The Command to Leave Horeb

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in ^(A)the Arabah opposite ^(B)Suph, between ^(C)Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to ^(D)Kadesh-barnea. ^3 (E)In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, ⁴ after ^(F)he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^(G)Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in ^(H)Edrei. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, ^(I)in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, ⁶ “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ^(J)‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to ^(K)the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in ^(L)the Arabah, ^(M)in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and ^(N)by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, ^(O)to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

Leaders Appointed

⁹ “At that time ^(P)I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, ^(Q)you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. ^11 (R)May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, ^(S)as he has promised you! ^12 (T)How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? ^13 (U)Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, ^(V)and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. ¹⁶ And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^(W)judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. ^17 (X)You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for ^(Y)the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall ^(Z)bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb and ^(AA)went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And ^(AB)we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. ^(AC)Do not fear or be dismayed.’ ²² Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³ The thing seemed good to me, and ^(AD)I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And ^(AE)they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ And ^(AF)you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(AG)hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^(AH)to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where are we going up? ^(AI)Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^(AJ)“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ^(AK)the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you ^(AL)will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God ^(AM)carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet in spite of this word ^(AN)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (AO)who went before you in the way ^(AP)to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

The Penalty for Israel's Rebellion

³⁴ “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ^35 (AQ)‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, ^36 (AR)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ ³⁷ Even with me ^(AS)the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. ^38 (AT)Joshua the son of Nun, ^(AU)who stands before you, he shall enter. ^(AV)Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ And as for ^(AW)your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today ^(AX)have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, ^(AY)turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered me, ^(AZ)‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴² And the Lord said to me, ^(BA)‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, ^(BB)for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and ^(BC)presumptuously went up into the hill country. ^44 (BD)Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^(BE)as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as ^(BF)Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So ^(BG)you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Wilderness Years

2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, ^(BH)as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ² Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country ^(BI)long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of ^(BJ)your brothers, the people of Esau, ^(BK)who live in Seir; and ^(BL)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not 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 ^(BM)I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ^6 (BN)You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. ^(BO)He knows your going through this great wilderness. ^(BP)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸ So ^(BQ)we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from ^(BR)the Arabah road from ^(BS)Elath and ^(BT)Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ^(BU)‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given ^(BV)Ar to ^(BW)the people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰ (^(BX)The Emim formerly lived there, ^(BY)a people great and many, and tall ^(BZ)as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they are also counted as ^(CA)Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (CB)The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(CC)as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now rise up and go over ^(CD)the brook Zered.’ So we went over ^(CE)the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving ^(CF)Kadesh-barnea until we crossed ^(CG)the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(CH)until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶ “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ^(CI)do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(CJ)the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also counted as a land of ^(CK)Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ^21 (CL)a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,^[a] and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed ^(CM)the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ As for ^(CN)the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as ^(CO)Gaza, ^(CP)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and ^(CQ)go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of ^(CR)Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ^(CS)contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put ^(CT)the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

The Defeat of King Sihon

²⁶ “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of ^(CU)Kedemoth to Sihon the king of ^(CV)Heshbon, ^(CW)with words of peace, saying, ^27 (CX)‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. ^28 (CY)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 foot, ^29 (CZ)as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰ But ^(DA)Sihon the king of ^(DB)Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God ^(DC)hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. ³¹ And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ ³² Then ^(DD)Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. ³³ And ^(DE)the Lord our God gave him over to us, and ^(DF)we defeated him and his sons and all his people. ³⁴ And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction^[b] every ^(DG)city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. ³⁵ Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. ^36 (DH)From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from ^(DI)the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. ^(DJ)The Lord our God gave all into our hands. ³⁷ Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river ^(DK)Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

The Parable of the Tenants

12 ^(A)And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted ^(B)a vineyard ^(C)and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and ^(D)leased it to tenants and ^(E)went into another country. ² When the season came, he sent a servant^[a] to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ^3 (F)And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ^4 (G)Again ^(H)he sent to them another servant, and ^(I)they struck him on the head and ^(J)treated him shamefully. ^5 (K)And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. ⁶ He had still one other, ^(L)a beloved son. ^(M)Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenants said to one another, ^(N)‘This is the heir. Come, ^(O)let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ And they took him and killed him and ^(P)threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? ^(Q)He will ^(R)come and destroy the tenants and ^(S)give the vineyard to others. ^10 (T)Have you not read ^(U)this Scripture:

¹² And ^(W)they were seeking to arrest him ^(X)but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they ^(Y)left him and went away.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

^13 (Z)And they sent to him some of ^(AA)the Pharisees and some of ^(AB)the Herodians, to ^(AC)trap him in his talk. ¹⁴ And they came and said to him, “Teacher, ^(AD)we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For ^(AE)you are not swayed by appearances,^[c] but truly teach ^(AF)the way of God. Is it lawful to pay ^(AG)taxes to ^(AH)Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” ¹⁵ But, knowing ^(AI)their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why ^(AJ)put me to the test? Bring me ^(AK)a denarius^[d] and let me look at it.” ¹⁶ And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” ¹⁷ Jesus said to them, ^(AL)“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

¹⁸ And ^(AM)Sadducees came to him, ^(AN)who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ^(AO)if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man^[e] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. ²¹ And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. ²² And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because ^(AP)you know neither the Scriptures nor ^(AQ)the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, they neither ^(AR)marry nor ^(AS)are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, ^(AT)have you not read in ^(AU)the book of Moses, in ^(AV)the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ^(AW)‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

The Great Commandment

^28 (AX)And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ^(AY)‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, ^(AZ)the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ^31 (BA)The second is this: ^(BB)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment ^(BC)greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that ^(BD)he is one, and ^(BE)there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all ^(BF)the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, ^(BG)is much more than all ^(BH)whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” ^(BI)And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Christ?

^35 (BJ)And as ^(BK)Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that ^(BL)the Christ is the son of David? ³⁶ David himself, ^(BM)in the Holy Spirit, declared,

³⁷ David himself calls him Lord. So ^(BP)how is he his son?” And the great throng ^(BQ)heard him gladly.

Beware of the Scribes

^38 (BR)And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and have the best seats in the synagogues and ^(BS)the places of honor at feasts, ^40 (BT)who devour widows' houses and ^(BU)for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

The Widow's Offering

^41 (BV)And he sat down opposite ^(BW)the treasury and watched the people ^(BX)putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two ^(BY)small copper coins, which make a penny.^{[f] 43} And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, ^(BZ)this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her ^(CA)poverty has put in everything she had, all ^(CB)she had to live on.”