Old/New Testament
Moses Talks to the Israelites
1 These are the commands that Moses gave the Israelites while they were in the Jordan Valley, in the desert east of the Jordan River. This was across from Suph, between the desert of Paran and the cities Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
2 The trip from Mount Horeb through the mountains of Seir to Kadesh Barnea takes only eleven days. 3 But it was 40 years from the time the Israelites left Egypt until the time they came to this place. On the first day of the eleventh month of the 40th year, Moses spoke to the people and told them everything the Lord commanded. 4 This was after he defeated Sihon and Og. (Sihon was the king of the Amorites and lived in Heshbon. Og was the king of Bashan and lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei.) 5 The Israelites were in Moab on the east side of the Jordan River when Moses began to explain what God had commanded:
6 “At Mount Horeb the Lord our God spoke to us. He said, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. 7 Go to the hill country where the Amorites live and to all the neighboring areas in the Jordan Valley, the hill country, the western slopes, the Negev, and the seacoast. Go throughout the land of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 Look, I am giving you this land. Go and take it. It is the land that I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I promised to give this land to them and to their descendants.’
Moses Chooses Leaders
9 “At that time I told you, ‘I can’t take care of you by myself. 10 And now, there are even more of you. The Lord your God has added more and more people, so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, give you 1000 times more people than you are now! May he bless you as he promised. 12 But I cannot take care of you and solve all your arguments by myself. 13 So choose some men from each tribe, and I will make them leaders over you. Choose wise men with experience who understand people.’
14 “And you said, ‘That is a good thing to do.’
15 “So I took the wise, experienced men you chose from your tribes, and I made them your leaders. In this way I gave you leaders over 1000 people, over 100 people, over 50 people, and over 10 people. I also gave you officers for each of your tribes.
16 “At that time I told these judges, ‘Listen to the arguments between your people. Be fair when you judge each case. It doesn’t matter if the problem is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner. You must judge each case fairly. 17 You must treat everyone the same when you judge. You must listen carefully to everyone—whether they are important or not. Don’t be afraid of anyone, because your decision is from God. But if there is a case too hard for you to judge, bring it to me and I will judge it.’ 18 At that same time I also told you everything you must do.
The Spies Go to Canaan
19 “So we obeyed the Lord our God. We left Mount Horeb and went to the hill country of the Amorites. You remember that big, terrible desert that we walked through. We came as far as Kadesh Barnea. 20 Then I said to you, ‘You have now come to the hill country of the Amorites. The Lord our God will give us this country. 21 Look, there it is! Go up and take the land for your own. The Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you to do this, so don’t be afraid or worry about anything.’
22 “But all of you came to me and said, ‘Let’s send some men to look at the land first. They can spy out the land and come back and tell us the way we should go and which cities we will come to.’
23 “I thought that was a good idea. So I chose twelve men from among you, one man from each tribe. 24 Then they left and went up to the hill country. They came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it. 25 They took some of the fruit from that land and brought it back to us. They told us about the land and said, ‘The Lord our God is giving us a good land.’
26 “But you refused to go into the land. You refused to obey the Lord your God. 27 You went to your tents and began to complain. You said, ‘The Lord hates us! He brought us out of the land of Egypt just to let the Amorites destroy us. 28 Where can we go now? The men we sent have frightened us with their report. They said, “The people there are bigger and taller than we are. The cities are big and have walls as high as the sky. And we saw giants[a] there!”’
29 “So I said to you, ‘Don’t be upset or afraid of those people. 30 The Lord your God is in front, leading you. He will fight for you just as he did in Egypt. 31 You saw what happened in the desert. You saw how the Lord your God carried you like a man carries his child. He brought you safely all the way to this place.’
32 “But you didn’t trust the Lord your God then either. 33 But he was always in front, going ahead to find a place for you to camp. At night, he was in the fire that showed you where to go. And during the day, he was in the cloud.
People Not Allowed to Enter Canaan
34 “The Lord heard what you said, and he was angry. He made a vow. He said, 35 ‘Not one of you evil people who are alive now will go into the good land that I promised to your ancestors. 36 Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will see that land. I will give Caleb the land he walked on, and I will give that land to his descendants, because he did all that I, the Lord, commanded.’
