JUDGES Chapters 8 – 14

JUDGES  8

The men of Ephraim were upset with Gideon and asked, “Why have you done this to us by not calling us when you went to fight with the Midianites?”  He said, “What have I done now in comparison with you?  Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?  God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb.  And what was I able to do in comparison with you?”  Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.  When Gideon came to the Jordan he and the three hundred men who were with him crossed over exhausted but still in pursuit, he asked the men of Succoth for bread to feed his men, but the leaders refused and ridiculed him saying, “Are the hand of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?”

Gideon said, “For this cause, when the Lord has delivered them into my hands, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers!”  He went up from them to Penuel and spoke to them the same way, and the men of Penuel answered them the same way as the men of Succoth.  Gideon also spoke to the men of Penuel saying, “When I came back in peace, I will tear down this tower!”  Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand, all who were left of all the army of the people of the east; for one hundred twenty thousand men who drew the sword had fallen.

Gideon attacked the army while they felt secure.  When Zebah and Zalmunna fled he pursued them; and he took the two kings of Midian and routed the whole army.  Then Gideon returned from battle and he caught a young man of Succoth and questioned him and he wrote down for Gideon the leaders of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men; :1-14.

When he came to the men of Succoth he said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you ridiculed me.”  Gideon took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with thme he taught (beat) the men of Succoth.  Then he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.  And he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men were they that you killed at Tabor?”, they answered, “As you are, so were they; each one resembled the son of a kind.”  Gideon said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother.  As the Lord Lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”  Gideon said to his firstborn, Jether, “ Rise, kill them!”  But the youth would not draw his sword; he was afraid, because he was still a youth.  Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rilse, your self and kill us; for as a man is so is his strength.”  Gideon arose and killed Zabah and Zalmunna and took the crescent ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.  Then the men of Israel said to him, “Rule over us, both you and your son and your grandson alos; for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.”  Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”  The he said to them, “I would like to make a request of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from his plunder.”  They had goldern earrings because they were Ishmaelites.  So they answered, “We will gladly give them,”, and they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from his plunder.  The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments, pendants, and purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were around their camels’ necks.  Then Gideon made an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah.  And all Israel played the whore with it there, it became a snare to Gideon and his house.  Thus Median was subdued before the children of Israel; that they lifted up their heads no more.  The country was quiet forty years, in the days of Gideon.  Jerubbaal, the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house, he had seventy sons, for he had many wives.  His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.  Gideon died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah  of the Abiezrites.  So it was as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel played the whore with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.  The children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hands of their enemies on every side, nor did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal in accordance with the good he had done for Israel;  :15-35.

Judges  9

Abimelech went to Shechem, to his mother’s brothers, and spoke to them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father saying, “Ask all the men of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one reign over you?  Remember that I am your own flesh and bone.”  All the men of Shechem’s hearts inclined to follow Abimelech for the said, “He is our brother.”  They gave to him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith with which he hired worthless and reckless men, and they followed him.  He went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his brothers the seventy sons of Jerubbaal. 

But Jotham the youngest son was left because he hid himself.  All the men of Shechem gathered together and made Abilelech king.  When they told Jotham, he stood on top of Mount Gerizim and lifted his voice and cried out to the ment of Shechem a riddle, and a curse.  “If you have not dealt in sincerity and truth with the house of Jerubbaal let fire com from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo ; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and Beth Millo and devour Abilelech!”  Jotham ran away and fled, he went to Beer and dwelt there for fear of his brother, Abimelech.  After abimelech had reigned over Israel for three years, God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the menof Shechem, and the mend of Schechm dealt treacherously with him, that the crime done to the seventy sons of Jerubball might be settled and their blood be laind on the men of Shechem who aided him in the killing of his brothers. 

The men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains and they robbed all who passed by them, and it was told to Abimelech;  :1-25 

Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.  Gaal said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is the son of Jerubbaal , and is not Zebul, his officer?  Why should we serve him?  If only his people were under my authority!  Then I would remove Abimelech.”  So he said to Abimelech, “Increase your army and come out!”  When Zebul heard the word his anger was aroused and he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly saying, “Take note, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; here they are fortifying the city against you.  Now, therefore, get up by night, you and the people who are with you and lie in wait in the field.  As soon as the sun comes up you shall rise early and rush upon the city; when he and his men come out against you, you may do to them as you find opportunity. 

So Abimelech and his men rose by night; and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.  When Gaal went and stood in the gate of the city Abimelech and his men arose from lying in wait.  When Gaal saw the men he said to Zebul, “Look people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!”  But Zebul said, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.”  Gaal spoke again, “See they are coming down from two directions.”  Zebul said, “Where is your mouth now.  Aren’t these the people you despised?  Go out and fight them now.”  So Gaal went out and fought with Abimelech, and Abimelech chased him and he fled; and may were wounded. Them Abimelech dwelt at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers so they would not dwell in Shechem;  :26-41.

It came about on the next that they went out into the field and they told Abimelech.  He took his people divided them into three companies and lay in wait in the fields and there were the people coming out of the city and he rose against them and attacked them and they rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them.  They fought against that city all day, he took the city and killed the people who were in it; demolished the city and sowed it with salt.  When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that they entered the stronghold of the temple of their god Berith.  When Abimelech was told that the men were in the tower he and all the people that were with him went to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people cut boughs from the trees and put them against the stronghold and set the stronghold on fire so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died about a thousand men and women.  Then Abimelech went to Thebez; encamped against it and took it.  There was a strong tower in the city and all the men and women—all the people of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the top of the tower.

Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it; he drew near the door of the tower, to burn it with fire.  But a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull.  He called quickly to his armorbearer and said, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, ‘a woman killed him’”.  The young man thrust him through and he died.  When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his place.  Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.  And all the evil of the men of Shechem, God returned on their own heads and on them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal;  :42-57.

 

Judges  10

After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel, Tola, a man of Issachar.  And he dwelt, in Shamir, in the mountains of Ephraim.  He judged Israel twenty-two years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.  After him arose Jair a Gileadite; he judged Israel twenty-two years.  He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; they also had thirty towns, which are called “Havoth Jair”, which are in the land of Gilead.  Jair died and was buried in Camon. 

Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtorehs, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him.  Sot the Anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He sold them into the hands of the people of Ammon.  From that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years.  All of the Israelites, on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead.   The people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed.  The children of Israel cried out to the Lord saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have forsaken our God and served the Baals.” 

The Lord said, I have delivered you time after time, “Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods.  Therefore, I will deliver you no more.  Go cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.”  The children of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned!  Do to us whatever seems best to you; only deliver us this day, we pray.”  They pput away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.  And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.  The people of Ammon gathered and encamped in Gilead; the children of Israel assembled together and encamped at Mizpah.  The leaders of Gilead said to one another “Who is the man who will begin the fight against the people of Ammon?  He shall be head over the inhabitants of Gilead;  :1-18.

 

Judges  11

The sought out Jephthah, the Gilead who was a might man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot and Gilead begat Jephthah.  Gilead’s wife bore sons; when they grew up they drove Jephthah out saying, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” 

Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in Tob; worthless men banded with him and went out raiding with him.  After a time the people of Ammon made war against Israel.  When the people if Ammon made war against Israel the elders of Gilead said, “Come and be our commander that we may fight against Ammon.”  Jephthah said, “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house?  Why have you come to me when you are distressed?”  The elders said “That you may go with us to fight against Ammon and be the head over all the inhabitants of Gilead” Jephthah asked, “If you take me back home to fight against Ammon, and  the Lord delivers them to me, shall I be your hear?”  The elders said, “The Lord will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words.  Jephthah went with the elders and all the people made him commander over them, and he spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah;  :1-11.

 

Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying , “what have you to do with me, that you come against me to fight in my land?  The king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers, saying, “Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt from Arnon even to Jabbok, and to Jordan:  now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. 

Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon saying, “Thus saith Jephthah, “Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon.  But, when Israel came up from Egypt and walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh, then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, ‘Let me, I pray you, pass through your land; but the king of Edom would not allow it, and in the same manner sent to the king of Moab; but he would not, so Israel dwelt in Kadesh.  They went along through the wilderness and around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and camped on the other side of Arnon, but did not come within the border of Moab.  Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Hesbon; saying, ‘Let us pass, we pray you, through your land into my place.  But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his coast:  but Sihon gathere all his people together and pitched in Jahaz and fought against Israel.  The Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel and has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people, Israel; should you then possess it?  Wouldn’t you possess whatever Chemosh, your god, gives you to possess?  So whatever the Lord our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.  Now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab?  Did he ever strive against Israel?  Did he ever fight against them?  While Israel dwelt in Hesbon and it villages, in Aroer and its villages, and all the cities along the banks of the Arnon, for 300 years, why didn’t you recover them within that time?  Therefore I have not sinned against you but you wronged me by fighting against me. 

May the Lord, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.”  But  the king of the people of Ammon did not heed the words which Jepthah sent him;  :12-28

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon and he made a vow to the Lord.

Sidebar:  This blows my mind—the scripture says, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah” correct?  So, why?  Why would he make such a vow to the Lord?  To me this shows that the Spirit of the Lord does not take you over and make you do the right thing, you still have the option to choose “right or wrong”.  What did he expect to come out of the doors of his house?

And said, “If You will deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, will be the Lord’s and I will offer it up as a burnt offering!”  Jephthah advanced, and the Lord delivered Ammon into his hands, he defeated twenty cities with a very great slaughter.  Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 

When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; she was his only child.  When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “alas, my daughter!  You have brought me very low!  You are among those who trouble me!  Fir I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it!”  So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.”  The she asked her father “Let this thing be done for me; let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I.”  So he said, “Go.”  At the end of the two months she returned to her father and he carried out his vow with which he had vowed.  She knew no man.  It became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah, the Gileadite;  :29-40.

Judges  12

The men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight Ammon, and did not call us to go with you?  We will burn your house down with fire.  Jephthah replied, “We were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; when I called you, you did not deliver me out their hands.  When I saw that you would not deliver, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the Lord delivered them into my hand.  Why, then, have you come up to me this day to fight against me?  Jephthah gathered the men and they fought against Ephraim and defeated them.  There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.  Jephthah judged Israel six years, them Jephthah, the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead;  :1-7.

After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel seven years, then he died and was buried at Bethlehem.  After him, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel ten years, then he died and was buried in Aijalon, in the country of Zebulun.  After him Abdon the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, judged Israel eight years, the Abdon died and was buried in Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim;  :8-15.

 

Judges  13

Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.  There was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children.  The Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ”Indeed now you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.  Now, therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not to eat anything unclean.  For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.  No razor shall come upon his head for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” 

So she came and told her husband saying, “A man of God came to me and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name.  He said to me, ‘you shall conceive and have a son, drink no wine or similar drink, do not eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, to the day of his death’.”

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, and said, “O my Lord, please let the Man of God, whom You sent, come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.”  And God listened to the voice of Manoah and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but her husband was not with her.  The woman ran in haste and told her husband, “Look, the Man who appeared to me the other day has just now appeared to me!”  So Manoah rose and followed his wife.

