Joshua 24

• 1. Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
• 2. Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.
• 3. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac,
• 4. and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
• 5. "'Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out.
• 6. When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.
• 7. But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time.
• 8. "'I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.
• 9. When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you.
• 10. But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.
• 11. "'Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.
• 12. I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you-also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow.
• 13. So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.'
• 14. "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
• 15. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
• 16. Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!
• 17. It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.
• 18. And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."
• 19. Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.
• 20. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you."
• 21. But the people said to Joshua, "No! We will serve the LORD."
• 22. Then Joshua said, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.Yes, we are witnesses," they replied.
• 23. "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."
• 24. And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God and obey him."
• 25. On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.
• 26. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.
• 27. "See!" he said to all the people. "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God."
• 28. Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.
• 29. After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.
• 30. And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
• 31. Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.
• 32. And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.
• 33. And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.

Acts 4

• 1. The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.
• 2. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
• 3. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
• 4. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.
• 5. The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem.
• 6. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family.
• 7. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
• 8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!
• 9. If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed,
• 10. then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
• 11. He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. '
• 12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
• 13. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
• 14. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.
• 15. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.
• 16. "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.
• 17. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."
• 18. Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
• 19. But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
• 20. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
• 21. After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.
• 22. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
• 23. On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
• 24. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
• 25. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
• 26. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. '
• 27. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
• 28. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
• 29. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
• 30. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
• 31. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
• 32. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.
• 33. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
• 34. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales
• 35. and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
• 36. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement),
• 37. sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

Jeremiah 13

• 1. This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."
• 2. So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.
• 3. Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:
• 4. "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks."
• 5. So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.
• 6. Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there."
• 7. So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
• 8. Then the word of the LORD came to me:
• 9. "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
• 10. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt-completely useless!
• 11. For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'
• 12. "Say to them: 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.' And if they say to you, 'Don't we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?'
• 13. then tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem.
• 14. I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.'"
• 15. Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken.
• 16. Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom.
• 17. But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD's flock will be taken captive.
• 18. Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads."
• 19. The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.
• 20. Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?
• 21. What will you say when the LORD sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?
• 22. And if you ask yourself, "Why has this happened to me?"- it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.
• 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
• 24. "I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.
• 25. This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the LORD, "because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.
• 26. I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen-
• 27. your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?"

New International Version

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