A House Divided Cannot Stand^(A)

²⁰ Then the multitude came together again, ^(B)so that they could not so much as eat bread. ²¹ But when His ^(C)own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, ^(D)for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ^(E)“He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ^(F)ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

^23 (G)So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. ²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. ^27 (H)No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

The Unpardonable Sin^(I)

^28 (J)“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; ²⁹ but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— ³⁰ because they ^(K)said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers Send for Him^(L)

^31 (M)Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. ³² And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers ^[a]are outside seeking You.”

³³ But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” ³⁴ And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the ^(N)will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

Principles of Marriage

7 Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me:

^(A)It is good for a man not to touch a woman. ² Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ^3 (B)Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. ⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ^5 (C)Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that ^(D)Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ But I say this as a concession, ^(E)not as a commandment. ⁷ For ^(F)I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.

⁸ But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: ^(G)It is good for them if they remain even as I am; ⁹ but ^(H)if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Keep Your Marriage Vows

¹⁰ Now to the married I command, yet not I but the ^(I)Lord: ^(J)A wife is not to depart from her husband. ¹¹ But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.

¹² But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. ¹³ And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. ¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise ^(K)your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵ But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us ^(L)to peace. ¹⁶ For how do you know, O wife, whether you will ^(M)save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

A Dirge and a Prayer for Israel, Destroyed by Enemies

A Psalm of Asaph.

The Cities of Refuge^(A)

20 The Lord also spoke to Joshua, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ^(B)‘Appoint^[a] for yourselves cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses, ³ that the slayer who kills a person accidentally or unintentionally may flee there; and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. ⁴ And when he flees to one of those cities, and stands at the entrance of the gate of the city, and ^[b]declares his case in the hearing of the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city as one of them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them. ^5 (C)Then if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not deliver the slayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unintentionally, but did not hate him beforehand. ⁶ And he shall dwell in that city ^(D)until he stands before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the one who is high priest in those days. Then the slayer may return and come to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.’ ”

⁷ So they appointed ^(E)Kedesh in Galilee, in the mountains of Naphtali, ^(F)Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and ^(G)Kirjath Arba (which is Hebron) in ^(H)the mountains of Judah. ⁸ And on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned ^(I)Bezer in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of Reuben, ^(J)Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and ^(K)Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh. ^9 (L)These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who ^[c]dwelt among them, that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood ^(M)until he stood before the congregation.

Cities of the Levites^(N)

21 Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of the ^(O)Levites came near to ^(P)Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the children of Israel. ² And they spoke to them at ^(Q)Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, ^(R)“The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with their common-lands for our livestock.” ³ So the children of Israel gave to the Levites from their inheritance, at the commandment of the Lord, these cities and their common-lands:

⁴ Now the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. And ^(S)the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, ^(T)had thirteen cities by lot from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Simeon, and from the tribe of Benjamin. ^5 (U)The rest of the children of Kohath had ten cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁶ And ^(V)the children of Gershon had thirteen cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

^7 (W)The children of Merari according to their families had twelve cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun.

^8 (X)And the children of Israel gave these cities with their common-lands by lot to the Levites, ^(Y)as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.

⁹ So they gave from the tribe of the children of Judah and from the tribe of the children of Simeon these cities which are ^[d]designated by name, ¹⁰ which were for the children of Aaron, one of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for the lot was theirs first. ^11 (Z)And they gave them ^[e]Kirjath Arba (Arba was the father of ^(AA)Anak), ^(AB)which is Hebron, in the mountains of Judah, with the common-land surrounding it. ¹² But ^(AC)the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.

¹³ Thus ^(AD)to the children of Aaron the priest they gave ^(AE)Hebron with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^(AF)Libnah with its common-land, ^14 (AG)Jattir with its common-land, ^(AH)Eshtemoa with its common-land, ^15 (AI)Holon with its common-land, ^(AJ)Debir with its common-land, ^16 (AK)Ain with its common-land, ^(AL)Juttah with its common-land, and ^(AM)Beth Shemesh with its common-land: nine cities from those two tribes; ¹⁷ and from the tribe of Benjamin, ^(AN)Gibeon with its common-land, ^(AO)Geba with its common-land, ¹⁸ Anathoth with its common-land, and ^(AP)Almon with its common-land: four cities. ¹⁹ All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their common-lands.

^20 (AQ)And the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, the rest of the children of Kohath, even they had the cities of their ^[f]lot from the tribe of Ephraim. ²¹ For they gave them ^(AR)Shechem with its common-land in the mountains of Ephraim (a city of refuge for the slayer), ^(AS)Gezer with its common-land, ²² Kibzaim with its common-land, and Beth Horon with its common-land: four cities; ²³ and from the tribe of Dan, Eltekeh with its common-land, Gibbethon with its common-land, ^24 (AT)Aijalon with its common-land, and Gath Rimmon with its common-land: four cities; ²⁵ and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Tanach with its common-land and Gath Rimmon with its common-land: two cities. ²⁶ All the ten cities with their common-lands were for the rest of the families of the children of Kohath.

^27 (AU)Also to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, from the other half-tribe of Manasseh, they gave ^(AV)Golan in Bashan with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), and Be Eshterah with its common-land: two cities; ²⁸ and from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its common-land, Daberath with its common-land, ²⁹ Jarmuth with its common-land, and En Gannim with its common-land: four cities; ³⁰ and from the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its common-land, Abdon with its common-land, ³¹ Helkath with its common-land, and Rehob with its common-land: four cities; ³² and from the tribe of Naphtali, ^(AW)Kedesh in Galilee with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), Hammoth Dor with its common-land, and Kartan with its common-land: three cities. ³³ All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their common-lands.

^34 (AX)And to the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its common-land, Kartah with its common-land, ³⁵ Dimnah with its common-land, and Nahalal with its common-land: four cities; ^36 [g]and from the tribe of Reuben, ^(AY)Bezer with its common-land, Jahaz with its common-land, ³⁷ Kedemoth with its common-land, and Mephaath with its common-land: four cities; ³⁸ and from the tribe of Gad, ^(AZ)Ramoth in Gilead with its common-land (a city of refuge for the slayer), Mahanaim with its common-land, ³⁹ Heshbon with its common-land, and Jazer with its common-land: four cities in all. ⁴⁰ So all the cities for the children of Merari according to their families, the rest of the families of the Levites, were by their lot twelve cities.

^41 (BA)All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their common-lands. ⁴² Every one of these cities had its common-land surrounding it; thus were all these cities.

The Promise Fulfilled

⁴³ So the Lord gave to Israel ^(BB)all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they ^(BC)took possession of it and dwelt in it. ^44 (BD)The Lord gave them ^(BE)rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And ^(BF)not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. ^45 (BG)Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.