Defeat of King Og

3 “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 Ed′re-i. ² But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him; for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’ ³ So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people; and we smote him until no survivor was left to him. ⁴ And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city which we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ⁵ All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. ⁶ And we utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, destroying every city, men, women, and children. ⁷ But all the cattle and the spoil of the cities we took as our booty. ⁸ So 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 Sido′nians call Hermon Sir′ion, while the Amorites call it Senir), ¹⁰ all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Sal′ecah and Ed′re-i, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. ¹¹ (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Reph′aim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.^[a])

¹² “When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aro′er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities; ¹³ the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, that is, all the region of Argob, I gave to the half-tribe of Manas′seh. (The whole of that Bashan is called the land of Reph′aim. ¹⁴ Ja′ir the Manas′site took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border of the Gesh′urites and the Ma-ac′athites, and called the villages after his own name, Hav′voth-ja′ir, as it is to this day.) ¹⁵ To Machir I gave Gilead, ¹⁶ and to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead as far as the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a boundary, as far over as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites; ¹⁷ the Arabah also, with the Jordan as the boundary, from Chin′nereth as far as the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸ “And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess; all your men of valor shall pass over armed before your brethren the people of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives, your little ones, and your cattle (I know that you have many cattle) shall remain in the cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord gives rest to your brethren, as to you, and they also occupy the land which the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan; then you shall return every man to his possession which I have given you.’ ²¹ And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are going over. ²² You shall not fear them; for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’

Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

²³ “And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as thine? ²⁵ Let me go over, I pray, and see the good land beyond the Jordan, that goodly hill country, and Lebanon.’ ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account, and would not hearken to me; and the Lord said to me, ‘Let it suffice 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 behold it with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan. ²⁸ But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him; for he shall go over at the head of this people, and he shall put them in possession of the land which you shall see.’ ²⁹ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-pe′or.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “And now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. ² You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it; that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Ba′al-pe′or; for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Ba′al of Pe′or; ⁴ but you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive this day. ⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. ⁶ Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?

⁹ “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children— ¹⁰ how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹ And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹² Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. ¹³ And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments;^[b] and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. ¹⁴ And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land which you are going over to possess.

¹⁵ “Therefore take good heed to yourselves. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹ And beware lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them and serve them, things which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own possession, as at this day. ²¹ Furthermore the Lord was angry with me on your account, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

God’s Covenant with David

A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

Paul Speaks to the Ephesian Elders

¹⁷ And from Mile′tus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. ¹⁸ And when they came to him, he said to them:

Paul’s Journey to Jerusalem

“You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there; ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more. ²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, ²⁷ for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. ²⁸ Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians, to feed the church of the Lord^[a] which he obtained with his own blood.^{[b] 29} I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. ³² And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ³³ I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. ³⁴ You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me.^{[c] 35} In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶ And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And they all wept and embraced Paul and kissed him, ³⁸ sorrowing most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they brought him to the ship.