Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹ ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever.

² Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

³ and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

⁴ They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in.

⁵ Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

⁶ Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

⁷ And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

³³ ¶ He turned rivers into a wilderness and the watersprings into dry ground;

³⁴ the fruitful land into salt flats, because of the wickedness of those that dwell therein.

³⁵ He turns the wilderness into reservoirs of water and dry ground into watersprings.

³⁶ And there he makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation

³⁷ and sow the fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.

1 ¶ Now after the death of Moses, the slave of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ minister, saying,

² Moses, my slave, is dead; now, therefore, arise, pass this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I give to the sons of Israel.

³ Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.

⁴ From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your borders.

⁵ No one shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee; I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.

⁶ Be strong and of a good courage; for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land as an inheritance, which I swore unto their fathers to give them.

⁷ Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest keep and do according to all the law, which Moses my slave commanded thee; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou may be prospered in all the things that thou doest.

⁸ This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou may keep and do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way to prosper, and then thou shalt understand everything.

⁹ See that I command thee to be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for I, the LORD thy God, am with thee wherever thou goest.

¹⁰ ¶ Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,

¹¹ Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, Prepare food; for within three days ye shall pass this Jordan, to enter in to inherit the land, which the LORD your God gives you to inherit.

¹⁷ ¶ Behold, thou doth call thyself a Jew and art supported by the law and doth glory in God

¹⁸ and dost know his will and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law,

¹⁹ and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness,

²⁰ an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of children, who hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

²¹ Thou, therefore, who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?

²² Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that dost abhor idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

²³ Thou that makest thy boast of the law, with rebellion to the law doth thou dishonour God?

²⁴ For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

²⁵ For circumcision verily profits if thou keep the law, but if thou art a rebel to the law, thy circumcision is made into a foreskin.

²⁶ Therefore if the uncircumcised keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his foreskin be counted for circumcision?

²⁷ And that which is by nature foreskin, but keeps the law perfectly, shall judge thee who with the letter and with the circumcision art rebellious to the law.

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is done outwardly in the flesh;

²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.