Israel’s History after the Exodus

1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel ^(A)across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the ^(B)Arabah opposite ^[a]Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days’ journey from ^(C)Horeb by the way of Mount ^(D)Seir to ^(E)Kadesh-barnea. ³ In the ^(F)fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, ^(G)according to all that the Lord had commanded him to give to them, ⁴ after he had ^[b](H)defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^(I)Og the king of Bashan, who lived in ^(J)Ashtaroth ^[c]and Edrei. ⁵ Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying,

⁶ “The Lord our God ^(K)spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have ^[d]stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and set your journey, and go to ^(L)the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in ^(M)the ^[e]Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord ^(N)swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their ^[f]descendants after them.’

⁹ “I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘^(O)I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has ^(P)multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. ¹¹ May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, ^(Q)just as He has ^[g]promised you! ¹² How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? ^13 [h](R)Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴ You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ ¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and ^[i]appointed them heads over you, leaders of thousands and ^[j]of hundreds, ^[k]of fifties and ^[l]of tens, and officers for your tribes.

¹⁶ “Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your ^[m]fellow countrymen, and ^(S)judge righteously between a man and his ^[n]fellow countryman, or the alien who is with him. ^17 (T)You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall ^(U)not fear ^[o]man, for the judgment is God’s. ^(V)The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ^18 (W)I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

¹⁹ “Then we set out from ^(X)Horeb, and went through all that ^(Y)great and terrible wilderness which you saw on the way to the ^(Z)hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to ^(AA)Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which the Lord our God is about to give us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. ^(AB)Do not fear or be dismayed.’

²² “^(AC)Then all of you approached me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ ²³ The thing pleased me and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. ^24 (AD)They turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’

²⁶ “^(AE)Yet you were not willing to go up, but ^(AF)rebelled against the ^[p]command of the Lord your God; ²⁷ and ^(AG)you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. ²⁸ Where can we go up? Our brethren have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And besides, we saw ^(AH)the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be shocked, nor fear them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you will ^(AI)Himself fight on your behalf, ^[q]just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness where you saw how ^(AJ)the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ ³² But ^[r](AK)for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, ^33 (AL)who goes before you on your way, ^(AM)to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go.

³⁴ “Then the Lord heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and ^(AN)took an oath, saying, ³⁵ ‘^(AO)Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, ³⁶ except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and ^(AP)to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed the Lord fully.’ ^37 (AQ)The Lord was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘^(AR)Not even you shall enter there. ³⁸ Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, ^(AS)he shall enter there; encourage him, for ^(AT)he will cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ Moreover, ^(AU)your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have ^(AV)no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, ^(AW)turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ^[s]Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “^(AX)Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we will indeed go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war, and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. ^42 (AY)And the Lord said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be ^[t]defeated before your enemies.”’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead ^(AZ)you rebelled against the ^[u]command of the Lord, and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. ^44 (BA)The Amorites who ^[v]lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^(BB)as bees do, and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. ⁴⁵ Then you returned and wept before the Lord; but the ^(BC)Lord did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So you remained in ^(BD)Kadesh many days, ^[w]the days that you spent there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

2 “^(A)Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the ^[a]Red Sea, as the Lord spoke to me, and circled ^(B)Mount Seir for many days. ² And the Lord spoke to me, saying, ³ ‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, ^4 (C)and command the people, saying, “You will pass through the ^(D)territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and ^(E)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; ⁵ do not ^[b]provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a ^[c]footstep ^(F)because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ⁶ You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also purchase water from them with money so that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all ^[d]that you have done; He has known your ^[e]wanderings through this ^(G)great wilderness. These ^(H)forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’

⁸ “So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the ^(I)Arabah road, away from Elath and ^(J)from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of ^[f]their land as a possession, because I have given ^(K)Ar to ^(L)the sons of Lot as a possession.’ ¹⁰ (The ^(M)Emim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as ^(N)Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (O)The Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(P)just as Israel did to the land of ^[g]their possession which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now arise and cross over the ^[h]brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the ^[i]brook Zered. ¹⁴ Now the ^[j]time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the ^[k]brook Zered was ^(Q)thirty-eight years, until ^(R)all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as ^(S)the Lord had sworn to them. ^15 (T)Moreover the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from within the camp until they all perished.