When he came to the Man, he said, “Are you the man that spoke to this woman?”, and He said “I am”.  Manoah said, “Now let your words come to pass!  What will be the boys rule of life and his work?”  The Angel said, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.  She may not eat anything that come from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink nor eat anything unclean.  All that I commanded her let her observe.”;  :1-14.

Manoah said to the Holy Spirit, “Please let us detain You and we will prepare a young goat for You.  The Holy Spirit said to him, “Though you detain me I will not eat your food.  But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the Lord!”  (For Manoah did not know, He was the Angel of the Lord, a Holy Spirit.)  Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, “What is Your name, that when your words come to pass we my honor You?”

The Holy Spirit said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”  Then Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord.  And He (Holy Angel/Spirit) did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on—it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar!  When Manoah and his wife saw this they fell on their faces to the ground.  When the Angel of the Lord appeared to them no more then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the Lord.  Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God”.  But his wife said, “If the Lord had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us all these things at this time.  So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.  And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol;  :1-25.

 

Judges  14

Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.  So he went up and told his father and mother saying, “I have seen a woman of Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore get her for me as a wife.”  His fathere and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughter of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?”

Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, she pleases me.”  But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, that He sought an occasion to move against the Philistines.  For at that time the Philistines has dominion over Israel.  So Samson, his father and mother came to the vineyards of Timnah.  To his surprise a young Lion came roaring against him;  :1-5

 The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand, but he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.  The en went and talked to the woman and she pleased him well.  After some time when he returned to get her he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass.

He took some of it in his hands and went along eating it, and when he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they also ate.  But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.  So his father went down to the woman.  An Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so.  It happened, when they saw him , that they brought thirty companions to be with him.  Then Samson said to them, “Let me pose a riddle to you.  If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.  But if you cannot  explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments, and thirty changes of garments.”  And they said to him, “Pose our riddle, the we may hear it.”  So he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat.  And out of the strong came something sweet.”

Now, for three days they could not explain the riddle.  But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband; that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father’s house, with fire.  Have you invited us in order to take what is ours?  Is that not so?”  Samson’s wife wept and wept until he told her, then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people, so the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down:  “What is sweeter than honey?  And what is stronger than a lion?”  And he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.”  Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel and gave the garments to those who had explained the riddle.  So his anger was aroused and he went back to his father’s house.  And Samson’s wife was given to his companion who had been his best man;  :5-20.

 

 

The BLOG LOVE Award!

I wish to thank my Sister, Hanna, for blessing me with her encouragement and friendship.  She has bestowed upon me the BLOG LOVE Award.  Thank you dear friend.

To God be the glory, for the things He has done!!

I praise Him, because He is worthy!

 

JUDGES Chapters 1 – 7

JUDGES 1

After Joshua’s death the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?”  The Lord said, “Judah shall go up.  I have delivered the land into his hand.”

Judah asked Simeon, his brother, “come up with me to my allotted territory, that we may fight against the Canaanites and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory.”, and Simeon with him.  They went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand and they killed ten thousand men.  They found Adoni-Bezek at Bezek and fought against him and they defeated the Canaanites and Perizzites and Adoni-Bezek fled and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

Adoni-Bezek said seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather the scraps under my table; as I have done God has done to me.  Then they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died.

The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it , they struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.  Judah fought the Canaanites that lived in the mountains, the south and in the lowland.  Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron.  Then they went against the inhabitants of Debir and Caleb said, “Whoever goes against Debir and takes it to him I will give my daughter, Achsah, as wife.  The children the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah and they went and dwelt among the people; :1-16. 

Judah and Simeon, his brother, attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and utterly destroyed it and changed the name of the city to Hormah.  Judah also took Gaza with its territories, Askelon and Ekron with their territories.  The Lord was with Judah, and they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron.  They gave Hebron to Caleb as Moses had said.  They he expelled from there three sons of Anak.  But the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, who inhabited Jerusalem, so the Jebusites dwelt with the Children of Benjamin in Jerusalem.

The house of Joseph went up against Bethel, which was formerly Luz, and the Lord with them.  They saw a man coming out the city and asked him to show them the entrance to the city and they would show him mercy, so he did and they struck the city with the sword but let the man and all his family go.  The man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city and called it Luz;  :17-26.

Manasseh did not drive out the Canaanites, and when it came to pass that Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites under tribute, and did not completely drive them out.  Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; so they dwelt among them.  Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or Nahalol; the Canaanites dwelt among them and were put under tribute.  Nord did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco; Sidon; Ahlab;  Achzib; Helbah; Aphik or Rehab, so they dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out.  Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants, but they dwelt among the Canaanites and put them under tribute.  The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains and would not allow them to come down to the valley; and the Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim; but when the strength of Joseph became greater they were put under tribute.

SIDEBAR:  The only people who obeyed the God were Caleb’s clan.  Israel was and still is hard-headed.

 

JUDGES  2

The  Angel of the Lord came from Gilgal to Bochim and said, (speaking the words of God in the first person), “I led you up from Egypt… ‘I said; I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall  make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, you shall tear down their altars’.  But you have not obeyed MY voice.  Why have you done this?  Therefore, I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side and their gods shall be a snare to you’.”

When the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.  They called that place Bochim and they sacrificed there to the Lord.  The People served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, which had seen all the great works which He had done for Israel.  Joshua died when he was one hundred and ten years old.  They buried him within the border of his territory, in the mountains of Ephraim.

When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them that did not know the Lord nor the work He had done for Israel;  :1-10.

SIDEBAR:  Why didn’t they “know the Lord and all He had done for their fathers”?  It is evident that their fathers did not pass the knowledge of God on to their descendents.

Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals; and they forsook the God of their fathers and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people around them, and they bowed down to them and provoked the Lord to anger.  They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtorehs.  The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.  So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could not stand before their enemies.  Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them and they were greatly distressed. 

Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.  Even so, they would not listen to their judges but played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them.  They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.

The Lord raised up judges for them to deliver them out of the hand of their enemies, all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning, because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.  And when the judge died they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods, to serve them.  They did not cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. 

Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant and not heeded My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, so that through these nations I will test Israel; whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.

Therefore, the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua;  :11-23.

 

JUDGES  3

These are the nations that the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.  The children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and the Jebusites.   And they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and Israel served their gods. 

The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Ashtorehs.  Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and they served Cushan-Rishathaim for eight years.  When they cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the children of Israel, who delivered them:  Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.  The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel.  He went out to war and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim into his hand.  So the land had rest for forty years.  Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz died.  And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. 

So the Lord strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord.  Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek; went and defeated Israel and took possession of the city of palms.  The children of Israel served Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years;  :1-14.

But when Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them:  Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man.  By him the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon, king of Moab.  Ehud made himself a dagger, doubled edged, a cubit in length and fastened it under his clothes, on his right thigh.  So he brought the tribute to Eglon, who was a very fat man.  And when he had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute, but he himself turned back from the stone images that were at Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you o king”. 

He said, “Keep silence”, and all who attended him went out from him.  Ehud came up to him and said, “I have a message for you from God”, so he arose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into his belly.  Even the hilt went in after the blade and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. 

Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room and locked them.  When he had gone out, Eglon’s servants came to look and to their surprise the doors were locked.  So they said, “He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber”. 

So they waited until they were embarrassed and still he had not opened the doors.  So they took the key and opened them.  There was their master fallen dead on the floor;  :1-25

Ehud, and the men of Israel killed, ten thousand men of Moab, all stout men of valor; not a man escaped.  Moab was subdued and the land had rest for eighty years.  After Ehud came Shamgar, who killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad and he also delivered Israel;  :26-31

 

JUDGES  4

When Ehud was dead the children of Israel, again, did evil in the sight of the Lord.  So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.  The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.  And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron and for twenty years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. 

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.  And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in the mountains of Ephraim.  And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.  Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; and against you I will deploy Sisera, the connamder of Jabin’s army with his chariots and his multitude, at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?”

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!”  She said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless, there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”  Then she arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.  Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh and went up with ten thousand men under his command and Deborah went with him. 

Heber the Kenite, of the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites and pitched his tent beside Kedesh.  They reported to Sisera that Barak had gone up to Mt Tabor.  So Sisera gathered together all his chariots nine hundred of iron, and all the people who were with him;  :1-13.

Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up!  For this is the day in which the Lord had delivered Sisera into your hands.  Has not the Lord gone out before you?”  So Barak went down from Mount Tabor wit ten thousand following him and the Lord routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera lighted from his chariot and fled on foot.  But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth of the Gentiles, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.  However, Sisera has fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was a place between Jabin, king of Hazor, and Heber the Kenite.  Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.”  And when he had turned aside with her into the tent she covered him.  He said to her, “Please give me a little water, I am thirsty.”  So she opened a jug of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.  He said to her, “Stand at the door of the tent and if any man comes and inquired of you saying, ‘Is there a man here?’ , you shall say ‘No!’.”

Then Jael, Heber’s wife took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand and went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary.  So he died.  Then as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said, “Come I will show you the man you seek.”  And when he went into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead with the peg in his temple.  \

So on that day, God subdued Jabin, King of Canaan, in the presence of the children of Israel.  And the hand of the children of Israel grew stronger against Jabin until they destroyed him;  :14-24.

 

JUDGES  5

Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang on that day all the words of this chapter.  So the land hand rest for forty years.

 

JUDGES  6

The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.  So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven ears and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.  Because of Midian the children of Israel made for themselves the dens and the and the caves and the strongholds which are in the mountains.  Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of them the Lord sent a prophet to them saying, “thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘I said to you, I am the Lord you God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; But you have not obeyed My voice.

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.    And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor.  And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, “Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?”,  but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.   The LORD looked upon him, and said, “Go in this thy might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?”

Gideon said, “Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”   And the LORD said unto him, “Surely I will be with thee, and you shall destroy the Midianites as one man.

Gideon said unto him, “If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that you talk with me.  Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee.” And he said, “I will tarry until thou come again.”  Gideon went in and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes.  And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.;  :1-19

Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.  And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, “Alas, O LORD God, because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.”  The LORD said unto him, “Peace be unto thee; fear not: you shall not die.” Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom:

Now it came to pass that same night that the Lord said to him, “take a young bull , the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal, that your father has and cut down the wooden image beside it; and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 

So Gideon took ten men from among his servants with him and did as the Lord had said to him.  But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.  And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal torn down, the wooden image cut down; and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built.

The said to one another, “Who had done this thing?” And they inquired and asked and they told them, “Gideon the son of Joash had done this thing.”  Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so that he may die.”  But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal?  Would you save him?  Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning!  If he is god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!”  Therefore on that day he call his son Jerubbaal, saying “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” 

Then all the Midianites and Amalakites, the people of the east gathered together; and crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.  But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.

He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him.  He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.  So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said—look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.”  And so it was.

When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water.  Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more; let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece but on all the ground let there be dew.”  And God did so that night, it was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground;  : -40

 

JUDGES  7

Then Jerubbaal/Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the came of the Midianites was to the north of them.  And the Lord said, “The people with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itselt against Me, saying, “My own hand has saved me.”

Now proclaim in the hearing of all the people, “Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once.”  And twenty two thousand left and ten thousand remained.  The Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many, bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there.  Then the one I say shall go with you the same shall go with you; and whomsoever I say shall not go the same shall not go.