37 “The Lord was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, ‘Moses, you cannot enter the land, either. 38 But your helper, Joshua son of Nun, will go into the land. Encourage Joshua, because he will lead the Israelites to take the land for their own. 39 You thought your little children would be taken by your enemies. But those children, who are still too young to know right from wrong, will go into the land. I will give it to them. Your children will take the land for their own. 40 But you—you must turn around, take the road to the Red Sea and go back into the desert.’
41 “Then you said, ‘Moses, we sinned against the Lord, but now we will do what the Lord our God commanded us before—we will go and fight.’
“Then each of you put on your weapons. You thought it would be easy to go and take the hill country. 42 But the Lord said to me, ‘Tell the people not to go up there and fight, because I will not be with them. Their enemies will defeat them!’
43 “I spoke to you, but you did not listen. You refused to obey the Lord’s command. You thought you could use your own power, so you went up into the hill country. 44 The Amorites who lived there came out like a swarm of bees and chased you all the way from Seir to Hormah. 45 Then you came back crying to the Lord for help, but the Lord refused to listen to you. 46 So you stayed at Kadesh for such a long time.
Israel Wanders Through the Desert
2 “Then we did what the Lord told me to do. We went back into the desert on the road that leads to the Red Sea. We traveled for many days to go around the mountains of Seir.[b] 2 Then the Lord said to me, 3 ‘You have traveled around these mountains long enough. Turn north. 4 Tell the people this: You will pass through the land of Seir. This land belongs to your relatives, the descendants of Esau. They will be afraid of you. Be very careful. 5 Don’t fight them. I will not give you any of their land—not even a foot of it, because I gave the hill country of Seir to Esau to keep as his own. 6 You must pay the people of Esau for any food you eat or water you drink there. 7 Remember that the Lord your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He knows about everything that happened on the trip through this great desert. The Lord your God has been with you these 40 years. You have always had everything you needed.’
8 “So we passed by our relatives, the people of Esau living there in Seir. We left the road that leads from the Jordan Valley to the towns of Elath and Ezion Geber. We turned onto the road that goes to the desert in Moab.
Israel at Ar
9 “The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t bother the Moabites. Don’t start a war against them. I will not give you any of their land. They are the descendants of Lot,[c] and I gave them the city of Ar.’”
10 (In the past, the Emites lived in Ar. They were strong people, and there were many of them. They were very tall, like the Anakites. 11 The Anakites were part of the Rephaites. People thought the Emites were also Rephaites, but the people of Moab called them Emites. 12 The Horites also lived in Seir in the past. Then Esau’s people destroyed the Horites, took their land, and settled there, just as the Israelites did to the people in the land that the Lord gave them.)
13 “The Lord told me, ‘Now, go to the other side of Zered Valley.’ So we crossed Zered Valley. 14 It was 38 years from the time we left Kadesh Barnea until the time we crossed Zered Valley. As the Lord had promised, all the fighting men in our camp from that generation had died. 15 The Lord had opposed those men until they were all dead and gone from our camp.
16 “After all the fighting men were dead and gone, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you must cross the border at Ar and go into Moab. 19 You will be just across from the Ammonites. Don’t bother them or fight with them, because I will not give you their land. They are descendants of Lot, and I have given that land to them.’”
20 (That country is also known as the Land of Rephaim. The Rephaites lived there in the past. The people of Ammon called them the Zamzummites. 21 There were many Rephaites, and they were very strong and tall like the Anakites. But the Lord helped the Ammonites destroy them. The Ammonites took that land and live there now. 22 God did the same thing for Esau’s people. In the past the Horites lived in Seir.[d] But Esau’s people destroyed the Horites, and Esau’s descendants still live there today. 23 God did the same thing for some people from Crete. The Avvites lived in the towns around Gaza, but the Cretans destroyed them, took the land, and live there now.)