¹⁶ “So it came about when ^(U)all the men of war had finally perished from among the people, ¹⁷ that the Lord spoke to me, saying, ¹⁸ ‘Today you shall cross over ^(V)Ar, the border of Moab. ¹⁹ When you come opposite the ^(W)sons of Ammon, do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(X)the sons of Lot as a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also regarded as the land of the ^(Y)Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, ²¹ a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² just as He did for the sons of Esau, who ^(Z)live in Seir, when He destroyed ^(AA)the Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ And the ^(AB)Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the ^[l](AC)Caphtorim who came from ^[m](AD)Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Arise, set out, and pass through the ^[n](AE)valley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put ^(AF)the dread and fear of you ^[o]upon the peoples ^[p]everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, ^(AG)will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

²⁶ “^(AH)So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your land, I will ^[q]travel only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. ²⁸ You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink, ^(AI)only let me pass through on ^[r]foot, ²⁹ just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in ^(AJ)Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving to us.’ ³⁰ But ^(AK)Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass ^[s]through his land; for the ^(AL)Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today. ³¹ The Lord said to me, ‘See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land ^[t]over to you. Begin to ^[u]occupy, that you may possess his land.’

³² “Then Sihon ^[v]with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. ^33 (AM)The Lord our God delivered him ^[w]over to us, and we ^[x](AN)defeated him with his sons and all his people. ³⁴ So we captured all his cities at that time and ^[y](AO)utterly destroyed ^[z]the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor. ³⁵ We took ^(AP)only the animals as our booty and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. ³⁶ From ^(AQ)Aroer which is on the edge of the ^[aa]valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the ^[ab]valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the Lord our God delivered all ^[ac]over to us. ^37 (AR)Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the ^[ad]river ^(AS)Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God had commanded us.

Parable of the Vine-growers

12 ^(A)And He began to speak to them in parables: “^(B)A man ^(C)planted a vineyard and put a ^[a]wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to ^[b]vine-growers and went on a journey. ² At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. ³ They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. ⁵ And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. ⁶ He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the ^[c]owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not even read this Scripture:

^12 (F)And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the ^[d]people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so ^(G)they left Him and went away.

Jesus Answers the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes

^13 (H)Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and ^(I)Herodians to Him in order to ^(J)trap Him in a statement. ¹⁴ They *came and *said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and ^[e]defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it ^[f]lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? ¹⁵ Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a ^[g]denarius to look at.” ¹⁶ They brought one. And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “^(K)Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they ^[h]were amazed at Him.

^18 (L)Some Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection) *came to Jesus, and began questioning Him, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ^(M)if a man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child, his brother should ^[i]marry the wife and raise up children to his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no children. ²¹ The second one ^[j]married her, and died leaving behind no children; and the third likewise; ²² and so ^[k]all seven left no children. Last of all the woman died also. ²³ In the resurrection, ^[l]when they rise again, which one’s wife will she be? For ^[m]all seven had married her.” ²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not ^[n]understand the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ But ^[o]regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, ^(N)in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘^(O)I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ^27 (P)He is not the God ^[p]of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”

^28 (Q)One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and ^(R)recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the ^[q]foremost of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘^(S)Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; ^30 (T)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 The second is this, ‘^(U)You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³² The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that ^(V)He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; ^33 (W)and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, ^(X)is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” ^(Y)After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

^35 (Z)And Jesus began to say, as He ^(AA)taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that ^[r]the Christ is the ^(AB)son of David? ³⁶ David himself said ^[s]in the Holy Spirit,

³⁷ David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; so in what sense is He his son?” And ^(AD)the large crowd ^[t]enjoyed listening to Him.

^38 (AE)In His teaching He was saying: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like ^(AF)respectful greetings in the market places, ³⁹ and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, ^40 (AG)who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation.”

The Widow’s Mite

^41 (AH)And He sat down opposite ^(AI)the treasury, and began observing how the people were ^(AJ)putting ^[u]money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. ⁴² A poor widow came and put in two ^[v]small copper coins, which amount to a ^[w]cent. ⁴³ Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all ^[x]the contributors to the treasury; ⁴⁴ for they all put in out of their ^[y]surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, ^[z]all she had ^(AK)to live on.”