So Gideon brought them down to the water and the Lord said, “Everyone that laps from the water with his longue as a dog does you shall set apart to himself, likewise everyone that get down on his knees to drink water, but the number of those who lapped, pulling their hand to their mouth was three hundred, but all the rest got down on their knees to drink water.  The Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hands.  Let all the other people go, every man to his place;  :1-7.

It came to pass the same night, that the Lord said to him, “Arise, get down to the hose; for I have delivered it into your hand.  But if you fear take Phurah your servant down to the host:  And you shall hear what they say; afterward, your hand shall be strengthened to go down.  The Midianites and the Amalakites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for the multitude; their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude.

When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man that told a dream to his companion, and said, “Behold I dreamed a dream and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian and came upon a tent and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.  His companion said, “This is nothing else except the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel:  for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all, its host. 

So it was when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and its interpretation, that he worshipped, and returned to the host of Israel.  He divided the three hundred men into three companies and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers and lamps with pitchers.  He said to them, “Look on me and do likewise, when I come to the outside of the camp, do as I do. 

So Gideon and the hundred with him blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were in their hands.  The three companies blew the trumpets, break the pitchers, and held lamps in their left hands, and the trumpet in their right hands to blow withal:  and they cried, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.  They stood every man in his place around the camp; and all the host ran, and cried and fled. 

The three hundred blew the trumpets and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow throughout, all, the host.  The men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and pursued the Midianites.  Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim saying, “Come down against the Midianites”.  And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock of Oreb and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb and pursued Midian and brought the head of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan;  :9-25.

JOSHUA Chapters 18 – 24

JOSHUA  18

The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there and the land was subdued before them.  But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. 

Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, “how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your father has given you?  Pick out from among you three men of each tribe, and I will send them survey it according to their inheritance, and come back to me and they shall divide it into seven parts, Judah shall remain in their territory, and the house of Joseph shall remain in its territory on the north.  You shall survey the land in seven parts and bring the surveys here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.” 

So the men did as Joshua commanded and came back to him at the camp in Shiloh.  Joshua cast lots for them before the Lord and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.  The remainder of the chapter outlines the territories of Benjamin’s inheritance according to their families.

 

JOSHUA  19 

The second lot came out for Simeon according to their families.  Their inheritance was included within the inheritance of the children of Judah.  The tribe of Simeon’s inheritance included the share of Judah because it was too much for them;  :1-9.

The third lot fell for the children of Zebulon and this is outlined in :10-16, the fourth fell for Issacchar, according to their families; :17-23, the fifth lot came out for the children of Asher, according to their families; :24-31, the sixth lot for the children of Naphtali and their families; :32-39, the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, according to their families, and their territory was outlined but Dan went beyond it because the children of Dan went up to fight against Lashem and took it; and they struck it with the edge of the sword, took possession of it and dwelt in it.  They called Lashem Dan after the name of their father;  :40-48. 

When they had made and end of dividing the land as an inheritance according to their border the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.  According to the word of the Lord, they gave him the city which he asked for , Timnath Serah on the mountains of Ephraim and he built the city and dwelt in it. 

These were the inheritances which Eleazer the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, divided as an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.  So they made an end of dividing the country;  :48-51.

 

JOSHUA  20

The Lord repeated to Joshua that which he had spoken to His servant Moses in regard to appointing of refuge cities.  Cities where those who accidentally killed someone could flee to escape the avenger of blood and not be delivered up into their hand.  These cities were appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwelt among them, that whoever killed accidentally might flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood before he stood the congregation; :

 

JOSHUA  21

Then the heads of the father’s houses of the Levites came near to Eleazer the priest, Joshua and the heads of the father’s houses of the children of Israel.  They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan saying, “The Lord commanded through Moses to give us cities to dwell in with their common-lands for our livestock.” 

The children of Israel gave to the Levites from their inheritance, at the commandment of the Lord these cities and their common-lands.  The Kohathites, the children of Aaron thirteen cities, the rest of Kohath, ten cities, Gershon, thirteen cities, Merari twelve cities.  All the cities of the Levites within the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities and their common-lands 

The Lord gave them rest all around according to all that He had sworn to their fathers.  And not a man of their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.  Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel.  All came to pass.

 

JOSHUA  22

Then Joshua called the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh and said, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.  You have not left your brethren, as He promised them; now, return and go to your tents, and to the land of your possession, which Moses gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

But take careful heed to do the commandment of the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all you heart and with all your soul”;  :1-5.

Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.  To the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua gave a possession among their brethren on this side of the Jordan, westward, and indeed, when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he bless them and spoke to them saying, “Return with much riches to your tents, with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with much clothing.  Divide the spoils of your enemies with your brethren”.  So the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from Shiloh to the land of their possession which they obtained according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.  When they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the Children of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a great impressive altar;  :6-10.

When the children of Israel heard of it the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.  They sent Phinehas the son of Eleazer the priest, to the children of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh into the land of Gilead, and with him ten rulers, one each of the chief house of every tribe of Israel.  They came to them and spoke saying, “Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord:  ‘what treachery is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord?  And it shall be, if you rebel today against the Lord that tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

If the land of your possession is unclean, then cross the land of the possession of the Lord where the Lord’s tabernacle stands and take possession among us, only do not rebel against the Lord nor against us, by building yourselves an altar besides the altar of the Lord your God.  Did not Achan commit trespass in the accursed thing and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel?  And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity”.

The children of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh answered them saying , “The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods.  He knows and let Israel know—if it  is in rebellion, or if in treachery against the Lord do not save us this day.  If we have built ourselves an altar to turn from following the Lord or if to offer on it burnt offerings or grain offerings, or if to offer peace offerings on it, let the Lord Himself require and account.  But in fact we have done it for fear, for a reason, saying, in time to come your descendants may speak to our descendants saying, ‘What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel?  For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between you and us, you children of Reuben, and of Gad.  You have no part in the Lord”.  Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build ourselves an alter not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice by that we may perform the service of the Lord before Him. But that it may be a witness between you and us for generations in time to come, that we may say, “Here is the replica of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made for a witness between you and us.  Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn from following the Lord this day;  :11-29.

When Phinehas the priest and the rulers of the congregation of the heads of the divisions of Israel, who were with him heard the words that the children of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh spoke it pleased the.  Then Phinehas said , :This day we perceive that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against the Lord.  Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the Lord.  Phinehas and the rulers returned from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel and brought back word to them.  This pleased the children of Israel and they blessed God and spoke no more of going against them in battle.  The children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Witness, “For it is a witness between us that the Lord is our God;  :30-34.

 

JOSHUA  23

It came to pass a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about that Joshua was old, advanced in age.  Joshua called for all Israel and said to them, “I am old, advanced in age.  You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has fought for you. 

I have divided it to you by lot , these nations that remain to be and inheritance for your tribes from the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea, westward.  And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them pit of your sight.  So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God has promised you.  Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the fight hand or to the left, and lest you go among these nations who remain among you.  You shall not make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them, but you shall hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have done this day;  :1-9.

One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you.  Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.  Or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations–those that remain among you–and make marrigaes with them and go in to them and they to you, know for certain the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you.  But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord has given you. 

Behold, this day, I am going the way of the earth.  You all know in your hearts and your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord spoke concerning you.  All have come to pass, not one word of them has failed.  Therefore it shall come to pass that just as all the good things have come upon you, so shall the Lord bring all the harmful things He promised also, until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”;  :10-16.

 

JOSHUA  24

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel and called for the elders, their heads and their judges and said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel:  Your fathers including Terah, the father of abrahan and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.”  This begins the re-telling of their history with the Lord God of Israel;  :1-13.

“I have given you land for which you did not labor and cities which you did not buil, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.  Now, therefore , fear the Lord serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River in Egypt.  Serve the Lord!  And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day which you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The people answered and said:  “Far be it frim us that we shoul forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our Gos is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage, who sis those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we wnet and among all the people through whom we passed.  We also will serve the Lord for He is our God.”  Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God, He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressionss nor your sins.  If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”  The people said , “No we will serve the Lord!”   So Joshua said you are witnesses against yourselves, that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve Him.”  And they said, “We are witnesses!”;  :14-22.

“Now, therefore”, Joshua said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart (mind) to the Lord God of Israel.”  The people said, “The Lord our God we weill serve, and His voice we will obey!”

So Joshua made a covenant with the poeple that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem, then he wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God.  He took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.  Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a wintess to us , for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke  to us.  It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny God.”  After which Joshua let the people depart each to his own inheritance.  After these things, Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord died being one hundren ten years old.  Isral served the Lord all the days of Joshua and the elders that outlived Joshua who knew the works of the Lord, which He had done for Israel.

The bones of Josephwhich the children of Israel had brought out of Egypt, they buried them at Shechem in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for one hundred pieces of silver and which had become an inheritance of the children of Josheph.  and eleazer the son of Aaron died.  They buried him in a hill belonging to Phinehas his son, which was given to him in the mountains of Ephraim;  :23-33.

JOSHUA Chapters 8 – 17

 

JOSHUA   8

The Lord said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid not dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai.  See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land, and you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.  Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves.  Lay an ambush for the city behind it.” 

Joshua arose and all the people of war, to go up against Ai, he chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them by night.  He commanded them saying, “Behold you shall lie in ambush against the city behind the city.  Do not go very far from the city, but all you be ready.  Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city and it will com about when they come out against us at first, that we shall flee before them.  They will com out after us till we have drawn them from the city, they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’  Therefore, we will flee before them, then, you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord you God will deliver it into your hand.  It will be when you have taken the city you shall set the city on fire.  According to the commandment of the Lord, you shall do.  See.  I have commanded you!”

He sent them out and they went to lie in ambush and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai, but Joshua lodged that night among the people;  :1-9.

Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel before the people of Ai.  All the people of war were with him went up and drew near and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai, a valley lay between them and AI.  So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city and when they set the people all the army that was on the north of the city and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

Now it happened when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain, but he did not know that there was and ambush against him behind the city.  Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness.  So the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.  There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel;  :10-17.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand”, Joshua stretched out his speak toward the city.  Those in ambush rose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it and hurried and set it on fire.  When the men of Ai looked behind them they saw the smoke of the city ascending to heaven, they had no power to flee this way or that way and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on their pursuers.  When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down (killed) the men of Ai.  The others came out of the city against them; so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side.  And they struck them down so that they let none of them remain or escape.  But the king of Ai they took alive and brought to Joshua ;  :18-23.  And when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.  So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women were twelve thousand—all the people of Ai.  For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the spear, until, he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.  Only the livestock and the spoil of that city, Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the world of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua.

Joshua burned Ai and made it, a heap forever, a desolation to this day.  The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening.  As soon as the sun went down, Josh commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.  Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses; “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.”  They offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings;  :24-31.

And there in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, when he had written.  Then all Israel with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them.  Half of them were in front of Mount Gerzim and half of them , in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded, therefore, that they should bless the people of Israel.  Afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.  There was not a word of all that Moses commanded , which Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them;  :32-35.

Sidebar:  Are you paying attention to the fact that the Lord’s will is that all mankind carefully observe all of His laws?  Verse 35 proves God has one law for all.

