Reuben and Gad Settle in Gilead
1 Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of vJazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. 2 So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation, 3 w“Ataroth, xDibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, yNebo, and Beon, 4 the land zthat the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” 5 And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.”
6 But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? 7 Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? 8 Your fathers did this, awhen I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. 10 bAnd the Lord’s anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, cfrom twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give dto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, 12 none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the eKenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for fthey have wholly followed the Lord.’ 13 And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them gwander in the wilderness forty years, until hall the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. 14 And behold, you have risen in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! 15 For if you iturn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”
16 Then they came near to him and said, j“We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, 17 but kwe will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18 lWe will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. 19 For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, mbecause our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.” 20 So nMoses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, 21 and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has odriven out his enemies from before him 22 and the land is subdued before the Lord; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and pthis land shall be your possession before the Lord. 23 But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and qbe sure your sin will find you out. 24 rBuild cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.” 25 And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. 26 sOur little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead, 27 tbut your servants will pass over, every man who is uarmed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord orders.”
28 So vMoses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to wJoshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. 29 And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. 30 However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” 31 And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. 32 We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”
33 And xMoses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. 34 And the people of Gad built yDibon, zAtaroth, aAroer, 35 Atroth-shophan, bJazer, Jogbehah, 36 cBeth-nimrah and Beth-haran, dfortified cities, and folds for sheep. 37 And the people of Reuben built eHeshbon, yElealeh, Kiriathaim, 38 fNebo, and gBaal-meon (htheir names were changed), and cSibmah. And they gave other names to the cities that they built. 39 And the sons of iMachir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. 40 And Moses jgave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. 41 And kJair the son of Manasseh went and captured their villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.1 42 And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.
40 How often they trebelled against him in the wilderness
and ugrieved him in vthe desert!
41 They wtested God again and again
and provoked xthe Holy One of Israel.
42 They ydid not remember his power1
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
43 zwhen he performed his asigns in Egypt
and his bmarvels in cthe fields of Zoan.
44 He dturned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of eflies, which devoured them,
and ffrogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to gthe destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hhail
and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their icattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of jdestroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He struck down every kfirstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of lHam.
52 Then he led out his people mlike sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 nHe led them in safety, so that they owere not afraid,
but pthe sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his qholy land,
rto the mountain which his right hand had swon.
55 He tdrove out nations before them;
he uapportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they vtested and wrebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like xa deceitful bow.
58 For they yprovoked him to anger with their zhigh places;
they amoved him to jealousy with their bidols.
59 When God heard, he was full of cwrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He dforsook his dwelling at eShiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
61 and delivered his fpower to captivity,
his gglory to the hand of the foe.
62 He hgave his people over to the sword
and ivented his wrath on his heritage.
63 jFire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no kmarriage song.
64 Their lpriests fell by the sword,
and their mwidows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord nawoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he oput his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of pJoseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he qloves.
69 He rbuilt his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
70 He schose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tfollowing the nursing ewes he brought him
to ushepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his vinheritance.
72 With wupright heart he shepherded them
and xguided them with his skillful hand.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
1 In the first book, O aTheophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began bto do and teach, 2 until the day when che was taken up, after he dhad given commands ethrough the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 fHe presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying1 with them ghe ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for hJohn baptized with water, hbut you will be baptized iwith2 the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
The Ascension
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, jwill you at this time krestore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, l“It is not for you to know mtimes or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive npower owhen the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and pyou will be qmy witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and rSamaria, and sto the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, the was lifted up, and ua cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, vtwo wmen stood by them in xwhite robes, 11 and said, y“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, zwill acome in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas
12 Then bthey returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to cthe upper room, where they were staying, dPeter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon ethe Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these fwith one accord gwere devoting themselves to prayer, together with hthe women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and ihis brothers.3
15 In those days Peter stood up among jthe brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, kthe Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, lwho became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For mhe was numbered among us and was allotted his share in nthis ministry.” 18 (Now this man oacquired a field with pthe reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong4 he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called qin their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms,
r“‘May his camp become desolate,
and let there be no one to dwell in it’;
and
s“‘Let another take his office.’
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during tall the time that the Lord Jesus uwent in and out among us, 22 vbeginning from the baptism of John until the day when whe was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us xa witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called yBarsabbas, who was also called zJustus, and aMatthias. 24 And bthey prayed and said, “You, Lord, cwho know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in dthis ministry and eapostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
