Joshua to Succeed Moses
1 So Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel. 2 And he said to them, “I am d120 years old today. I am no longer able to ego out and come in. The Lord has said to me, f‘You shall not go over this Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God ghimself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, so that you shall dispossess them, and Joshua will go over at your head, has the Lord has spoken. 4 And the Lord will do to them ias he did to Sihon jand Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. 5 And the Lord will give them over to you, and you shall do to them kaccording to the whole commandment that I have commanded you. 6 lBe strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, mfor it is the Lord your God who goes with you. nHe will not leave you or forsake you.”
7 Then oMoses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, l“Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it. 8 It is the Lord pwho goes before you. He will be with you; nhe will not leave you or forsake you. qDo not fear or be dismayed.”
The Reading of the Law
9 Then Moses rwrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, swho carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, t“At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at uthe Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes vto appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, wyou shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 xAssemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, ywho have not known it, zmay hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, aas long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Joshua Commissioned to Lead Israel
14 And the Lord said to Moses, b“Behold, the days approach when you must die. Call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that cI may commission him.” And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting. 15 And dthe Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud. And the pillar of cloud stood over the entrance of the tent.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, b“Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and ewhore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will fforsake me and gbreak my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and hI will forsake them and ihide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, j‘Have not these evils come upon us because kour God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because lthey have turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore write mthis song and nteach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be oa witness for me against the people of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land pflowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and qgrown fat, rthey will turn to other gods and serve them, and sdespise me and gbreak my covenant. 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as ta witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For uI know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” 22 So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.
23 vAnd the Lord1 commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, w“Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. xI will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished ywriting the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded zthe Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 26 “Take this Book of the Law aand put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for ba witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and cstubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, dyou have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak ethese words in their ears and fcall heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death gyou will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And hin the days to come ievil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, jprovoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”
The Song of Moses
30 Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:
1 “Give ear, kO heavens, and I will speak,
and let lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May mmy teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and nlike showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
ascribe ogreatness to our God!
4 p“The Rock, qhis work is perfect,
for rall his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and swithout iniquity,
just and upright is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him;
they are no longer his children tbecause they are blemished;
they are ua crooked and twisted generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he vyour father, who wcreated you,
who xmade you and established you?
7 yRemember the days of old;
consider the years of many generations;
zask your father, and he will show you,
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High agave to the nations their inheritance,
when he bdivided mankind,
he fixed the borders2 of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.3
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him cin a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he dencircled him, he cared for him,
he ekept him as the apple of his eye.
11 fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 gthe Lord alone guided him,
hno foreign god was with him.
13 iHe made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with jhoney out of the rock,
and koil out of lthe flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat4 of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest5 of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from mthe blood of the grape.
15 “But nJeshurun grew fat, and okicked;
pyou grew fat, stout, and sleek;
qthen he forsook God rwho made him
and scoffed at sthe Rock of his salvation.
16 tThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 uThey sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
to gods they had never known,
to vnew gods that had come recently,
whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of wthe Rock that bore6 you,
and you xforgot the God who gave you birth.
19 y“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
because of the provocation of zhis sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, a‘I will hide my face from them;
I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 bThey have made me jealous with what is no god;
they have provoked me to anger cwith their idols.
So dI will make them jealous with those who are no people;
I will provoke them to anger with ea foolish nation.
22 For fa fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to gthe depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
hI will spend my arrows on them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
and devoured by plague
and poisonous pestilence;
I will send ithe teeth of beasts against them,
with the venom of jthings that crawl in the dust.
25 kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,
and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
26 lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
mI will wipe them from human memory,”
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, n“Our hand is triumphant,
it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
28 “For they are a nation void of counsel,
and there is ono understanding in them.
29 pIf they were wise, they would understand this;
they would qdiscern their latter end!
30 How could rone have chased a thousand,
and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock shad sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
31 For ttheir rock is not as our Rock;
uour enemies are by themselves.
32 For their vine vcomes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of wpoison;
their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of xserpents
and the cruel venom of asps.
34 “‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
ysealed up in my treasuries?
35 zVengeance is mine, and recompense,7
afor the time when their foot shall slip;
for bthe day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
36 For cthe Lord will vindicate8 his people
dand have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
and there is none remaining, ebond or free.
37 Then he will say, f‘Where are their gods,
gthe rock in which they took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
39 “‘See now that hI, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
iI kill and I make alive;
jI wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For kI lift up my hand to heaven
and swear, As I live forever,
41 if I lsharpen my flashing sword9
and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
and mmy sword shall devour flesh—
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
from the nlong-haired heads of the enemy.’
43 o“Rejoice with him, O heavens;10
bow down to him, all gods,11
for he pavenges the blood of his children12
and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him13
44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and qJoshua16 the son of Nun. 45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, r“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, sthat you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, tbut your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
Moses’ Death Foretold
48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up uthis mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as vAaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 wbecause you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52 For xyou shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us fmake a joyful noise to gthe rock of our salvation!
2 Let us hcome into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us fmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is ia great God,
and a great King jabove all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for khe made it,
and his hands formed kthe dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us lkneel before the Lord, our mMaker!
7 For he is our nGod,
and we are the people of his opasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
pToday, if you qhear his voice,
8 rdo not harden your hearts, as at sMeribah,
as on the day at tMassah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the utest
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my vwork.
10 wFor forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known xmy ways.”
11 Therefore I yswore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter zmy rest.”
Paul in Ephesus
1 And it happened that while tApollos was at Corinth, Paul passed uthrough the inland1 country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, v“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, wwe have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, x“Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into yJohn’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, y“John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people zto believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, athey were baptized in2 the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And bwhen Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and cthey began speaking in tongues and dprophesying. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 And ehe entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them fabout the kingdom of God. 9 gBut when some became stubborn and hcontinued in unbelief, speaking evil of ithe Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.3 10 This continued for jtwo years, so that kall the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
The Sons of Sceva
11 And lGod was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 lso that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and mthe evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish nexorcists oundertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, p“I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, q“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all4 of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and rthe name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, sconfessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord tcontinued to increase and prevail mightily.
A Riot at Ephesus
21 Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit uto pass through vMacedonia and Achaia and wgo to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, xI must also see Rome.” 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of yhis helpers, zTimothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia afor a while.
23 About that time bthere arose no little disturbance concerning cthe Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, dbrought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 dThese he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, esaying that fgods made with hands are not gods. 27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the ggreat goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, g“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 So the city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging with them Gaius and hAristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s icompanions in travel. 30 But when Paul wished to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31 And even some of the Asiarchs,5 who were friends of his, sent to him and were urging him not to venture into the theater. 32 jNow some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. 33 Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, kmotioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. 34 But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, l“Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from mthe sky?6 36 Seeing then that these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. 37 For you have brought nthese men here who are neither osacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess. 38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are pproconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. 39 But if you seek anything further,7 it shall be settled in the regular assembly. 40 For we really are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no cause that we can give to justify this commotion.” 41 And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.