Joshua 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

 

JOSHUA   9

When all the kings heard about it, who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and the lowlands toward Lebanon—the Hittite; Amorite; Canaanite; Perizzite; Hivite; and the Jebusite—heard about it they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with on accord.  But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and pretended to be ambassadors.  They took old sacks on their donkeys; old wineskins torn and mended; old and patched sandals on their feet; old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.  They went to Joshua , to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country, now therefore, make a covenant with us.”  The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?”  So, they lied and said, “From a very far country we have come”, when Joshua asked, “Who are you and where are you from?”

“We have come because of the name of the Lord your God, we have heard his fame and all He did in Egypt; and to the two kings beyond the Jordan—Sihon, king of Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan.  Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, we are your servants ; now therefore, make a covenant with us”;  1-11.

This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you.  But now look it is dry and moldy.  And these wineskins which we filled were new and see they are torn; and these garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.  Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the Lord;  :1-14

Sidebar:  This action turned into a fatal error—not seeking the counsel of the Lord—for the children of Israel. 

 

 

JOSHUA 10

When Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it as he did to Jericho, and its king and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the roal cities and because it was greater than Ai and all Its men were mighty , Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem sent for four kings saying, “Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and the Children of Israel”. The five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and of Eglon gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon and made war against it.

The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal saying, “Do not forsake you servants; come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us.” Joshua ascended form Gilgal, he and all the people of was and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man shall stand before you.”

Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah. And as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword; :1-11.

Sidebar: This battle was truly the Lord’s. Also are you noticing how seriously the Lord take the keeping of a covenant/contract/agreement?

Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel and said in the sight of Israel; “Sun stand still over Gibeon and moon in the Valley of Aijalon!” So, the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? The sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.

But the five kings hand fled and hidden themselves in a cave at Makkedah. When it was told to Joshua he said, “Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and set men by it to guard them. Do not stay there yourselves, but pursue your enemies and attack their rear guard. Do not allow them to enter their cities for The Lord your God has delivered them into your hand.”

As Joshua and the children of Israel made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter till they had finished, that those who escaped entered fortified cities. All the people returned to the camp in peace. No one moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel; :12-21.

Joshua said open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings form the cave.” They did so and brought them to Joshua and he called for all the men of Israel and said to the captains of the men of war who went with him and side come near, put your feet on their necks”, and they did as Joshua said, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the LORD will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.”

Joshua struck and killed the kings and hung them on five trees, and they were left hanging on the trees until evening. At sunset Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. At the mouth of the cave they placed large rocks, which are there to this day.

That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it; from Libnah to Lachish; Horam king of Gezer had come up to help Lachish to no avail, from Lachish to Eglon; from Eglon to Hebron; Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir.  Joshua defeated them and their armies—until no survivors were left.

So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.

 Joshua subdued them from Kadesh Barnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon. All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal;  “13-

 

JOSHUA 11

When Jabin, king of Hazor heard these things he sent to Joab, king of Madon of the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph and to the kings who were from the north, in the mountains, in the plain south of Chinneroth, in the lowlands and in the heights of Dor, in the west, to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

So they went out with all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots.  When all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Miram to fight against Israel.  But the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time, I will deliver all of them slain before Israel.

You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.”  So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters and they attacked them.  The Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to Greater Sidon, to the Brook Misrephoth, and to the Valley Mizpah eastward; they attacked them until they left none of them remaining.

So Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him; he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.  Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor and struck its king with the sword for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdom;  :1-10.

And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword.  He utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.  But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, except Hazor only, which Joshua burned.  All the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the children of Israel took as booty for themselves; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they left none breathing. As the Lord commanded Moses His servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did.  He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 

Thus Joshua took all this:  the mountain country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland and the Jordan plain—the mountains of Israel and its lowland from Mount Halak and the ascent to Seir, even as far as Baal Gad, in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon.  He captured all their kings and struck them down and killed the,.  Joshua made war a long time with those kings;  :11-18.

There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon.  All others they took in battle.  It was the Lord which hardened their hearts, they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, as the Lord has commanded Moses, Joshua came against the Anakim and utterly destroyed them with their cities, not of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gath, in Gaza and in Ashdod.  So, Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions, by their tribes.  Then the land rested from war;  :19-23

 

JOSHUA 12

These are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel defeated and whose land they possessed on the other side of the Jordan toward the rising sun, Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, these Moses had conquered:  :1-6.

And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel conquered on this side of the Jordan.  The Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and the Jebusites:  the kings of Jericho, Ai, Jerusalem, hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon, Gezer, Debir, Geder, Hormah, Arad, Libnah, Adullam, Makkedah, Bethel, Tappuah, Hepher, Aphel Lasharon, Madon Hazor, Shimron, Meron, Achshaph, Taanack, Megiddo, Kedesh, Jokneam, Dor, Gilgal, Tirzah—all the kings thirty-one;  :7-24.

 

JOSHUA 13

The Lord said to Joshua, “You are old advanced in years and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.”  The Lord tells Joshua of the land and the peoples remaining.  The Lord says, “Them I will drive out from before the children of Israel; only divide it by lot to Israel as an inheritance, as I have commanded you.  Now therefore, divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh.”;  :1-12.

Nevertheless the children of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maachathites, but they dwell among Israel until this day.  Only the tribe of Levi He had given no inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance as He said to them;  :13-21.

And Moses had given to the tribe of the children of Reuben and inheritance according to their families.  The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam, the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those that were killed by them.  The border of the children of Reuben was the bank of the Jordan.  This was their inheritance.  The remainder of the chapter outlines the territory of the Reubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh, according to their families.  These are the areas which Moses distributed as an inheritance in the plains of Moab on the other side of the Jordan, by Jericho eastward.  But to the tribe of Levi Moses had given no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as He had said to them.

 

JOSHUA 14

This chapter speak of the areas that the children of Israel inherited in Canaan which Joshua, Eleazer the priest, and the heads of the father’s of the tribes distributed to them.  Their inheritance was by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine tribes and the half tribe;  :1-5.

Caleb, the son of Jephunneh at the age of eighty-five, reminded Joshua of his past faithfulness to the Lord which exacted a promise from the Lord that, “Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever.”  Caleb asked to be given the mountains and that he and his children would drive out the Anakim. 

Joshua blessed him and gave him the land of Hebron, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.  And the land had rest from war;  :6-15.

 

JOSHUA  15

This chapter lays out the boundaries of the inheritance that was given to Jusda.  But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites dwell with them at Jerusalem to this day;  :1-63.

 

JOSHUA  16

The lot fell next to the children of Joseph and this chapter lays out the boundaries of their inheritance.  And they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwell among them to this day have become forced laborers;  :1-10.

 

JOSHUA  17

This chapter outlines the boundaries of the lot that fell to the children of Manesseh.  Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of these cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.  And it happened that when the children of Israel grew strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.  They complained to Joshua saying, “The mountain country is not enough for us; and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land with us.”

Joshua told them, “Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and its farthest extent shall be your; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong;  :1-18. 

 

 

JOSHUA Chapters 1 – 7

JOSHUA  1

After the death of Moses it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, “Moses My servant is dead.  Arise and go over this Jordan, you and all the people to the land which I am giving them.  Every place that the sole of your feet will tread upon, I have given to you, as I said to Moses.  From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.  No man shall be able to stand before you, all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  I will not leave you nor forsake you.  Be strong and of good courage for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go;  :1-9

Joshua tells the people to prepare provisions for in three days they would cross over the Jordan and be reminds the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manesseh of the commandment of Moses to pass before their brethren armed , all their might man of valor to help them.  And they answered Joshua, “All that you command us we will do and wherever you send us we will go.  Just as we heeded Moses in all things, so we will heed you.  Only the Lord your God be with you as He was with Moses.  Whoever rebels against you shall be put to death.  Only be strong and of good courage;  10-18.

 

JOSHUA  2

Joshua sent two men to spy secretly, to view the land especially Jericho, so they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there.  It was told to the king of Jericho, so the king sent to Rahab saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house; they have come to search out all the country”.  Then she took the two men and hid them and said “Yes the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from; and as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out.  Where I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you may overtake them”.  She had hidden them on the roof with the stalks of flax.  The men of Jericho pursued them by the road to the Jordan.  As soon as the men had gone out they shut the gate.  She came to the spies on the roof and said, I know that the Lord has given you the land; that the terror of you has fallen on us, and all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you.  They had heard of the great sign at the Red sea when they came out of Egypt and of the two kings of the Amorites on the other side of the Jordan, who they had utterly destroyed.  As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted, neither remained there any courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God, in heaven above and on the earth beneath.”  “Now I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have and deliver our lives from death;  1-13.

So the men answered her, “Our lives are yours if none of you tell this business of ours, it shall be when the Lord has given us this land that we will deal kindly and truly with you”.  Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall.  “Get to the mountains, lest the pursuers meet you, hide there three day until the pursuers have returned; afterward, go your way.”

We will be blameless of this oath you made us swear unless when we come into the land you bind the line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and bring your father , mother, brothers and all your father’s household to your home.  Whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street his blood shall be on his own head, but we shall be guiltless; whoever is in the house with you his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him.  And if you tell this business of ours, we shall be free from the oath which you made us swear.  She said, “According to your words, so be it”.  They went to the mountain and stayed three days.  When they returned to the camp, they came to Joshua and told him all that had befallen them.  Joshua said, “Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands; 14-24.

 

JOSHUA  3

Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over.  After three days the officers went through the camp and commended the people, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priest, the Levites bearing it then you shall set out from your place and follow it.  There shall be a space between you and it, about 2000 cubits.  Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go for you have not passed this way before”.  Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you”.  The Lord said to Joshua, who said to the priest, “Take up the ark of the covenant and crossover before the people;  :1-7.

The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of the people of all Israel, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  You shall command the priests, who bear the art of the covenant, “When you come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan”.  Joshua told the words of the Lord to the children of Israel and said by this you shall know that the living God is among you and He will, without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite and the Hittites and the Hivites,  Perizzites  and the Girgashites, and the Amorites and the Jebusites.  Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.  It shall come to pass that as soon as the soles of the feet of the priest who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters shall be cut off, the waters that come from upstream, and they shall stand in a heap;  :7-14.

And as those priest who bore the ark of the covenant came to the Jordan and the feet of the priest dipped in the edge of the water that the waters which came from upstream , stood still and all of Israel crossed over on dry ground opposite Jericho.  Then the priest stood firm on dry ground;  :15-17.

 

JOSHUA  4

When all the people had completely crossed over the Jordan the Lord spoke to Joshua, “Take yourselves twelve men of the people, one man from every tribe and command them saying, “Take for yourselves twelve stone from out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priest feet stood firm.  You shall carry them over with you and leave them in the lodging place where you lodge tonight.”  Joshua commanded them as the Lord has said, that it may be a sign among Israel and when you children as in time to come saying, “What do these stones mean to you?”, then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut of before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it crossed over the Jordan.  These stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel, forever. 

And the Children of Israel did so, just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan.  Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priest who bore the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there to this day.  The priest who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua and the people hurried and crossed over.  The when all the people had completely crossed over that the ark of the Lord and the priest crossed over in the presence of the people;  :1-11.

