¹³ Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, he raised his eyes and looked, and behold, ^(A)a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” ¹⁴ He said, “No; rather I have come now as captain of the army of the Lord.” And Joshua ^(B)fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” ¹⁵ And the captain of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “^(C)Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

The Conquest of Jericho

6 Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. ² But the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, with ^(D)its king and the valiant warriors. ³ And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. ⁴ Also seven priests shall carry seven ^(E)trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. ⁵ It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down ^[a]flat, and the people shall go up, everyone ^[b]straight ahead.”

⁶ So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” ⁷ Then ^[c]he said to the people, “Go forward and march around the city, and the armed men shall go on ahead of the ark of the Lord.” ⁸ And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. ⁹ And the armed men went ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and ^(F)the rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets. ¹⁰ But Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed from your mouth, until the day I tell you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout!” ¹¹ So he had the ark of the Lord ^[d]taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

¹² Now Joshua got up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. ¹³ Then ^(G)the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went ahead of them, and ^(H)the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while they continued to blow the trumpets. ¹⁴ So the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did the same for six days.

¹⁵ Then on the seventh day they got up early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same way seven times; only on that day did they march around the city seven times. ¹⁶ And at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “^(I)Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. ¹⁷ But the city shall be ^(J)designated for ^[e]destruction, it and everything that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the prostitute ^[f]and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. ¹⁸ But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things designated for destruction, so that you do not covet them and ^(K)take some of the designated things, and turn the camp of Israel into something designated for destruction and bring disaster on it. ^19 (L)But all the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” ²⁰ So the people shouted, and ^[g]the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the ^(M)wall fell down ^[h]flat, so that the people went up into the city, everyone straight ^[i]ahead, and they took the city.

King Rehoboam Acts Foolishly

12 ^(A)Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to ^(B)Shechem to make him king. ² Now ^(C)when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about this, ^[a]he was living in Egypt (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon). ³ Then they sent word and summoned him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “^(D)Your father made our yoke hard; but now, lighten the hard labor imposed by your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ Then he said to them, “^(E)Depart ^[b]for three days, then return to me.” So the people departed.

⁶ And King Rehoboam ^(F)consulted with the elders who had ^[c]served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷ Then they spoke to him, saying, “^(G)If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and ^[d]grant them their request, and speak pleasant words to them, then they will be your servants always.” ⁸ But he ignored the advice of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him ^[e]and served him. ⁹ He said to them, “What advice do you give, so that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ And the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “This is what you should say to this people who spoke to you, saying: ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ You should speak this way to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ Now then, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke; yet I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with ^[f]scorpions!’”

¹² Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ^[g]directed, saying, “^(H)Return to me on the third day.” ¹³ And the king answered the people harshly, for he ignored the advice of the elders which they had ^[h]given him, ¹⁴ and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “^(I)My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with ^[i]scorpions!” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people; ^(J)because it was ^[j]a turn of events from the Lord, ^(K)in order to establish His word which the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided; Jeroboam Rules Israel

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people replied to the king, saying,

So Israel went away to their tents. ¹⁷ But ^(M)as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. ¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent ^(N)Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him ^[k]to death. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ^19 (O)So Israel has broken with the house of David to this day.

²⁰ And it came about, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent word and called him to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel. ^(P)None except the tribe of Judah alone followed the house of David.

²¹ And He was saying to them, “^(A)A lamp is not brought to be put under a ^[a]basket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? ^22 (B)For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. ^23 (C)If anyone has ears to hear, ^[b]let him hear.” ²⁴ And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. ^[c](D)By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. ^25 (E)For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

Parable of the Seed

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷ and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸ The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹ Now when the crop permits, he immediately ^[d](F)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (G)And He was saying, “How shall we ^[e](H)picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that ^(I)the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

³³ And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to ^[f]understand it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them ^(J)without a parable; but He was ^(K)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35 (L)On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶ After dismissing the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^(M)in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And a fierce gale of wind *developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. ³⁸ And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And He got up and ^(N)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[g]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[h]afraid? ^(O)Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Paul in Athens

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them in ^(A)Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he was reasoning ^(B)in the synagogue with the Jews and ^(C)the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. ¹⁸ And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were ^[a]conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could ^(D)this ^[b]scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching ^(E)Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they ^(F)took him and brought him ^[c]to the ^[d](G)Areopagus, saying, “May we know what ^(H)this new teaching is ^[e]which you are proclaiming? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹ (Now all the Athenians and the strangers ^(I)visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Sermon on Mars Hill

²² So Paul stood in the midst of the ^[f]Areopagus and said, “Men of ^(J)Athens, I see that you are very ^(K)religious in all respects. ²³ For while I was passing through and examining the ^(L)objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what ^(M)you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ^24 (N)The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is ^(O)Lord of heaven and earth, does not ^(P)dwell in temples made by hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, ^(Q)as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; ²⁶ and ^(R)He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having ^(S)determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, ^(T)though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for ^(U)in Him we live and move and ^[g]exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ^(V)ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. ³⁰ So having ^(W)overlooked ^(X)the times of ignorance, God is ^(Y)now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, ³¹ because He has set ^(Z)a day on which ^(AA)He will judge ^[h](AB)the world in righteousness ^[i]through a Man whom He has ^(AC)appointed, having furnished proof to all people ^[j]by ^(AD)raising Him from the dead.”

³² Now when they heard of ^(AE)the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you ^[k]again concerning this.” ³³ So Paul went out from among them. ³⁴ But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the ^(AF)Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.