Old/New Testament
The Dispossession of Nonvassals
7 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites,[a] Girgashites,[b] Amorites,[c] Canaanites,[d] Perizzites,[e] Hivites,[f] and Jebusites,[g] seven[h] nations more numerous and powerful than you— 2 and he[i] delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate[j] them. Make no treaty[k] with them and show them no mercy! 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters[l] to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they[m] will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you. 5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars,[n] cut down their sacred Asherah poles,[o] and burn up their idols. 6 For you are a people holy[p] to the Lord your God. He[q] has chosen you to be his people, prized[r] above all others on the face of the earth.
The Basis of Israel’s Election
7 It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you—for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples. 8 Rather it is because of his[s] love[t] for you and his faithfulness to the promise[u] he solemnly vowed[v] to your ancestors[w] that the Lord brought you out with great power,[x] redeeming[y] you from the place of slavery, from the power[z] of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 So realize that the Lord your God is the true God,[aa] the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully[ab] with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 but who pays back those who hate[ac] him as they deserve and destroys them. He will not ignore[ad] those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve! 11 So keep the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that I today am commanding you to do.
Promises of Good for Covenant Obedience
12 If you obey these ordinances and are careful to do them, the Lord your God will faithfully keep covenant with you[ae] as he promised[af] your ancestors. 13 He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children,[ag] with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your olive oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land that he promised your ancestors to give you. 14 You will be blessed beyond all peoples; there will be no barrenness[ah] among you or your livestock. 15 The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and you will not experience any of the terrible diseases that you knew in Egypt; instead he will inflict them on all those who hate you.
Exhortation to Destroy Canaanite Paganism
16 You must destroy[ai] all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship[aj] their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17 If you think, “These nations are more numerous than I—how can I dispossess them?” 18 you must not fear them. You must carefully recall[ak] what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt, 19 the great judgments[al] you saw, the signs and wonders, the strength and power[am] by which he[an] brought you out—thus the Lord your God will do to all the people you fear. 20 Furthermore, the Lord your God will release hornets[ao] among them until the very last ones who hide from you[ap] perish. 21 You must not tremble in their presence, for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a great and awesome God. 22 He,[aq] the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you. 23 The Lord your God will give them over to you; he will throw them into a great panic[ar] until they are destroyed. 24 He will hand over their kings to you, and you will erase their very names from memory.[as] Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them. 25 You must burn the images of their gods, but do not covet the silver and gold that covers them so much that you take it for yourself and thus become ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent[at] to the Lord your God. 26 You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath[au] along with it.[av] You must absolutely detest[aw] and abhor it,[ax] for it is an object of divine wrath.
The Lord’s Provision in the Desert
8 You must keep carefully all these commandments[ay] I am giving[az] you today so that you may live, increase in number,[ba] and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors.[bb] 2 Remember the whole way by which he[bc] has brought you these forty years through the wilderness so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not. 3 So he humbled you by making you hungry and then feeding you with unfamiliar manna.[bd] He did this to teach you[be] that humankind[bf] cannot live by bread[bg] alone, but also by everything that comes from the Lord’s mouth.[bh] 4 Your clothing did not wear out nor did your feet swell all these forty years. 5 Be keenly aware that just as a parent disciplines his child,[bi] so the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you must keep his[bj] commandments, live according to his standards,[bk] and revere him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks,[bl] springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, of olive trees and honey, 9 a land where you may eat food[bm] in plenty and find no lack of anything, a land whose stones are iron[bn] and from whose hills you can mine copper. 10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.
Exhortation to Remember That Blessing Comes from God
11 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses, 13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 14 be sure[bo] you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery, 15 and who brought you through the great, fearful wilderness of venomous serpents[bp] and scorpions, an arid place with no water. He made water flow[bq] from a flint rock and 16 fed you in the wilderness with manna (which your ancestors had never before known) so that he might by humbling you test you[br] and eventually bring good to you. 17 Be careful[bs] not to say, “My own ability and skill[bt] have gotten me this wealth.” 18 You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors,[bu] even as he has to this day. 19 Now if you forget the Lord your God at all[bv] and follow other gods, worshiping and prostrating yourselves before them, I testify to you today that you will surely be annihilated. 20 Just like the nations the Lord is about to destroy from your sight, so he will do to you[bw] because you would not obey him.[bx]
Theological Justification of the Conquest
9 Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications.[by] 2 They include the Anakites,[bz] a numerous[ca] and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?” 3 Understand today that the Lord your God who goes before you is a devouring fire; he will defeat and subdue them before you. You will dispossess and destroy them quickly just as he[cb] has told you. 4 Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness,[cc] that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he[cd] made on oath to your ancestors,[ce] to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 Understand, therefore, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is about to give you this good land as a possession, for you are a stubborn[cf] people!
The History of Israel’s Stubbornness
7 Remember—don’t ever forget[cg]—how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him.[ch] 8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there[ci] forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. 10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger[cj] of God, and on them was everything[ck] he[cl] said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly. 11 Now at the end of the forty days and nights the Lord presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 And he said to me, “Get up, go down at once from here because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have sinned! They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a cast metal image.”[cm] 13 Moreover, he said to me, “I have taken note of these people; they are a stubborn[cn] lot! 14 Stand aside[co] and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory,[cp] and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”
15 So I turned and went down the mountain while it[cq] was blazing with fire; the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. 16 When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf;[cr] you had quickly turned aside from the way he[cs] had commanded you! 17 I grabbed the two tablets, threw them down,[ct] and shattered them before your very eyes. 18 Then I again fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the Lord as to enrage him. 19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger[cu] that threatened to destroy you. But he[cv] listened to me this time as well. 20 The Lord was also angry enough at Aaron to kill him, but at that time I prayed for him[cw] too. 21 As for your sinful thing[cx] that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,[cy] ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain. 22 Moreover, you continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah,[cz] Massah,[da] and Kibroth Hattaavah.[db] 23 And when he[dc] sent you from Kadesh Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God[dd] and would neither believe nor obey him. 24 You have been rebelling against him[de] from the very first day I knew you!
Moses’ Plea on Behalf of God’s Reputation
25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights,[df] for he[dg] had said he would destroy you. 26 I prayed to him:[dh] O, Sovereign Lord,[di] do not destroy your people, your valued property[dj] that you have powerfully redeemed,[dk] whom you brought out of Egypt by your strength.[dl] 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; ignore the stubbornness, wickedness, and sin of these people. 28 Otherwise the people of the land[dm] from which you brought us will say, “The Lord was unable to bring them to the land he promised them, and because of his hatred for them he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” 29 They are your people, your valued property,[dn] whom you brought out with great strength and power.[do]
19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples[a] went out of the city.
The Withered Fig Tree
20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.” 22 Jesus said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 I tell you the truth,[b] if someone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will[c] also forgive you your sins.”[d]
The Authority of Jesus
27 They came again to Jerusalem. While Jesus[e] was walking in the temple courts,[f] the chief priests, the experts in the law,[g] and the elders came up to him 28 and said, “By what authority[h] are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from people?[i] Answer me.” 31 They discussed with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From people—’” (they feared the crowd, for they all considered John to be truly a prophet). 33 So[j] they answered Jesus,[k] “We don’t know.”[l] Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you[m] by what authority[n] I am doing these things.”
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