And the men of Reuben; the men of Gad, and half of Manesseh, crossed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them.  Almost forty thousand men prepared for was crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho.  On that day the Lord exalted in the sight of all Israel and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life.

The Lord spoke to Joshua saying, “Command the priests who bear the ark of the Testimony to come up from the Jordan, thus Joshua did.  And when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord  had come up from the midst of the Jordan and their soles touched dry land that the waters of the Jordan returned to their  place and overflowed all the banks, as before;  :12-18

They came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho and those twelve stones that they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal.  Then he spoke to the children of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, ‘What are these stones?’, then you shall tell them, Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land for the Lord our God dried up the waters of the Jordan before us, until we had crossed over, that all peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God, forever;  :19-24.

 

JOSHUA  5

So it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until they had crossed over, that their hearts melted and there was no spirit in them any longer.

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel again for the second time.  So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcise the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.  And this is the reason why:  All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt.  For all the people who cam out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.  The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness till all the people who were men of war, which came out of had been consumed (died), because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers, that He would give to us, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;  :1-6.

Sidebar:   To all those so called “gentiles” who feel that they have no need to become circumcised, please pay very close attention to the fact that the men of Israel were not allowed to enter into the “promised land” without observing the covenant of the circumcision.

Then Joshua circumcised their sons, whom the Lord raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way.  When they had finished circumcising all the people, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed.  Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.  Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.  The children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14^th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.  They ate the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day;  :7-11.

Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.   And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold a man (Angel) stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.  Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”.  The Angel said, “No, but as the Commander of the army of the Lord!”  Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to him, “What does my Lord say to his servant?”.  The Commander of the Lord’s army said, “Take you sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy”, and Joshua did so;  12-15.

 

JOSHUA   6

Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.  The Lord said to Joshua, “See!  I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor, you shall walk around the city once.  This you shall do six days and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram’s horn, before the ark.  But the seventh day you march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets.  It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horns and when you hear the sound of the trumpet that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat.  The people shall go up every man straight before him;  :1-5.

Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the Lord.”  He said to the people “Proceed and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the art of the Lord.”  So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests, bearing the trumpets of ram’s hors before the Lord, advanced and blew the trumpets, and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord followed them.  The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets followed them.  The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priest continued blowing the trumpets.  Now Joshua commanded the people saying, “You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you ‘Shout!’  then you shall shout”.   So he had the Ark of the Lord to circle the city going around it once.  Then they came into camp ;  :6-11.

And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests took up the Ark of the Lord.  The seven priest bearing seven trumpets of ram’s horns went before the Ark of the Lord, went on continually and blew the trumpets.  And the armed men went before them.  The rear guard came after the Ark of the Lord,  while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.  The second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp.  So they did six days.  On the seventh day they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times. 

The seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!  Now the city has been doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it.  Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.  An you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.  But all the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord”;  :12-19.

So the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets.  And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpets and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat.  Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him and they took the city.  They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old; ox, sheep, and donkey with the edge of the sword.  Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the country, “go into the harlot’s house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.  So the young men went in and brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.  They burned the city and all that was in it by fire.  Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.  Joshua spared Rahab, the harlot, her father’s household, and all that she had.  She dwells in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers. 

Joshua charged them at this time saying, “Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city, Jericho; he shall lay it foundation with his firstborn, with his youngest he shall set up its gates”.  So the Lord was with Joshua , and his fame spread throughout the country;  :20-27.

 

JOSHUA  7

The children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is on the side of Beth Aven on the east side of Bethel and said, “Go up and spy out the country.”  So they went and spied out Ai.

They returned to Joshua and said, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai.  Do not weary all the people there, the people of Ai are few.   About three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the people of Ai.  The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men; they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the Ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.  Joshua said, “Alas Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?  Oh that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!  O Lord what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?  The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth, then what will happen to Your great name?”;  1-10.

Sidebar:  Are you noticing that because of one man’s sin the whole nation was subjected to the anger of the Lord?!  No one was aware of his sin yet everyone received the consequences of it.  Thirty-six men lost their lives because of it.  We should pay close attention to God’s retribution.  Think of the sins being committed in our modern day churches.  FOOD for THOUGHT.

The Lord said to Joshua, “Get Up!  Why do you lie on your face?  Israel has sinned and they have also transgress My covenant which I commanded them.  They have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived and have also put it among their own things.  Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand against their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because the have become doomed to destruction.  Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you.  Get up, sanctify the people and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because the Lord God says, “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.  In the morning you shall be brought according to your tribes.  The tribe that the Lord takes will come according to families; and the family that the Lord takes will come according households; the household that the Lord takes shall com man by man;  :10-14.

Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with the fire, he and all he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.  Joshua rose early in the morning and did as the Lord had commanded.  Upon bringing the households man by man, Achan of the tribe of Judah was taken. 

Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel; make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done, do not hide it from me.”  Achan answered, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel; this is what I have done:  

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.  There they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it.”

Joshua sent messengers who rant to the tent, there it was hidden in his tent, with the silver under it.  They took them from the midst of the tent brought them to Joshua and all Israel and laid them out before the Lord.  Then Joshua, and all Israel wit him took Achan the silver; garment; the wedge of gold; his sons and daughters; his oxen, donkeys, sheep, tent  and all that he had and brought them to the Valley of Achor.  Joshua asked, “Why have you troubled us?  The Lord will trouble you, this day.” 

So all Israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.  They raised over him a great heap of stones still there to this day.  So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger;  :15-26.

 

 

 

 

Deuteronomy Chapters 23 – 34

DEUTERONOMY 23

Verses :1-6, lists those that shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; one who is wounded in the testicles; or one who is castrated. A bastard or the Ammonite or Moabite, even until the tenth generation, because they helped you not, when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam to curse you. The Lord would not listen to Balaam, but turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all of your days, for ever.

You shall not hate an Edomite, for he is your brother, you shall not hate an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land. The children that are born to a union with them (Egyptians) of their third generation shall enter the congregation of the Lord.

When the army goes out to war keep yourselves from every wicked thing.  If a man become unclean by some occurrence in the night, he shall go outside the camp and shall not come back in, but when evening comes he shall wash with water and when the sun sets he could come into the camp, :7-11.

Also, instructions for going outside the camp to relieve yourself, you must carry a shovel to dig with to turn over your refuse. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you: therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you ; :12-14.

You shall not give back to his master a slave who has escaped from his master, he shall live in the midst of one of your camps, which he chooses, you shall not oppress him. There shall be no ritual harlot of the daughters of Israel, or a male prostitute of the sons of Israel. You shall not bring the wages of a whore or the price of a dog to the house of the Lord your God for any vowed offering, for both of these is an abomination to the Lord your God; :15-19.

Sidebar: Did you notice that the Lord referred to the male prostitute as a dog? It seems to me that prostitution is as much an abomination as sodomy. 

We are given instructions in regards to living righteously with your brother; :19, a foreigner; :20, your God; :21-23, and your neighbor; :24-25.

DEUTERONOMY  24

Verses :1-5 gives instruction on one of the aspects of marriage. (It sounds as if the Lord is opposed to divorcing, marrying others, and re-marrying).  Do not take a man’s work tools as a pledge.  A kidnapper who mistreats or sells his prey shall die, and you shall put the evil away from you.  Be sure you carefully follow the teachings of the priests regarding an outbreak of leprosy. When you lend to your brother you shall not go into his house to get his pledge, you must wait outside until he brings it to you. If a man is poor you shall not keep his pledge overnight. You shall return it to him when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his own garment, and bless you and it shall be righteousness to you before the Lord your God; :6-13.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether your brother or a stranger, who is in your land. Each day you shall give him his wages and not let the sun go down on it , because he needs it, lest he cry out against you to the Lord and it be sin to your; :14-15.

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers, a person shall be put to death for his own sin; :16. You shall not pervert justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; :17.

Verses :19-21, command that when reaping the harvest that you make sure to leave a part of the harvest for the poor, the fatherless, and widow to glean.  And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

DEUTERONOMY 25

When a dispute is taken to court, that the judges may judge them and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a certain number of blows.  Forty blows he may give him and no more, lest he should exceed this and beat him with many blows above this and your brother be humiliated in your sight; :1-3.

You shall not muzzle an ox while he treads out the grain. If brother’s live together and one dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger of the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife and perform the duties of the husband’s brother to her, and the firstborn son which she bears will succeed in the name of the dead brother, that his name may not e blotted out of Israel; :5-6.

Verses :7-10 give the ordinances in the event that the brother refuses, after following procedure the widow shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and say, “So it shall be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house and him name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his sandal removed”. If two men are fighting and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the testicles, you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall not pity her.

You shall not have different weights, heavy and a light; you shall not have in your home differing measures, a large and a small; you shall have a perfect and just weight and measure; :11-15.

Sidebar: The Lord is saying do not cheat; shortchange and this command comes with a promise.

For all who do such things and all who behave unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord your God; :16-19

DEUTERONOMY 26

The Lord required a first fruit offering of all the produce of the land which He was giving them, as an inheritance; and that it be brought to the “place of His choosing where His name abides”; :1-2.

You shall confess before the priest and he shall take the offering and set it before the altar of the Lord, and then you shall declare the history of Israel; :3-10.

You shall rejoice in every good thing, which the Lord has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year , the year of tithing and given it as God has instructed you, then you shall say before the Lord your God, “Your commandments I have not transgressed, nor have I forgotten; :12-15.

Sidebar: When was the Last time that we have said these words, I wonder.

Moses tells the people “Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments , and that you will obey His voice. Also, today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all of His commandments and He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, in honor and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken; :16-19.

Sidebar: Please tell me, today , this description can be attributed to whom?

DEUTERONOMY 27

Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, “Keep all the commandments which I command you today”.  When you cross over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, on that day you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime.  You shall write on them all the words of the law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land that the Lord is giving you, as He promised your fathers.  On Mt. Ebal you shall set up these stones which I command you today, and whitewash them with lime. And there you shall build an altar to the Lord, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them.  You shall build the altar with the whole stones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God; you shall offer peace offerings and shall eat there and rejoice before the Lord, and you shall write very plainly all the words of this law; :1-8.

Moses and the priests tell the people, “Take heed and listen, O Israel; this day you have become the Lord’s people, therefore, you shall obey His voice and observe His commandments and statutes which I command you today. Six tribes shall stand on Mt. Gerizim to bless the people and six tribes shall stand on Mt. Ebal to curse. The Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel the proclaiming of the curses for each iniquity after each, the people shall answer and say , “Amen”; :9-26.

DEUTERONOMY 28

This book contains the blessings for obedience and the curses for rebellion, not carefully obeying the voice of the Lord our God .

Verses :1-14 contains the blessings. Verses, :15-68, contains the curses for disobedience/rebellion.

Sidebar: Has anyone noticed that the Lord is very serious about us obeying His commandments?

DEUTERONOMY 29

These are the words of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, besides the covenant He made with them in Horeb.  Moses reminds them that Israel has seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in Egypt, great trials, signs and great wonders, yet the Lord shall not give you eyes and heart to perceive, and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. Moses recites their history from Egypt to the promised land. “Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them—that you may prosper in all that you do. You, all, stand here today, leaders, wives, children, even the stranger that is among you, That He may establish you today as people for Himself, and that He may be God to you just as He has spoken to you and as He has sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; :1-13.

