Today's Reading

¹When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you;

²and when the Lord your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them;

³neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.

⁴For he will turn away your son from following me, so that he may serve other gods: so the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

⁵But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire.

⁶For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷The 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 peoples:

⁸but because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

¹⁰and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.

¹¹You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them.

¹²It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers:

¹³and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.

¹⁵The Lord will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, he will put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

¹⁶You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God shall deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷If you shall say in your heart, "These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?"

¹⁸you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;

¹⁹the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out: so shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

²⁰Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.

²¹You shall not be scared of them; for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God.

²²The Lord your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.

²³But the Lord your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed.

²⁴He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky: no man shall be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.

²⁵You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God.

²⁶You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

¹You shall observe to do all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers.

²You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.

³He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth God shall man live.

⁴Your clothing did not grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.

⁵You shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶You shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

⁷For the Lord your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey;

⁹a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.

¹⁰You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you.

¹¹Beware lest you forget the Lord your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you this day:

¹²lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and lived therein;

¹³and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;

¹⁴then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;

¹⁵who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint;

¹⁶who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know; that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end:

¹⁷and lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth."

¹⁸But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day.

¹⁹It shall be, if you shall forget the Lord your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

²⁰As the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you wouldn't listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

¹Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,

²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, "Who can stand before the sons of Anak?"

³Know therefore this day, that the Lord your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you: so you shall drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, "For my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land"; because the Lord drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.

⁵Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶Know therefore, that the Lord your God doesn't give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷Remember, do not forget, how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

⁸Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was angry with you to destroy you.

⁹When I was gone up onto the mountain to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.

¹⁰The Lord delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

¹²The Lord said to me, "Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image."

¹³Furthermore the Lord spoke to me, saying, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

¹⁴let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they."

¹⁵So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made yourselves a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you.

¹⁷I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

¹⁸I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, with which the Lord was angry against you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.

²⁰The Lord was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

²¹I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

²²At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.

²³When the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, "Go up and possess the land which I have given you"; then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe him, nor listen to his voice.

²⁴You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

²⁵So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because the Lord had said he would destroy you.

²⁶I prayed to the Lord, and said, "Lord God, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²⁷Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,

²⁸lest the land you brought us out from say, 'Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.'

²⁹Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm."

¹Now after these things, the Lord also appointed seventy-two others, and sent them two by two ahead of him into every city and place, where he was about to come.

²Then he said to them, "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.

³Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

⁴Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.

⁵Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house.'

⁶If a peaceful person is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.

⁸Into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you.

⁹Heal the sick who are therein, and tell them, 'The Kingdom of God has come near to you.'

¹⁰But into whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,

¹¹'Even the dust from your city that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the Kingdom of God is near.'

¹²I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

¹³"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

¹⁵And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to hell.

¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. Whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me."

¹⁷The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!"

¹⁸He said to them, "I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

¹⁹Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.

²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

²¹In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight."

²²"All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son desires to reveal him."

²³Turning to the disciples, he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see,

²⁴for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them."

²⁵Behold, a certain Law scholar stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"

²⁷He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

²⁸He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."

²⁹But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

³⁰Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

³¹By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³²In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.

³³But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion,

³⁴came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵On the next day, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.'

³⁶Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?"

³⁷He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

³⁸It happened as they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him.

³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet, and heard his word.

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me."

⁴¹The Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

⁴²but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her."

¹ Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.

²Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth.

³For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven't set God before them. Selah.

⁴Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.

⁵He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.

⁶With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Lord, for it is good.

⁷For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.

¹When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

²put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.

³Do not be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴Do not weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

⁶Do not eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and do not crave his delicacies:

⁷for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary stone. Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶yes, my heart will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners; but rather fear the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!

²⁰Do not be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and do not sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

²⁶My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

³⁵"They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I do not feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another."