Book of Common Prayer

¹⁵ On the seventh day, they got up early, at sunrise, and went around the city in the same way seven times. That was the only day they encircled the city seven times. ¹⁶ The seventh time, when the cohanim blew on their shofars, Y’hoshua said to the people, “Shout! because Adonai has given you the city! ¹⁷ But the city and everything in it is to be set aside for Adonai and therefore to be destroyed completely; only Rachav the prostitute is to be spared, she and everyone with her in her house, because she hid the messengers we sent. ¹⁸ So you, keep clear of everything reserved for destruction. If you bring a curse on yourselves by taking anything set aside to be destroyed, you will bring a curse on the whole camp of Isra’el and cause great distress there. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold, and all the brass and iron utensils are to be separated out for Adonai and added to the treasury of Adonai.”

²⁰ So the people shouted, with the shofars blowing. When the people heard the sound of the shofars, the people let out a great shout; and the wall fell down flat; so that the people went up into the city, each one straight ahead of him; and they captured the city. ²¹ They completely destroyed everything in the city with the sword — men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

²² Y’hoshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out with all that she has, as you swore to her.” ²³ The young men, the spies, went in and brought out Rachav with her father, mother, brothers and all she had; they brought out all her relatives and put them safely outside the camp of Isra’el.

²⁴ Then they burned the city to ashes with everything in it, except for the silver, the gold and the brass and iron utensils, which they put in the treasury of the house of Adonai. ²⁵ But Y’hoshua spared Rachav the prostitute, her father’s household and everything she had; and she has continued living with Isra’el from then until now; because she hid the messengers Y’hoshua had sent to reconnoiter Yericho. ²⁶ Y’hoshua then made the people take this oath: “A curse before Adonai on anyone who rises up and rebuilds this city of Yericho: he will lay its foundation with the loss of his firstborn son and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son.” ²⁷ So Adonai was with Y’hoshua, and people heard about him throughout the land.

³⁰ However, the next day, since he wanted to know the specific charge the Judeans were bringing against him, he released him and ordered the head cohanim and the whole Sanhedrin to meet. Then he brought Sha’ul down and put him in front of them.

23 Sha’ul looked straight at them and said, “Brothers, I have been discharging my obligations to God with a perfectly clear conscience, right up until today.” ² But the cohen hagadol, Hananyah, ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. ³ Then Sha’ul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Will you sit there judging me according to the Torah, yet in violation of the Torah order me to be struck?” ⁴ The men nearby said, “This is the cohen hagadol of God that you’re insulting!” ⁵ Sha’ul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was the cohen hagadol; for it says in the Torah, ‘You are not to speak disparagingly of a ruler of your people.’”^[a]

⁶ But knowing that one part of the Sanhedrin consisted of Tz’dukim and the other of P’rushim, Sha’ul shouted, “Brothers, I myself am a Parush and the son of P’rushim; and it is concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead that I am being tried!” ⁷ When he said this, an argument arose between the P’rushim and the Tz’dukim, and the crowd was divided. ⁸ For the Tz’dukim deny the resurrection and the existence of angels and spirits; whereas the P’rushim acknowledge both. ⁹ So there was a great uproar, with some of the Torah-teachers who were on the side of the P’rushim standing up and joining in — “We don’t find anything wrong with this man; and if a spirit or an angel spoke to him, what of it?” ¹⁰ The dispute became so violent that the commander, fearing that Sha’ul would be torn apart by them, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force and bring him back into the barracks.

¹¹ The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage! For just as you have borne a faithful witness to me in Yerushalayim, so now you must bear witness in Rome.”

2 After a while, Yeshua returned to K’far-Nachum. The word spread that he was back, ² and so many people gathered around the house that there was no longer any room, not even in front of the door. While he was preaching the message to them, ³ four men came to him carrying a paralyzed man. ⁴ They could not get near Yeshua because of the crowd, so they stripped the roof over the place where he was, made an opening, and lowered the stretcher with the paralytic lying on it. ⁵ Seeing their trust, Yeshua said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Some Torah-teachers sitting there thought to themselves, ⁷ “How can this fellow say such a thing? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins except God?” ⁸ But immediately Yeshua, perceiving in his spirit what they were thinking, said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier to say to the paralyzed man? ‘Your sins are forgiven’? or ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk’? ¹⁰ But look! I will prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” He then said to the paralytic, ¹¹ “I say to you: get up, pick up your stretcher and go home!” ¹² In front of everyone the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and left. They were all utterly amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”