¹⁶ So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. ¹⁷ He brought the clan of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarhites; and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. ¹⁸ Then he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, ^(A)was taken.

¹⁹ Now Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, ^(B)give glory to the Lord God of Israel, ^(C)and make confession to Him, and ^(D)tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

²⁰ And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed ^(E)I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: ²¹ When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I ^[a]coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.”

²² So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. ²³ And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. ²⁴ Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and ^(F)all that he had, and they brought them to ^(G)the Valley of Achor. ²⁵ And Joshua said, ^(H)“Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” ^(I)So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

²⁶ Then they ^(J)raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So ^(K)the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called ^(L)the Valley of ^[b]Achor to this day.

The Fall of Ai

8 Now the Lord said to Joshua: ^(M)“Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, ^(N)I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. ² And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to ^(O)Jericho and its king. Only ^(P)its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it.”

³ So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. ⁴ And he commanded them, saying: “Behold, ^(Q)you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. ⁵ Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that ^(R)we shall flee before them. ⁶ For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ Therefore we will flee before them. ⁷ Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. ⁸ And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord you shall do. ^(S)See, I have commanded you.”

⁹ Joshua therefore sent them out; and they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua lodged that night among the people. ¹⁰ Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. ^11 (T)And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near; and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai. ¹² So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of ^[c]the city. ¹³ And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

¹⁴ Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain. But he ^(U)did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. ¹⁵ And Joshua and all Israel ^(V)made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. ¹⁶ So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. So they left the city open and pursued Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹ So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried to set the city on fire. ²⁰ And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

²¹ Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. ²² Then the others came out of the city against them; so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them down, so that they ^(W)let none of them remain or escape. ²³ But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. ²⁵ So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand—all the people of Ai. ²⁶ For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had ^(X)utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. ^27 (Y)Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had ^(Z)commanded Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and made it ^(AA)a heap forever, a desolation to this day. ^29 (AB)And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening. ^(AC)And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and ^(AD)raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.

Joshua Renews the Covenant^(AE)

³⁰ Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel ^(AF)in Mount Ebal, ³¹ as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: ^(AG)“an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And ^(AH)they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. ³² And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, ^(AI)he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. ³³ Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, ^(AJ)who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ^(AK)the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, ^(AL)as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. ³⁴ And afterward ^(AM)he read all the words of the law, ^(AN)the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the ^(AO)Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, ^(AP)with the women, the little ones, ^(AQ)and the strangers who were living among them.

The Treaty with the Gibeonites

9 And it came to pass when ^(AR)all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of ^(AS)the Great Sea toward Lebanon—^(AT)the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—heard about it, ² that they ^(AU)gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one ^[d]accord.

The Parable of the Unjust Steward

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was ^[a]wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an ^(A)account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[b]measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred ^[c]measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than ^(B)the sons of light.

⁹ “And I say to you, ^(C)make friends for yourselves by unrighteous ^[d]mammon, that when ^[e]you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ^10 (D)He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your ^(E)own?

^13 (F)“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The Law, the Prophets, and the Kingdom

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, ^(G)who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they ^[f]derided Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who ^(H)justify yourselves ^(I)before men, but ^(J)God knows your hearts. For ^(K)what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

^16 (L)“The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. ^17 (M)And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ^[g]tittle of the law to fail.

^18 (N)“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

A Plea for Justice

A Psalm of Asaph.