The Continuing Conquest of Canaan
1 aAfter the bdeath of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, c“Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2 The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” 3 And Judah said to Simeon dhis brother, “Come up with me into ethe territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into fthe territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. 4 Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. 5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 7 And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 gAnd the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. 9 And afterward the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland. 10 And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba), and they defeated hSheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
11 iFrom there they went against the inhabitants of Debir. The name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher. 12 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter as wife.” 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 14 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16 And the descendants of the Kenite, jMoses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the kcity of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad, and they went and settled with the people. 17 And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and ldevoted it to destruction. mSo the name of the city was called Hormah.1 18 Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. 19 And the Lord was nwith Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he ocould not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had pchariots of iron. 20 And Hebron was given to Caleb, qas Moses had said. rAnd he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. 21 But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites swho lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem tto this day.
22 The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. 23 And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.) 24 And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the way into the city, and uwe will deal kindly with you.” 25 And he showed them the way into the city. And they struck the city with the edge of the sword, vbut they let the man and all his family go. 26 And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz. That is its name to this day.
Failure to Complete the Conquest
27 wManasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. 28 When Israel grew strong, they xput the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.
29 And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites ywho lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
30 Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor.
31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon or of Ahlab or of Achzib or of Helbah or of Aphik or of Rehob, 32 so the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out.
33 Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, so they lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.
34 The Amorites zpressed the people of Dan back into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the plain. 35 The Amorites persisted in dwelling in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. 36 And the border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.
24 Then they despised the pleasant land,
jhaving no faith in his promise.
25 They kmurmured in their tents,
and did not obey the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore he raised his hand and lswore to them
mthat he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 and would make their offspring fall among the nations,
nscattering them among the lands.
28 oThen they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
29 they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was stayed.
31 And pthat was qcounted to him as righteousness
from generation to generation forever.
32 rThey angered him at the waters of Meribah,
and it went ill with Moses on their account,
33 for they made his spirit bitter,1
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 sThey did not destroy the peoples,
tas the Lord commanded them,
35 ubut they mixed with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols,
which became a vsnare to them.
37 wThey sacrificed their sons
and their daughters xto the demons;
38 they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was ypolluted with blood.
39 Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the zwhore in their deeds.
40 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he abhorred his heritage;
41 he gave them into the hand of the nations,
so that athose who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies boppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
43 Many times he cdelivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their dcry.
45 For their sake he eremembered his covenant,
and frelented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
46 He caused them to be gpitied
by all those who held them captive.
47 hSave us, O Lord our God,
and igather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.
48 jBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Released from the Law
1 Or do you not know, brothers1—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For ga married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.2 3 Accordingly, she will be called an hadulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have idied to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful jpassions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit kfor death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve lin the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the mwritten code.3
The Law and Sin
7 nWhat then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! oYet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, p“You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. qFor apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment rthat promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So sthe law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For tI do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now uit is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that vnothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 So I find it to be a wlaw that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I xdelight in the law of God, in my yinner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this zbody of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