The Lord made the covenant and an oath, not with Israel alone, but with all who were there before the Lord and with him which is not here today (this refers to us). As we came out of Egypt we passed by the nations, you saw there abominations and their idols which were among them—wood, stone, silver, and gold, so that there may not be among you any whose heart turns away, today, from the Lord our God to go and serve other gods, of these nations, and there may not be among you a root of bitterness, bearing bitterness, and so that it may not happen when he hears the words of the curse, that he blesses himself in his heart , saying, “I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober; :14-19.

The Lord will not spare, for His anger and His jealousy would burn against that man and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.  Then all nations would say, “Why has the Lord done so to this land?  What does the heat of this great anger mean?  And people will say, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of Egypt; for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given them.  The anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.  And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath and in great indignation and cast them into another land, as it is this day.  The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children, forever, that we may do all the words of the law;  :20-29.

DEUTERONOMY  30

Sidebar:  This chapter reveals that the Lord and Moses knew that the Israelites would reject God’s laws and “go a-whoring after other gods”.

“Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice—(not Augustine, or Luther, or Equinos, etc.)—according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all you heart and with all your soul, that the Lord will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.

Even you in the farthest parts under heaven will be gathered and brought by the Lord; to bring you back to the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it.  The Lord will prosper you and multiply more than your fathers.  And He will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.  The Lord will put all  these curses upon your enemies and those who hated you; who persecute you.  And you will again obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments, which I command you today.  The Lord will bless everything you set you hand to, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for your good, as He rejoiced over your fathers;  :1-10

Verses 11-14, should be familiar, Paul quoted it.  Moses tells the people, “See, I have set before you today, life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God; to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord will bless you in the land that you go to possess.  But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, you will perish; you shall not prolong your days.

Moses tells the people, “I call heaven and earth as a witness against you, today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, there, choose life that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days;  :15-20.

DEUTERONOMY  31

Moses declares to the people that the Lord had said that he shall not cross the Jordan to enter the promised land.  The Lord your God, Himself crosses over before you, He will destroy these nations from before you and you shall dispossess them.  Joshua shall lead you as the Lord has said.  The Lord will give these nations over to you, be of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you; He will not leave you nor forsake you;  :1-6.

Moses calls Joshua and repeats the same words;  he wrote the law and delivered it to the priests and the sons of Levi who bore the Ark of the Covenant and to all the elders of Israel.  Every seven years, the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles when all of Israel come to appear before the Lord our God; the priests shall read this law before them in their hearing;  :7-11.

Gather the people together, men, women, and little ones, and the stranger who is within you gates, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and carefully observe all the words of this law, and their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God , as long as you live;  :12-13.

The Lord tells Moses that he will “go to join his fathers (die) soon” and to call Joshua to inaugurate him.  The Lord appeared above the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud.  The Lord tells Moses (even before they made it to the promised land), after you die Moses, “this people are going to rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant, which I have made with them”.  :14-18.

The Lord tells them to write the words of a song that he gave him; to teach it to the children of Israel; “put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel”, when I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods to serve them; and they will provoke Me and break my covenant.  Then It shall be , when many evils and troubles have come upon them, that this song will testify against them as a witness;  “for it will not be forgotten in the mouths of their descendants, for I know the inclination of their behavior, today, even before I have brought them into the land of which I swore to give them”.  Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel;  :19-22

Moses inaugurated Joshua; completed writing the words of this law in a book then he commanded the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, saying, “Take this book of the law and put it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord our God, that it may be there as a witness against you, for I know your rebellion, your stiff neck.  If, today, while I am yet alive,  you have been rebellious against the Lord, the how much more after my death?”  Then Moses says, “Gather all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.  For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you.  And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”  Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel, the words of this song, until they were finished;  :23-30.

DEUTERONOMY  32

The song that the Lord gave Moses to write down, is a devastating indictment of Israel specifically, and mankind in general;  :1-43.

Sidebar: It is my opinion that this whole chapter is to be internalized by all those who profess the name of Jesus.

Moses came with Joshua and spoke all the words of the song, in the hearing of all the people.  After he finished speaking all the words of the song to all Israel, he said, “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law.  For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life; and by this word shall you prolong your days in the land.”

The Lord told Moses to go up the Mt. Nebo, in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and to view the land of Canaan, “which I give to the children of Israel, as a possession, and die on the mountain, which you ascend and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron, your brother died on Mt. Hor and was gathered to his people.  Because you have trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.  Yet you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go into the land which I give to the children of Israel;  :44-52.

DEUTERONOMY  33

In this chapter Moses, blesses the tribes of Israel each individually, before his death.  Moses said, “…and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.  Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words;  :1-5.

The first was Reuben, then Judah; Levi; Benjamin; Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh); Zebulun; Issachar; Gad; Dan; Naphtali; Asher.  Jeshrun is another name for Israel;  :26There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky;  :6-29.

  DEUTERONOMY  34

Then Mose went up form the plains of Moab to Mount Mebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across Jericho.  There the Lord showed him the land which He had sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He allowed Moses to see, with his eyes, but said, “You shall not cross over there.”  Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there and the Lord buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, but no one knows his grave to this day;  :1-6.

Moses was 120 years old when he died.  His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.  The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days until the days of mourning had ended.

Joshua, full of the spirit of wisdom; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.  But since them there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face;  :7-12.

Sidebar:  Except Jesus.

 

 

 

 

To God Be The Glory!

I am very thankful to have been chosen as a recipient of the Arte Y Pico Award, I was presented this award by Lori at her, PERSEVERE Blog.

This award …is given to those who inspire others with their creative energy and talents in writing, artwork, design or contributions to the blogging community. It originated here. Arte Y Pico ….loosely translates to, “Wow. The Best Art. Over the top.”

I humbly accept this award, however all glory goes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our coming King. I have tried on JUST THE WORD—PLEASE!, to share the Word of God in its simplest form, with a few of my thoughts on what is being shared. Sooo, the glory is God’s alone.

I am thankful that He has allowed me an arena to share His Words with all who are willing, and that is the real blessing. Cyberspace is an invention that can be used for GOOD and EVIL.

I am privileged, that the Lord has afforded me the opportunity to meet and converse with people of other nations, seeking and searching and finding the Lord. Very dear brothers and sisters, that I would never have met through means of my own, and for this I give God praise, in Jesus’ name.

God bless you Lori, and continue to PERSEVERE.

The “official instructions” follow:

To the recipients of the award…
1. Pick five blogs you consider deserving of this award, whether for creativity, design, interesting material, or contributions to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Name each nominee and link to his/her blog.
3. Show the award and include the name (and link to his/her blog) of whoever presented you with this award.
4. Be sure to link to the Arte y Pico blog, so everyone knows the origin of this award.
5. Post these rules.

So in the spirit with which this award was given, I pass it on to:

Sicarii’s blog, WORD AND VERSE lives in Singapore

Bria’s blog, YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE lives in Detroit

Valerie’s blog, SIMPLY4GOD lives in Indiana

Steve’s blog, EXODUS TIMES

And last, but definitely not least,

Carol’s blog, BIBLE THUMPER’S SOAPBOX lives in South Carolina.

Also my sister Hanna, CHANNEL OF HEALING, who lives in Nigeria whom Lori has chosen to receive this award also.

I am grateful, and pleased to have met, connected with you, and for the fellowship that I have with you. Thank you all and keep “crying loud and sparing not”

Peace and blessings to you all.

Deuteronomy Chapters 12 – 22

 

DEUTERONOMY 12

Moses reminds the people to be careful to be obedient to the Lord’s statutes and judgments, when they are in the land that was sworn to Abraham’s descendants.  He reminds—no, commands them to utterly destroy all the places where the nations, that they were to dispossess, served their gods, on the high mountains on the hills and under every green tree.  Destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, burn the wooden images with fire; cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.  Do not worship the Lord your God with such things. 

You shall seek a place where the Lord your God chooses of all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling.  Then Moses proceeds to tell them the ordinances of the offering; sacrifices; tithes, heave, vowed, freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herds, and in that place which the Lord chooses, you shall observe His feasts; :1-14.

Moses tells them that their regular meals may be eaten within their gates, but he reminds them of the admonition of the Lord regarding the eating of blood.  He commands that you must not eat your tithes and offerings in your gate, but must eat them before the Lord in the place which He chooses, there you shall rejoice before the Lord;  :15-18.

Moses reminds the people to not forsake the Levite, as long as you live.  He reminds them again of the feast to be observed in the place that the Lord chooses.  Moses admonishes the people, “do no become ensnared by the gods of the nations that they dispossessed, inquiring as to how these nations serve their god; you shall not do likewise.  You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abomination to the Lord that He hates they did to their gods; they even burn their children in the fire to their gods. 

Moses commands them, “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it.  You shall not add to it, nor take away from it;  :20-32.

 

DEUTERONOMY 13

If a prophet or a dreamer that performs signs and wonders tries telling you, “Let’s go serve other gods—which you have not known—do not listen because the Lord is testing you to know whether you love Him with all your heart and soul; :1-3.

Walk before the Lord your God and fear Him; keep His commandments; obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.  That prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away form the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt; redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord commanded you to walk, so you shall put the evil from you. 

If anyone (brother, son, daughter, wife or friend) secretly entices you to serve other gods, which you have not known, gods of the people which are all around you from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to them or listen to him, neither shall your eye pity him nor spare, nor conceal him, but you shall surely kill him.   Your hand shall be first against him, to put him to death and after that the hand of all the people.  Stone him with stones until he dies.  All Israel shall hear of this and fear and not do such wickedness as this among you;  :4-11

If you hear of someone in your cities, which the Lord you God gives you to live in, is trying to corrupt you to go and serve other gods, then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently.  If it is true and certain that such an abomination was committed among you, strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its livestock with the edge of the sword.  Gather all it’s plunder into the middle of the street and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder for the Lord our God.

Sidebar:  I pray that you are paying attention to how adamant the LORD is in regard to us worshipping any god other than the True and Living God.  The requirement for such abominations is death:  physical and then spiritual.

It shall be a heap for ever; it shall not be build again.  None of the accursed things shall remain in your hand that the Lord may turn away the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy; have compassion on you and multiply you as He has sworn; because you listened to the voice of the Lord your God to keep all His commandments, which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God;  :12-18.

 

Deuteronomy 14

You are the children of the Lord your God, you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.  You are a holy people to the Lord your God and He has chosen you to be His people for Himself, a special treasure, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth;  :1-3.

Verses 3-21 are a reiteration of the dietary laws.

You shall tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces each year.  Verses 23-25, explains how they were to observe the Lord’s feasts.  They are reminded not to forsake the Levite who is within your gates, because the Levite has no inheritance with you, so every third year bring out the tithe of your produce and store it within your gates, so that the Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow may come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in the all the work of your hand; :26-29.

 

DEUTERONMY 15

The people are once again given the statutes of the year of release—every seventh year.  Your brethren who are in debt to you, you shall release from their debt.  Of a foreigner you may require it, but you shall give claim up to it of your brother, except when there are no poor among you for the Lord shall greatly bless you in the land your God is giving you, ONLY IF you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe with care all of His commandments, which I command you today.  

