The Daily Audio Bible

²² “You gave them kingdoms and nations, and You divided them as boundaries. They possessed the land of Sihon, which was the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, the king of Bashan. ²³ Their descendants You increased like the stars of heaven, and You brought them into the land, which You had promised to their fathers that they would enter and possess it. ²⁴ So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and You subdued for them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands—with their kings and the peoples of the land—to do with them as they would. ²⁵ They captured unassailable cities and a fertile land. They possessed houses full of all goods, wells dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance, so they ate, were filled, and became fat, and they indulged themselves in Your great goodness.

²⁶ “Nevertheless they became disobedient, and rebelled against You, and cast Your law behind their backs, and killed Your prophets who had warned them to turn back to You. But they committed terrible provocations. ²⁷ Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who afflicted them. When they cried to You in the time of their affliction, You heard from heaven, and, according to Your abundant mercy, You gave them deliverers who delivered them out of the hand of their enemies.

²⁸ “But after they had rest, they again did evil before You. Therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to You, You heard from heaven, and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies.

²⁹ “You warned them in order to restore them again to Your law, but they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances (which would enable a man to live, if he would do them), stubbornly turning away and becoming belligerent so that they would not hear. ³⁰ For many years You endured them and warned them by Your Spirit in Your prophets, yet they would not listen. Therefore, You gave them into the hand of the people of the lands. ³¹ Nevertheless, for the sake of Your abundant mercy, You did not completely destroy them or forsake them. Indeed, You are a gracious and merciful God.

³² “Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy, let not all the hardship, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day, that has come on us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and on all Your people seem insignificant to You. ³³ You are righteous for everything that has come upon us! You have acted faithfully while we have done wickedly. ³⁴ For our kings, princes, priests, and fathers have failed to keep Your law and did not obey Your commandments and Your warnings even when You confronted them. ³⁵ For whether in their kingdom or in Your abundant goodness (that You gave them) or in the spacious and fertile land (that You set before them), they have neither served You nor turned away from their wicked deeds.

³⁶ “Here we are, slaves today. The land that You gave to our fathers was for eating its fruit and its goodness. Behold, we have become slaves on account of it, ³⁷ because its abundant produce belongs to the kings whom You have set over us due to our sins. They have control over our bodies and over our livestock, as they please. We are in great distress.”

Signatories to the Agreement

³⁸ So on the basis of all this, we are executing a written agreement that is being sealed by our princes, Levites, and priests.

Signatories of the Covenant

10 Now the names of those on the sealed agreement were:

Summary of the Covenant

²⁸ The remainder of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who on the basis of the Law of God separated themselves from the people of the lands—their wives, their sons, and their daughters, that is, every one capable of knowledge and understanding— ²⁹ have decisively joined in with their countrymen and their nobles, and obligated themselves—by both a curse and an oath—to walk in the Law of God, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord who is our Lord, along with His judgments and His statutes ³⁰ so that we will not give our daughters to the people of the land nor take their daughters for our sons.

³¹ If the people of the land bring merchandise or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day. We will also renounce the seventh year harvest and the full payment of every debt.

³² We also establish for ourselves the ordinance to collect from ourselves annually one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: ³³ for the showbread, the continual grain offering, the continual burnt offering, the Sabbaths, the New Moons, the appointed feasts, the holy things, and the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, as well as for all the work of the house of our God.

³⁴ Also, we cast lots to determine the duty of the supply of wood that the priests, the Levites, and the people—according to the houses of our fathers, being set by annually appointed times—might bring to the house of our God, in order to burn it on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the Law; ³⁵ and, likewise, for the annual bringing of the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of all trees to the house of the Lord; ³⁶ and for bringing to the priests who are ministering at the house of God, the firstborn of our sons and livestock, as it is written in the Law, plus the firstborn of our herds and flocks.

³⁷ Moreover, the first of our fresh dough, our contributions, the fruit of every tree, and the new wine and oil we will bring to the priests at the chambers of the house of our God, but the tithe of our crops we will bring to the Levites, since they themselves receive the tithes in all our agricultural cities. ³⁸ There must be a priest, a descendant of Aaron, with the Levites when they are collecting tithes, and the Levites will offer a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, for the chambers of the storehouse. ³⁹ Both the children of Israel and the Levites should bring the contribution of the grain, new wine, and the fresh oil to the chambers because the vessels of the sanctuary and the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers are there.

We resolve not to forsake the house of our God.

¹⁹ For though I am free from all men, I have made myself servant to all, that I might win even more. ²⁰ To the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; ²¹ to those who are outside the law, as outside the law (being not without God’s law, but under Christ’s law) that I might win those who are outside the law. ²² To the weak, I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ²³ This I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might partake of it with you.

²⁴ Do you not know that all those who run in a race run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Everyone who strives for the prize exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. ²⁶ So, therefore, I run, not with uncertainty. So I fight, not as one who beats the air. ²⁷ But I bring and keep my body under subjection, lest when preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Warning Against Idolatry

10 I would not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³ all ate the same spiritual food; ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. ⁵ But with many of them God was not well pleased, and they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. ⁷ Neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.”^{[a] 8} Neither let us commit sexual immorality as some of them committed, when twenty-three thousand fell in one day. ⁹ Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. ¹⁰ Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer.

¹¹ Now all these things happened to them for examples. They are written as an admonition to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. ¹³ No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, and He will not permit you to be tempted above what you can endure, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Psalm 34

A Psalm of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he departed.