The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation

Of David.

A Chosen People

7 “When the ^(A)Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, ^(B)the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations ^(C)more numerous and mightier than you, ^2 (D)and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ^(E)devote them to complete destruction.^{[a] (F)}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3 (G)You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. ^(H)Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you ^(I)quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: ^(J)you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their ^(K)pillars and chop down their ^(L)Asherim and ^(M)burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For ^(N)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(O)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(P)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(Q)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, ^(R)the faithful God ^(S)who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and ^(T)repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. ^(U)He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ^11 (V)You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

^12 (W)“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ^(X)the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will ^(Y)love you, bless you, and multiply you. ^(Z)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples. ^(AA)There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil ^(AB)diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ And ^(AC)you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. ^(AD)Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(AE)a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ ^18 (AF)you shall not be afraid of them but you shall ^(AG)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials that your eyes saw, ^(AH)the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, ^(AI)the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is ^(AJ)in your midst, ^(AK)a great and awesome God. ^22 (AL)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,^[b] lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ^23 (AM)But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(AN)he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall ^(AO)make their name perish from under heaven. ^(AP)No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The carved images of their gods ^(AQ)you shall burn with fire. You ^(AR)shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^(AS)ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction^[c] like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ^(AT)for it is devoted to destruction.

Can This Be the Christ?

²⁵ Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom ^(A)they seek to kill? ²⁶ And here he is, ^(B)speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that ^(C)the authorities really know that this is the Christ? ²⁷ But ^(D)we know ^(E)where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, ^(F)no one will know where he comes from.” ²⁸ So Jesus proclaimed, ^(G)as he taught in the temple, ^(H)“You know me, and you know where I come from. But ^(I)I have not come of my own accord. ^(J)He who sent me is true, ^(K)and him you do not know. ^29 (L)I know him, for I come ^(M)from him, and ^(N)he sent me.” ^30 (O)So they were seeking to arrest him, but ^(P)no one laid a hand on him, ^(Q)because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Yet ^(R)many of the people believed in him. They said, ^(S)“When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd ^(T)muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent ^(U)officers to arrest him. ³³ Jesus then said, ^(V)“I will be with you a little longer, and then ^(W)I am going to him who sent me. ^34 (X)You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? ^(Y)Does he intend to go to ^(Z)the Dispersion among ^(AA)the Greeks and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What does he mean by saying, ^(AB)‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water

^37 (AC)On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ^(AD)“If anyone thirsts, let him ^(AE)come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, ^(AF)as^[a] the Scripture has said, ^(AG)‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of ^(AH)living water.’” ³⁹ Now ^(AI)this he said about the Spirit, ^(AJ)whom those who believed in him were to receive, ^(AK)for as yet the Spirit had not been ^(AL)given, ^(AM)because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division Among the People

⁴⁰ When they heard these words, ^(AN)some of the people said, “This really is ^(AO)the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “This is ^(AP)the Christ.” But some said, ^(AQ)“Is the Christ to come from Galilee? ⁴² Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes ^(AR)from the offspring of David, and comes ^(AS)from Bethlehem, the village ^(AT)where David was?” ⁴³ So there was ^(AU)a division among the people over him. ^44 (AV)Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

^45 (AW)The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, ^(AX)“No one ever spoke like this man!” ⁴⁷ The Pharisees answered them, ^(AY)“Have you also been deceived? ^48 (AZ)Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” ^50 (BA)Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ^51 (BB)“Does our law judge a man without first ^(BC)giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” ⁵² They replied, ^(BD)“Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that ^(BE)no prophet arises from Galilee.”

[The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.]^[b]

The Woman Caught in Adultery

⁵³ [[They went each to his own house,