Arabah, and went up to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. 7 It then went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor, turning northward to Gilgal (which is opposite the Pass of Adummim south of the valley), crossed to the waters of En Shemesh and extended to En Rogel. 8 It then went up the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites on the south (that is, Jerusalem), going up to the top of the hill opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the Valley of the Rephaites to the north. 9 It then went from the top of the hill to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, extended to the cities of Mount Ephron, and went to Baalah (that is, Kiriath Jearim). 10 It then turned from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, crossed to the slope of Mount Jearim on the north (that is Kesalon), descended to Beth Shemesh, and crossed to Timnah. 11 It then extended to the slope of Ekron to the north, went toward Shikkeron, crossed to Mount Baalah, extended to Jabneel, and ended at the sea.
12 The western border was the Mediterranean Sea. These were the borders of the tribe of Judah and its clans.
13 Caleb son of Jephunneh was assigned Kiriath Arba (that is Hebron) within the tribe of Judah, according to the Lord’s instructions to Joshua. (Arba was the father of Anak.) 14 Caleb drove out from there three Anakites—Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, descendants of Anak. 15 From there he attacked the people of Debir. (Debir used to be called Kiriath Sepher.) 16 Caleb said, “To the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher I will give my daughter Achsah as a wife.” 17 When Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, captured it, Caleb gave Achsah his daughter to him as a wife.
18 One time Achsah came and charmed her father so that she could ask him for some land. When she got down from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What would you like?” 19 She answered, “Please give me a special present. Since you have given me land in the Negev, now give me springs of water.” So he gave her both the upper and lower springs.
20 This is the land assigned to the tribe of Judah by its clans: 21 These cities were located at the southern extremity of Judah’s tribal land near the border of Edom: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, 22 Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, 23 Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, 24 Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, 25 Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (that is, Hazor), 26 Amam, Shema, Moladah, 27 Hazar Gaddah, Heshbon, Beth Pelet, 28 Hazar Shual, Beer Sheba, Biziothiah, 29 Baalah, Iim, Ezem, 30 Eltolad, Kesil, Hormah, 31 Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, 32 Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon—a total of twenty-nine cities and their towns.
33 These cities were in the foothills: Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, 34 Zanoah, En Gannim, Tappuah, Enam, 35 Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah, 36 Shaaraim, Adithaim, and Gederah (or Gederothaim)—a total of fourteen cities and their towns.
37 Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal Gad, 38 Dilean, Mizpah, Joktheel, 39 Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, 40 Cabbon, Lahmas, Kitlish, 41 Gederoth, Beth Dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah—a total of sixteen cities and their towns.
42 Libnah, Ether, Ashan, 43 Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, 44 Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah—a total of nine cities and their towns.
45 Ekron and its surrounding towns and settlements; 46 from Ekron westward, all those in the vicinity of Ashdod and their towns; 47 Ashdod with its surrounding towns and settlements, and Gaza with its surrounding towns and settlements, as far as the Stream of Egypt and the border at the Mediterranean Sea.
48 These cities were in the hill country: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, 49 Dannah, Kiriath Sannah (that is, Debir), 50 Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim, 51 Goshen, Holon, and Giloh—a total of eleven cities and their towns.
52 Arab, Dumah, Eshan, 53 Janim, Beth Tappuah, Aphekah, 54 Humtah, Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), and Zior—a total of nine cities and their towns.
55 Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, 56 Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, 57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah—a total of ten cities and their towns.
58 Halhul, Beth Zur, Gedor, 59 Maarath, Beth Anoth, and Eltekon—a total of six cities and their towns.
60 Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim) and Rabbah—a total of two cities and their towns.
61 These cities were in the wilderness: Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, 62 Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En Gedi—a total of six cities and their towns.
63 The men of Judah were unable to conquer the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. The Jebusites live with the people of Judah in Jerusalem to this very day.
Psalms 146-147
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
3 Do not trust in princes,
or in human beings, who cannot deliver.
4 Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground.
On that day their plans die.
5 How blessed is the one whose helper is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 the one who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who remains forever faithful,
7 vindicates the oppressed,
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord releases the imprisoned.