Fighting the Amorites
24 “The Lord told me, ‘Get ready to go across Arnon Valley. I will let you defeat Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon. I will let you take his country. So fight against him and take his land. 25 Today I will make all people everywhere afraid of you. They will hear the news about you, and they will be afraid and shake with fear.’
26 “While we were in the desert of Kedemoth, I sent messengers to King Sihon of Heshbon. The messengers offered peace to Sihon. They said, 27 ‘Let us go through your land. We will stay on the road. We will not turn off the road to the right or to the left. 28 We will pay you in silver for any food we eat or any water we drink. We only want to march through your country. 29 Let us go through your land until we go across the Jordan River into the land that the Lord our God is giving us. Other people have let us go through their land—the people of Esau living in Seir and the Moabites living in Ar.’
30 “But King Sihon of Heshbon would not let us pass through his country. The Lord your God had made him very stubborn and ready to fight. The Lord did this so that he could help you defeat King Sihon. And today we know that is what happened.
31 “The Lord said to me, ‘I am giving King Sihon and his country to you. Now, go take his land!’
32 “Then King Sihon and all his people came out to fight against us at Jahaz. 33 But the Lord our God gave him to us. We defeated King Sihon, his sons, and all his people. 34 We captured all the cities that belonged to King Sihon at that time. We completely destroyed the people in every city—the men, women, and children. We did not leave anyone alive! 35 We took only the cattle and the valuable things from those cities. 36 We defeated the town of Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley and the other town in the middle of that valley. The Lord let us defeat all the cities between the Arnon Valley and Gilead. No city was too strong for us. 37 But you did not go near the land that belongs to the people of Ammon. You did not go near the shores of the Jabbok River or the cities of the hill country. You did not go near any place that the Lord our God would not let us have.
Fighting the People of Bashan
3 “We turned and went on the road to Bashan. King Og of Bashan and all his men came out to fight against us at Edrei. 2 The Lord said to me, ‘Don’t be afraid of Og. I have decided to give him to you. I will give you all his men and his land. You will defeat him just as you defeated Sihon, the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon.’
3 “So the Lord our God let us defeat King Og of Bashan. We destroyed him and all his men. Not one of them was left. 4 Then we took all the cities that belonged to Og at that time. We took all the cities from Og’s people—60 cities in the area of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. 5 All these cities were very strong. They had high walls, gates, and strong bars on the gates. There were also many towns that did not have walls. 6 We destroyed them just as we destroyed the cities of King Sihon of Heshbon. We completely destroyed every city and all the people in them, even the women and the babies. 7 But we kept all the cattle and the valuable things from the cities for ourselves.
8 “In that way we took the land from the two Amorite kings. We took that land on the east side of the Jordan River, from Arnon Valley to Mount Hermon. 9 (The people from Sidon call Mount Hermon, Sirion, but the Amorites called it Senir.) 10 We took all the cities in the high plain and all of Gilead. We took all of Bashan, all the way to Salecah and Edrei. Salecah and Edrei were cities of Og’s kingdom of Bashan.”
11 (Og was the king of Bashan. He was one of the few Rephaites still alive. His bed was made from iron, and it was over 13 feet long and 6 feet wide.[e] The bed is still in the city of Rabbah, where the Ammonites live.)
The Land East of the Jordan River
12 “So we took that land to be ours. I gave part of this land to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. I gave them the land from Aroer in the Arnon Valley to the hill country of Gilead with the cities in it. They got half of the hill country of Gilead. 13 I gave the other half of Gilead and the whole area of Bashan to half the tribe of Manasseh.”
(Bashan was Og’s kingdom. Part of Bashan was called Argob. It was also called the Land of Rephaim. 14 Jair, from the tribe of Manasseh, took the whole area of Argob. That area went all the way to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites. It was named for Jair, and even today, people call Bashan the Towns of Jair.)
15 “I gave Gilead to Makir. 16 And to the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad, I gave the land that begins at Gilead and goes from the Arnon Valley to the Jabbok River. The middle of the valley is one border. The Jabbok River is the border for the Ammonites. 17 The Jordan River near the desert is their western border. Lake Galilee[f] is north of this area and the Dead Sea[g] is to the south. It is at the bottom of the cliffs of Pisgah, which are to the east.