The Lord will bless you just as He promised.  You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations they shall not reign over you.  You shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand to the poor within your gates; but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. 

If you conceive evil thoughts and hold back from your poor brother and he cry out to the Lord against you, it will become sin unto you.  You shall surely give to him and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand.  For the poor will never cease from the land therefore I command you saying, “You shall open your hand wide to your brother to your poor and your needy, in your land.”  :1-11.

The Lord commanded the people to be mindful of the needs of your brothers and sisters that are sold to you and serve you for six years and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.  And when you send him away you shall not send him away empty handed.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you.  If it happens that he decides to stay with you because he lover you and your house, since he prospers with you than you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door and he shall be your servant forever, also your female servant.

It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you for he has been worth double a hired servant in serving you six years;  :11-18.

All firstborn males of your flock and herds you shall sanctify to the Lord; do no work with the firstborn of your herd nor shear the firstborn of your flock.  You and your household shall eat it before the Lord your God year by year in the place which the Lord chooses.  Sidebar:  These verses speak of the Passover.

 But if there is a defect in it; if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.  You may eat it within your gates; the unclean and clean person alike may eat of it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer.  Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it on the ground like water;  :19-23.

DEUTERONOMY  16

Moses gives the ordinance of the Passover; :1-4.  Moses tells the people they may not sacrificed the Passover within their gates; but at the place where the Lord chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.  Moses reminds the people to observe the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost);  :10-12, the Feast of Tabernacles;  :13-15.  These are the three times a year when all Israelite males shall appear before the Lord, in the place that He chooses and you shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed;  :16-17.

You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord you God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment, you shall not show partiality nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.  You shall follow what is altogether just. 

You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God.  You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates;  :18-22.

 

DEUTERONOMY  17

You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or a sheep that has a defect or a blemish for that is an abomination to the Lord your god.  Any man or woman found among you in your gates which the Lord gives you, who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord in transgressing His covenant, who has gone and served and worshipped other gods , either the sun or the moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded and it is told you and you hear of it , then you shall inquire diligently and it is indeed true and certain that such abomination has been committed in Israel, you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing and shall stone to death that person with stones.

 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.  The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death and afterward the hand of all the people.  So you shall put away the evil from among you;  :1-7.

If a matter arises that is too hard for you to judge then you shall go before the Priest, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days and you shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce.  You shall be careful to do according to all that they order you.  According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you; to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn to the right hand, nor to the left, from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.  The man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the Priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die.

So you shall put away the evil from Israel.  And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously; :11-13.  Verses  :14-17, reveals that the Lord knew the people would seek to be as the world and desire a king to be over them, in rejection of the King of kings.  The Lord required that when he (the king) sits on the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the Levites, the priests; it shall be with him and he shall read it all of the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord and be careful to observe all the words of the law and these statutes that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren; that he may not turn to the right or the left, and  that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel;  :18-20.

 

DEUTERONOMY  18

The Priests, the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part, nor inheritance with Israel, they shall eat the offerings of the Lord make by fire, His portion.  They shall have no inheritance;  :1-8.

You shall not learn to follow the abominations of the nations which you go to dispossess.  There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire; or one who practices witchcraft or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.  All who do these things are an abomination to the Lord and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out before you.  These nations, which you will dispossess, listened to soothsayers and diviners, bus at for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you;  :8-14.

Moses speaks to the people of the Lord’s promise to raise up a Prophet like unto Moses, from the midst of Israel.  Him you shall hear according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb.  “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them, all that I command.  And it shall be that whosoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require of him. 

Sidebar:  These verses speak of the coming of Jesus with the exact same words of the Lord  which Moses spoke, which requires the same fear of and obedience to the Lord our God.

If a prophet presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak or that speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

Sidebar:  These verses should stand as a cautionary warning to ALL prophe-liars in Christendom today.  God is not mocked.

And if you say to yourself, “How shall we knot the word which the Lord has not spoken?”—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing that the Lord has not spoken,  the prophet has spoken presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him;  :15-22.

 

 

 

DEUTERONOMY 19

The people were told that when they inhabit the land that the Lord had promised, to set aside three cities (of refuge) in the midst of the land. They shall be for the manslayer to flee to. This is the case of the manslayer who flees there that he may live: Whoever kills his neighbor unintentionally, not having hated him in time past—as when a man goes into the woods with his neighbor to cut timber and his hand swings a stroke with the ax to cut down a tree and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he shall flee to one of these cities and live; lest the avenger of blood, while his anger is hot, pursues the manslayer, overtakes him and kills him, though he was not deserving of death, since he had no hatred of the victim in the past; :1-6.

The separation of three refuge cities was a commandment, and Moses told the people “If you keep all these commandments and do them which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to walk in His ways, then you shall add three more cities, lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land, which the Lord is giving you as an inheritance, and thus guilt of bloodshed be upon you;  :7-10.

But the one who hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and kills him and flees to a city of refuge, then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood that he may die.

Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guild of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you. 

You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess;  :11-13.

One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses shall a thing be established.  If a false witness rises against any man to testify against him of wrong doing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priest, and the judges, shall make careful inquiry and indeed if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to this brother, so you shall put away the evil from among you.  And those who remain shall hear and fear and thereafter they shall not commit such evil among you.  Your eye shall not pity:  life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot;  :14-21.

DEUTERONOMY  20

Moses tells the people, “When you go to battle against your enemies, do not be afraid”.  He tells the priest that they are to encourage the men of war saying, “Do not let your heart faint, do not be afraid, do not tremble or be terrified because of them, for the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you;  :1-4.  Those men with unfinished business or the faint of heart were not required to go to war;  :5-8.

The officers shall speak to the people to make captains of the armies to lead them into battle.  They were commanded, “When you go near a city to fight against it, proclaim an offer of peace to it.  If they accept your offer of peace and open to you, all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you.  If the city will not make peace but makes war against you, you shall besiege it.  When the Lord your God delivers it into your hands you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword.  But the women, the little ones, the livestock and all that is in the city, all of its spoil, you shall plunder for yourself and you shall eat the enemies plunder which the Lord your God gives you.  Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations;  :9-15.

But of the cities of the people which the Lord gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain, you shall utterly destroy them:  the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, “lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations, which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.

When you besiege a city for a long time, while making war against it, to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by chopping it with an axe; if you can eat them, do not cut them down to use in the siege for the tree of the field is man’s food. Only the trees which you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, to build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it is subdued;  :16-20.

DEUTERONOMY  21

If anyone is found slain, lying in the field in the land which the Lord is giving you to possess and it is not known who killed him, the elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the dead body to the surrounding cities.  The elders of the city nearest the body will take a heifer which has not been worked and which has not pulled with a yoke. 

The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with flowing water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and they shall break the heifer’s neck, there in the valley.  The priest, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to Him and to bless in His name; by their word every controversy and every assault shall be settled;  :1-5.

And the elders of that city nearest the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer, whose neck was broken in the valley.  Then they shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed blood and our eyes have not seen it.  Provide atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not lay innocent blood to the charge of Your people Israel”, and atonement shall be provided on their behalf for the blood.  So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord;  :6-9.

When the Lord your God delivers your enemies into you hand and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her and would take her for your wife, you shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and trim her nails.  She shall put off the clothes of her captivity and mourn her father and mother a full month, after that you may go in to her and she shall be your wife.  If you have no delight in her then you shall set her free, you certainly shall not sell her for money; you shall not treat her brutally, because you have humbled her;  :10-14. 

If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have borne him children and the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, that man must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved—the true firstborn; the right of the firstborn is his;  :15-17.

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother and who when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and mother shall take hold of him bring him out to the elders at the gate of the city and they shall say, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard”. 

Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear.  If a man commits a sin deserving of death and you hand him in a tree, his body shall not remain overnight in a tree,; you shall surely bury him that day do you do not defile the land; for he who is hanged is accursed of God;  :18-23.

Deuteronomy  22

In verses  :1-4, the Lord give us laws for dealing righteously toward your brother, basically, “Thou shall not steal”; how to deal within a relationship. 

Verse  :5, has been give over to various interpretations and right here let us let the Bible interpret the Bible:  I know that the world, society, and our own personal deduction, is enmity with God’s Word; God’s Laws and with God, but you and I are reading it for ourselves.

Sidebar:  Do not get me wrong; I wear pants everyday, except when I got to Church.  If our congregation did not have a dress code—no pants, skorts, shorts and must wear a head covering—I would be wearing pants to church, again.  I did before I joined this congregation.  I have gone the whole gamut, from dresses and skirts to dress pants, to jeans, back to dresses and skirts.  I know the world tells us that God, Jesus, is all forgiving and loving, and He is.  But the world never warns us that God, Jesus is an exacting God.  He has very distinct and unchanging ways and very first on His list is OBEDIENCE.    Just some “Food for Thought” for us all.

Verses  :6-7,  tells us not to rob nature and leave it with no hope of recovery.

Verse  :8,  tells us to be thoughtful of the affect that we have on another’s life.

Verse  :9,  is one of the questions that I will ask Jesus,  “why it defiles”, when I am in His presence (future) but until then we must obey.

Verse  :10,  brings to mind the scripture, “Be ye not unequally yoked”.

Verse  :11,  is another question that I will have to ask the Lord.

Verse  :12,  the tassels were to remind the people of God’s Laws.

Verses  :13-21, deals wit the relationship of a husband and wife and a charge by the husband that the wife was not a virgin.

Verse  :22, says that adulterers must die.

Verses  :23-27, states if a virgin is betrothed to a husband and a man find her in the city and lies (has sex) with her then bring them out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out, the man because he humbled his neighbor’s wife:  so you shall put away the evil from Israel.  But if a man finds a betrothed you woman in the countryside and forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.  But do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter.  The betrothed young woman cried out but there was no one to save her. Sidebar:  God says rape is deserving of death.

Verses  :28 -29, state that if a man finds a young woman who is a virgin, who is not betrothed and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are found out then the man shall give to her father fifty (50) shekels of silver and she shall be his wife because he has humbled her; he shall not be permitted to divorce her all his days.

And verse  :30, says “A man shall not take his father’s wife, nor uncover his father’s bed.

 

DEUTERONOMY 1 – 11

DEUTERONOMY 1

This book is a reminder to the children of Israel of how the Lord had sustained them for forty years eleven months. These words Moses spoke according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments. Moses reminds them of the events that took place at Horeb and that he had commanded them all the things that they should do, 1-19.

He reminded them that when the Lord said to possess the land of the Amorites, :20-21, how their fathers had rebelled and refused to believe the Lord, :22-33.

Moses told them how the Lord became angry and took an oath saying, ”Surely no one of that evil generation would see that good land except Caleb, one of the twelve spies. He told how the Lord was angry with him and said “Even you shall not go in to the land”, :34-37. The Lord told Moses that Joshua would take the people in to inherit it, :38-46.