8 The Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord lifts up all who are bent over.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the resident foreigner.
He lifts up the fatherless and the widow,
but he opposes the wicked.
10 The Lord rules forever,
your God, O Zion, throughout the generations to come.
Praise the Lord!
1 Praise the Lord,
for it is good to sing praises to our God.
Yes, praise is pleasant and appropriate.
2 The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem,
and gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted,
and bandages their wounds.
4 He counts the number of the stars;
he names all of them.
5 Our Lord is great and has awesome power;
there is no limit to his wisdom.
6 The Lord lifts up the oppressed,
but knocks the wicked to the ground.
7 Offer to the Lord a song of thanks.
Sing praises to our God to the accompaniment of a harp.
8 He covers the sky with clouds,
provides the earth with rain,
and causes grass to grow on the hillsides.
9 He gives food to the animals,
and to the young ravens when they chirp.
10 He is not enamored with the strength of a horse,
nor is he impressed by the warrior’s strong legs.
11 The Lord takes delight in his faithful followers,
and in those who wait for his loyal love.
12 Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Praise your God, O Zion.
13 For he makes the bars of your gates strong.
He blesses your children within you.
14 He brings peace to your territory.
He abundantly provides for you the best grain.
15 He sends his command through the earth;
swiftly his order reaches its destination.
16 He sends the snow that is white like wool;
he spreads the frost that is white like ashes.
17 He throws his hailstones like crumbs.
Who can withstand the cold wind he sends?
18 He then orders it all to melt;
he breathes on it, and the water flows.
19 He proclaims his word to Jacob,
his statutes and regulations to Israel.
20 He has not done so with any other nation;
they are not aware of his regulations.
Praise the Lord!
Jeremiah 7
1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim this message: ‘Listen to the Lord’s message, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. 4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, “We are safe! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” 5 You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. 6 Stop oppressing resident foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. 7 If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land that I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.
8 “‘But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you. 9 You steal. You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to other gods whom you have not previously known. 10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! 11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord. 12 So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. 13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! 14 So I will destroy this temple that I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh. 15 And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’
16 “But as for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not raise a cry of prayer for them! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you. 17 Do you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just to trouble me. 19 But I am not really the one being troubled! says the Lord. Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! 20 So, the Sovereign Lord says, my raging fury will be poured out on this land. It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. And it will burn like a fire that cannot be extinguished.
21 “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to the people of Judah: ‘You might as well go ahead and add the meat of your burnt offerings to that of the other sacrifices and eat it, too! 22 Consider this: When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 I also explicitly commanded them: “Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you.” 24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. 25 From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now, I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, day after day. 26 But your ancestors did not listen to me nor pay attention to me. They became obstinate and were more wicked than even their own forefathers.’”
27 Then the Lord said to me, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond to you. 28 So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the Lord their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. 29 So mourn, you people of this nation. Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’”
30 The Lord says, “I have rejected them because the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple that I have claimed for my own and have defiled it. 31 They have also built places of worship in a place called Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! 32 So, watch out!” says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley the Valley of Slaughter, and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. 33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away. 34 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”
Matthew 21
1 Now when they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 telling them, “Go to the village ahead of you. Right away you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
5 “Tell the people of Zion,
‘Look, your king is coming to you,
unassuming and seated on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those following kept shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 As he entered Jerusalem the whole city was thrown into an uproar, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
12 Then Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are turning it into a den of robbers!”
14 The blind and lame came to him in the temple courts, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the experts in the law saw the wonderful things he did and heard the children crying out in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
18 Now early in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 After noticing a fig tree by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive.”
23 Now after Jesus entered the temple courts, the chief priests and elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from people?” They discussed this among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From people,’ we fear the crowd, for they all consider John to be a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The boy answered, ‘I will not.’ But later he had a change of heart and went. 30 The father went to the other son and said the same thing. This boy answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God! 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe. Although you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. 34 When the harvest time was near, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his portion of the crop. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will utterly destroy those evil men! Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him his portion at the harvest.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowds, because the crowds regarded him as a prophet.