18 “At that time I gave those tribes this command: ‘The Lord your God has given you the land on this side of the Jordan River to live in. But now your fighting men must take their weapons and lead the other Israelite tribes across the river. 19 Your wives, your little children, and your cattle (I know you have many cattle) will stay here in the cities I have given you. 20 But you must help your Israelite relatives until they take the land that the Lord is giving them on the other side of the Jordan River. Help them until the Lord gives them peace there, just as he did for you here. Then you may come back to this land that I have given you.’
21 “Then I told Joshua, ‘You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same thing to all the kingdoms you will enter. 22 Don’t fear the kings of these lands, because the Lord your God will fight for you.’
Moses Not Allowed in Canaan
23 “Then I begged the Lord to do something special for me. I said, 24 ‘Lord God, I am your servant. I know that you have shown me only a small part of the wonderful and powerful things you will do. There is no god in heaven or earth that can do the great and powerful things you have done. 25 Please let me go across the Jordan River and see the good land on the other side. Let me see the beautiful hill country and Lebanon.’
26 “But the Lord was angry with me because of you and refused to listen to me. The Lord said to me, ‘That’s enough! Don’t say another word about this. 27 Go up to the top of Mount Pisgah. Look to the west, to the north, to the south, and to the east. You may see these things with your eyes, but you can never go across the Jordan River. 28 You must give instructions to Joshua. Encourage him. Make him strong, because Joshua must lead the people across the Jordan River. You can see the land, but Joshua will lead them into that land. He will help them take the land and live in it.’
29 “So we stayed in the valley across from Beth Peor.
Jesus Talks Again About His Death(A)
32 Jesus and those with him were on their way to Jerusalem. He was at the front of the group. His followers were wondering what was happening, and the people who followed behind them were feeling afraid. Jesus gathered the twelve apostles again and talked with them alone. He told them what would happen in Jerusalem. 33 He said, “We are going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the leading priests and teachers of the law. They will say that he must die and will hand him over to the foreigners, 34 who will laugh at him and spit on him. They will beat him with whips and kill him. But on the third day after his death, he will rise to life again.”
James and John Ask for a Favor(B)
35 Then James and John, sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want to ask you to do something for us.”
36 Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 The sons answered, “Let us share the great honor you will have as king. Let one of us sit at your right side and the other at your left.”
38 Jesus said, “You don’t understand what you are asking. Can you drink from the cup[a] that I must drink from? Can you be baptized with the same baptism[b] that I must go through?”
39 The sons answered, “Yes, we can!”
Jesus said to the sons, “It is true that you will drink from the cup that I drink from. And you will be baptized with the same baptism that I must go through. 40 But it is not for me to say who will sit at my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he chooses.”
41 When the other ten followers heard this, they were angry with James and John. 42 Jesus called all the followers together. He said, “The non-Jewish people have men they call rulers. You know that those rulers love to show their power over the people. And their important leaders love to use all their authority over the people. 43 But it should not be that way with you. Whoever wants to be your leader must be your servant. 44 Whoever wants to be first must serve the rest of you like a slave. 45 Follow my example: Even the Son of Man did not come for people to serve him. He came to serve others and to give his life to save many people.”
Jesus Heals a Blind Man(C)
46 Then they came to the town of Jericho. When Jesus left there with his followers, a large crowd was with them. A blind man named Bartimaeus (meaning “son of Timaeus”) was sitting by the road. He was always begging for money. 47 He heard that Jesus from Nazareth was walking by. So he began shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, please help me!”
48 Many people criticized the blind man and told him to be quiet. But he shouted more and more, “Son of David, please help me!”
49 Jesus stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man and said, “You can be happy now. Stand up! Jesus is calling you.” 50 The blind man stood up quickly. He left his coat there and went to Jesus.
51 Jesus asked the man, “What do you want me to do for you?”
He answered, “Teacher, I want to see again.”
52 Jesus said, “Go. You are healed because you believed.” Immediately the man was able to see again. He followed Jesus down the road.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International