DEUTERONOMY 2

The Lord tell Moses, “You have skirted this mountain long enough turn northward.” The Lord told Moses that they would be traveling through Esau’s descendants land, and to command the people to watch themselves carefully; do not meddle with them, “for I will not give you any of their land not so much as a footstep, because I have given Mt. Seir to Esau as a possession . Buy food from them with money and also water”. When they passed through Moab the Lord said, do not harass nor contend with them for, “I will not give you any of their land”. They are the descendants of Lot, :1-13.

It took thirty-eight years until all the men of war of Israel had died, just as the Lord has sworn. The Lord warned them not to harass the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot, nor meddle with them for, “I have given them their land as a possession, :14-23.

The Lord gave the children of Israel the land of the Amorites by delivering Sihon kind of Hesbon, into their hands. They took all the cities and utterly destroyed the men, women, and children of every city and left none remaining, :24-37.

DEUTERONOMY 3

Israel went to war against Og, king of Bashan, the Lord admonished them again, “Do not fear him for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand, do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites. They defeated Og and took sixty cities, the livestock, and the spoil they took as booty. This land was given to the Ruebenites, the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh, :1-22.

Moses tells how he pleaded with the Lord to allow him to cross over to the Promised land. The Lord told him, “Enough of that, speak no more to me of this matter”. The Lord told Moses to go up to Mt. Pisgah and behold it with you eyes, for you shall not cross over the Jordan. Command Joshua; encourage and strengthen him and he will cause the people to inherit the land which you will see; :25-29.

DEUTERONOMY 4

Moses tells the people listen to the statutes and judgments which he taught them. “You shall not add to the words which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God”. Moses tells them “be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the people who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. What great nation is there that God is so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call Him; :1-8.

Moses tells the people to be diligent to keep themselves lest they forget all the great and wondrous things the Lord has done for them and to teach their children and grand children, especially concerning the day that the Lord spoke to the people at Mr. Horeb when they heard His voice. He declared to them His covenant which He commanded them to perform, the ten commandments that He wrote on the tablets of stone. Moses tells the people to take heed to themselves because they saw no form when the Lord spoke, he cautioned them not to act corruptly and make for themselves carved images in the form of any figure, not in the likeness of male or female, no animal on the earth, no winged bird that flies in the air, nor anything that creeps on the ground nor anything that is in the water beneath the earth. He told them to be careful not to worship the sun, moon, the stars, nor the hosts of heaven. He told them to remember that Israel is the Lord’s inheritance. He reminds them of how the Lord was angry at him for their sakes and swore that he would not cross over the Jordan but must die on that side; :9-23.

Moses reminds them again, “Do not forget the covenant of the Lord and make a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord you God has forbidden you—For the Lord is a consuming fire, a jealous God”. However he tells them that when they do (break the covenant), that he has called heaven and earth as a witness against them, and that they would utterly perish from the land and be utterly destroyed; that they would be scattered among the nations where the Lord will drive them, and that there they would serve other gods, the work of men’s hands.

Moses encouraged them saying, “From there they would seek the Lord and find Him if they seek Him with all their heart and in the latter days when they turn to the Lord and OBEY His voice that He will not forsake you, nor destroy you nor forget His covenant which He swore to your father’s. Moses reminds them that the Lord is God and has shown Himself to them by His works; that He is the God of heaven and earth; he also tells them to obey the Lords statutes and His commandments that it may go well for them, their children and grandchildren, that they may prolong their days in the land which the Lord was giving them; :24-40.

Moses set apart three cities on that side of the Jordan, that the manslayer may flee there—one who kills his neighbor unintentionally without hatred in time past—and by fleeing to these cities he might live, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan.

These are the testimonies, statutes and judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt to the land of the Amorites in Hesbon. They took possession of king Sihon and king Bashan; :41-49.

DEUTERONOMY 5

Moses called all the people and reminds them to hear, “the statutes and judgments which I speak to you today.

Sidebar: Today means Today to us also.

The Lord made a covenant with us in Horeb, with us, not our father’s but with those whom the Lord spoke to. He tells how because they were afraid, he stood between the Lord and them,; :1-5.

Moses retells the words that were spoken in their hearing and how because they became afraid and elected him as the go between; :6-27.

Moses tells them that when the Lord heard their voice He said, “They have spoken right. Oh that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep My commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever”; :28-29.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses all the commandments, statutes, and judgments, which you shall teach tem that they may observe (OBEY) them; Moses tells them to not turn to the right or the left, but walk in all the ways which the Lord our God has commanded us that it may be well with you; :30-33.

Sidebar: Are you paying attention to how many times Moses tells the people to observe (OBEY) the LORD”S commandments, statutes, and judgments?

DEUTERONOMY 6

Moses recites to the Israelites again that these are the commandments that the Lord our God had commanded him to teach to the people, that they would observe and obey them, then they/we would fear the Lord our God to keep them, teaching our children and our grandchildren to keep them. The Lord our God is one, love Him with all your heart, soul and strength.

The words that Moses had commanded them, the commandments, statutes, and judgments of the Lord our God, those words shall be kept in their hearts (minds), teach them diligently to your children, talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up; bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes; write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates; :1-9.

Sidebar: I perceive from these nine verses that the Lord’s intention for mankind (not just the Israelites) is to keep His righteous, not burdensome , commandments, statutes, and judgments at the very forefront of our consciousness. Yesterday, Today, and Forever. The Lord said He would make a new covenant with the house of Israel; He would write His laws on our hearts and minds.(Jere 31:31-34)

The Lord said continue to do this lest after everything is “fine and dandy, blessed and highly favored”, you will forget from where your blessings have come. You shall fear the Lord and serve Him, you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people around you,(for the Lord our God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord our God, as you tempted Him in Massah; :10-16.

You shall diligently keep (OBEY) the commandments of the Lord our God, His testimonies, His statutes, that He has commanded you, and do what is right in the sight of the Lord. And when your son asks in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God has commanded, you shall say to your son, “We were slaves in Egypt and the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand and showed signs and wonders before our eyes. He brought us out of there that He might bring us into the land He swore to our fathers and He commanded us to observe all the statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, so that He will preserve us alive. It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded; :17-24.

You shall say to your son “We were slaves in Egypt and the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand and showed us signs and wonders before our eyes. He brought us out of there that He might bring us into the land He swore to our fathers and He commanded us to observe ALL the statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always so that He will preserve us alive. It will be righteousness for us IF we are careful to obey all these commandments before the Lord our God as He has commanded; :25-26.

DEUTERONOMY 7

Moses tells the people, when the Lord brings you into the land you go to possess and has cast out seven nations greater and mightier than you and delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show them mercy. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son , nor take their daughter for you son. They will turn you away from the Lord your God and His anger shall be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

You shall utterly destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves and burn their graven images. You are a holy people to the Lord your God, He has chosen you to be a special people unto Himself, above all people on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all people.

Because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand out of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful, who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations and repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to him that hates Him, He will repay him to his face; :1-11. Please pay close attention to verses 9-11.

Sidebar: The Lord equates loving Him with obeying HIS commandments, the inference is that if you do not obey HIS commandments, you hate Him.

If you listen and obey His judgments and do them, He will love you and bless you; multiply you, bless the fruit of your womb; your land; your corn; wine; oil; the increase of your kine; and the flock of your sheep. You will be blessed above all people. You shall consume all the people which the Lord our God shall deliver to you, you eye shall have no pity upon them, neither shall you serve their gods because that will be a trap for you.

You shall not be afraid of them but shall remember what the Lord did unto all the people of whom you are afraid. The Lord your God is among you, a mighty God and terrible; :12-21.

The Lord explains that He will do this a little at a time and not consume them all at once. The Israelites were small in number and the beast of the fields would increase upon them. The Lord your God shall deliver them and shall destroy them; their kings and their name from under the heavens; none shall stand before you.

Burn their graven images with fire and shall not desire the silver and gold that is on them, nor keep it for yourselves, lest you be trapped by it; it is an abomination to the Lord our God. You shall not bring it into your house, lest you be a cursed thing like it. You shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it because it is a cursed thing; :22-26

DEUTERONOMY 8

Moses exhorts the people to observe the commandments; to remember all the way that the Lord had led them those forty years in the wilderness, to know what was in their heart (mind); if they would keep His commandents or not.

The Lord fed you with food, you or your fathers did not know, so that you would know that man does not live by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live; :1-3.

Your clothes did not wear out these forty years; your feet did not swell; consider in your heart (mind) the Lord disciplined you as a man does his son. Keep His commandments and walk in His ways and fear Him.

Beware that after you are in the land where you “want for nothing” you forget the Lord your God by not keeping the commandments, which I command you this day; :4-11.

Lest when you have eaten and are full and living well you heart (mind) be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God which brought you out of Egypt; from the house of bondage; led you through the wilderness brought water out of the rock; fed you manna, to humble you; prove you; to do you good at the latter end. But you say your power and the might of your hand has gotten you this wealth; :12-16.

You shall remember the Lord you God for it is He that gives you power to get wealth, to establish His covenant with your fathers. If you do forget the Lord your God; walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face so shall you perish because you will not obey the voice of the Lord our God; :17-20.

DEUTERONOMY 9

Moses tells the people they are going to take possession of a land inhabited by “a people great and tall, descendants of the Anakim; so understand today that the Lord our God, it is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. Do not think, after the Lord our God has cast them out, that it was because of your righteousness; it is because of the wickedness of those nations that the Lord is driving them out. The Lord is not giving you the land because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Remember; do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness, From the day that you departed Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord; :1-7.

Sidebar: Do you notice that the very same indictment can be made today against all of the sons/daughters of Adam.

You provoked the Lord at Horeb, so that He was angry enough to destroy you. Then Moses proceeds to tell the history of this people, once again. Moses tells how the Lord spoke to him saying, “I have seen this people and indeed they are a stiff-necked people. Let Me alone, that I might destroy them and blot out their name from under the heaven and I will make of you (Moses) a nation mightier and greater than they”.

Moses retells of the faithlessness of the people, how they rebelled against the commandment of the Lord our God; “you would not believe Him nor hear His voice”. Moses tell how he interceded for Israel and how the Lord repented from destroying them all; :8-29.

DEUTERONOMY 10

Moses continues the run down of the children of Israel’s history. After which Moses tell them what the Lord our God requires: to fear the Lord your God, walk in all His ways; to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul; to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command you today for your good; :1-13.

The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them and He chose their descendants, after them, you above all people. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no more.

You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve Him and to Him you shall hold fast. Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons and now the Lord our God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude; :14-22.

DEUTERONOMY 11

Moses continues, “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God and keep His charge; His statutes; His judgments and His commandments, always.” He reminds them again of the acts and miracles of the Lord, and tells them, “But your eyes have see all the great acts of the Lord which He did”.

Therefore shall you keep all the commandments which I command you this day that you may be strong and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers: a land which the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord our God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even to the end of the year.

The Lords says, It shall come to pass IF you will hearken diligently to My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season. Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods, and worship them; and the Lord’s wrath be kindled/aroused against you; :1-17.

Therefore shall you lay up these words in your heart and in your soul; bind them for a sign on your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes and then he repeats the admonition given in Deuteronomy 6:6-9; :18-25.

Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing IF you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse IF you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way, which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known; :26-32.