¹⁸ “At that time, I charged you as follows: ‘Although the Lord your God has given you this land to occupy, all your troops shall cross over armed as the vanguard of your Israelite kin.^{(A) 19} Only your wives, your children, and your livestock—I know that you have much livestock—shall stay behind in the towns that I have given to you. ²⁰ When the Lord gives rest to your kindred, as to you, and they also have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan, then each of you may return to the property that I have given to you.’^{(B) 21} And I charged Joshua as well at that time, saying: ‘Your own eyes have seen everything that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so the Lord will do to all the kingdoms into which you are about to cross. ²² Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’^(C)

Moses Views Canaan from Pisgah

²³ “At that time, too, I entreated the Lord, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your might. What god in heaven or on earth can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours?^{(D) 25} Let me cross over to see the good land beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and the Lebanon.’ ²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not heed me. The Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you! Never speak to me of this matter again!^{(E) 27} Go up to the top of Pisgah and look around you to the west, to the north, to the south, and to the east. Look well, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.^{(F) 28} But charge Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, because it is he who shall cross over at the head of this people and who shall secure their possession of the land that you will see.’^{(G) 29} So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.^(H)

Peter Heals a Crippled Beggar

3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon.^{(A) 2} And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.^{(B) 3} When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. ⁴ Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” ⁵ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,^[a] stand up and walk.”^{(C) 7} And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸ Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ All the people saw him walking and praising God,^{(D) 10} and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment at what had happened to him.

Peter Speaks in Solomon’s Portico

¹¹ While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished.^{(E) 12} When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “Fellow Israelites,^[b] why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,^[c] the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant^[d] Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.^{(F) 14} But you rejected the holy and righteous^[e] one and asked to have a murderer given to you,^{(G) 15} and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.^{(H) 16} And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus^[f] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

¹⁷ “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.^{(I) 18} In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah^[g] would suffer.^{(J) 19} Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah^[h] appointed for you, that is, Jesus, ²¹ who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.^{(K) 22} Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you.^{(L) 23} And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ ²⁴ And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. ²⁵ You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’^{(M) 26} When God raised up his servant,^[i] he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”^(N)

Peter and John before the Council

4 While Peter and John^[j] were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them,^{(O) 2} much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead.^{(P) 3} So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.^{(Q) 4} But many of those who heard the word believed, and they numbered about five thousand.^(R)

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^{(A) 2} You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.^{(B) 3} You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor, how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,^{(C) 4} while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

⁵ “See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. ⁶ You must observe them and perform them, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’^{(D) 7} For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?^{(E) 8} And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹ “But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children^(F)— ¹⁰ how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth and may teach their children so’;^{(G) 11} you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.^{(H) 12} Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.^{(I) 13} He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments,^[a] and he wrote them on two stone tablets.^{(J) 14} And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.

¹⁵ “Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, watch yourselves closely, ¹⁶ so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,^{(K) 17} the likeness of any animal 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 when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.^{(L) 20} But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.^(M)

²¹ “The Lord was angry with me because of you, and he vowed that I should not cross the Jordan and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving for your possession.^{(N) 22} For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land.^{(O) 23} So be careful, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you and make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.^{(P) 24} For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.^(Q)

⁵ The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,^{(A) 6} with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John,^[a] and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.^{(B) 7} When they had made the prisoners^[b] stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,^{(C) 9} if we are being questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are being asked how this man has been healed,^{[c] 10} let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,^[d] whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.^{(D) 11} This Jesus^[e] is

¹² “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”^(F)

¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.^{(G) 14} When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. ¹⁵ So they ordered them to leave the council while they discussed the matter with one another.^{(H) 16} They said, “What will we do with them? For it is obvious to all who live in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been done through them; we cannot deny it.^{(I) 17} But to keep it from spreading further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” ¹⁸ So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.^{(J) 19} But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge;^{(K) 20} for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”^{(L) 21} After threatening them again, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all of them praised God for what had happened.^{(M) 22} For the man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.

The Believers Pray for Boldness

²³ After they were released, they went to their own people and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them,^{(N) 25} it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:^[g]

²⁷ “For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant^[i] Jesus, whom you anointed,^{(Q) 28} to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. ²⁹ And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,^{(R) 30} while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant^[j] Jesus.”^{(S) 31} When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.^(T)