Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(A)you must ^[a]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(B)multiply,^[b] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[c]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(C)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(D)test you, ^(E)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(F)allowed you to hunger, and ^(G)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(H)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (I)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (J)You should ^[d]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(K)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(L)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (M)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (N)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[e]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[f]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (O)when your heart ^[g]is lifted up, and you ^(P)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(Q)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(R)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(S)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(T)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(U)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(V)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(W)that He may ^[h]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(X)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(Y)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian^(A)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord spoke to ^(B)Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is ^[a]desert. ²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, ^(C)a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and ^(D)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

³⁴ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, ^(I)and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. ^(J)What hinders me from being baptized?”

^37 [b]Then Philip said, ^(K)“If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, ^(L)“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, ^(M)the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at ^[c]Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to ^(N)Caesarea.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(A)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(B)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(C)goes over before you as a ^(D)consuming fire. ^(E)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(F)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (G)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(H)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (I)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[a]fulfill the ^(J)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(K)stiff-necked^[b] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(L)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(M)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(N)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (O)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(P)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (Q)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(R)in^[c] the day of the assembly.

The Damascus Road: Saul Converted^(A)

9 Then ^(B)Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked ^(C)letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

^3 (D)As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. ⁴ Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, ^(E)why are you persecuting Me?”

⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”

Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ^[a]It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

⁶ So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ And ^(F)the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Ananias Baptizes Saul

¹⁰ Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus ^(G)named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.”

And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”

¹¹ So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul ^(H)of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. ¹² And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

¹³ Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, ^(I)how much ^[b]harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all ^(J)who call on Your name.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for ^(K)he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before ^(L)Gentiles, ^(M)kings, and the ^(N)children^[c] of Israel. ¹⁶ For ^(O)I will show him how many things he must suffer for My ^(P)name’s sake.”

^17 (Q)And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and ^(R)laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord ^[d]Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and ^(S)be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.

¹⁹ So when he had received food, he was strengthened. ^(T)Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

Saul Preaches Christ

²⁰ Immediately he preached ^[e]the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

²¹ Then all who heard were amazed, and said, ^(U)“Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?”

²² But Saul increased all the more in strength, ^(V)and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

Saul Escapes Death

²³ Now after many days were past, ^(W)the Jews plotted to kill him. ^24 (X)But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him. ²⁵ Then the disciples took him by night and ^(Y)let him down through the wall in a large basket.

Saul at Jerusalem

²⁶ And ^(Z)when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. ^27 (AA)But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, ^(AB)and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. ²⁸ So ^(AC)he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. ²⁹ And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the ^(AD)Hellenists,^{[f] (AE)}but they attempted to kill him. ³⁰ When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

The Church Prospers

^31 (AF)Then the ^[g]churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were ^(AG)edified.^[h] And walking in the ^(AH)fear of the Lord and in the ^(AI)comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were ^(AJ)multiplied.