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Joshua 8:31-35
Contemporary English Version
Joshua 8:31-35
Contemporary English Version
Joshua Reads the Blessings and Curses
(Deuteronomy 27.1-26)
30-32 (A) One day, Joshua led the people of Israel to Mount Ebal, where he told some of his men, “Build an altar for offering sacrifices to the Lord. And use stones that have never been cut with iron tools,[a] because that is what Moses taught in The Book of the Law.”[b]
Joshua offered sacrifices to please the Lord[c] and to ask his blessing.[d] Then with the Israelites still watching, he copied parts of The Book of the Law[e] of Moses onto stones.
33-35 (B) Moses had said that everyone in Israel was to go to the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, where they were to be blessed. So everyone went there, including the foreigners, the leaders, officials, and judges. Half of the people stood on one side of the valley, and half on the other side, with the priests from the Levi tribe standing in the middle with the sacred chest. Then in a loud voice, Joshua read the blessings and curses from The Book of the Law[f] of Moses.[g]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8.30-32 use stones … iron tools: See Exodus 20.25.
- 8.30-32 taught … Law: Or “commanded … Teachings.”
- 8.30-32 sacrifices to please the Lord: These sacrifices have been traditionally called “whole burnt offerings” because the whole animal was burned on the altar. A main purpose of such sacrifices was to please the Lord with the smell of the sacrifice, and so in the CEV they are often called “sacrifices to please the Lord.”
- 8.30-32 to ask his blessing: These sacrifices have traditionally been called “peace offerings,” or “offerings of well-being.” A main purpose was to ask for the Lord's blessing, and so in the CEV they are often called “sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing.”
- 8.30-32 Law: Or “Teachings.”
- 8.33-35 Law: Or “Teachings.”
- 8.33-35 the blessings … Moses: Or “all of The Book of the Law of Moses, including the blessings and the curses.”
Joshua 8:31-35
New International Version
Joshua 8:31-35
New International Version
31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool(A) had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.(B) 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses.(C) 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical(D) priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born(E) were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal,(F) as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.
34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law.(G) 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.(H)
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