Today's Reading

¹Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

²Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.

³I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

⁴I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it. Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

⁵I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in its midst: and afterward I brought you out.

⁶I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea. The Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.

⁷When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived in the wilderness many days.

⁸I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand. You possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. He sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;

¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still. So I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.

¹²I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.

¹³I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you did not build, and you live in them. You eat of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

¹⁴Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve the Lord.

¹⁵If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond 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."

¹⁶The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;

¹⁷for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed.

¹⁸The Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord; for he is our God."

¹⁹Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve the Lord; for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.

²⁰If you forsake the Lord, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good."

²¹The people said to Joshua, "No; but we will serve the Lord."

²²Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you the Lord, to serve him." They said, "We are witnesses."

²³"Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel."

²⁴The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God, and we will listen to his voice."

²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

²⁶Joshua wrote these words in the scroll of the Law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁷Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the Lord which he spoke to us. It shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God."

²⁸So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

²⁹It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred ten years old.

³⁰They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

³¹Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of the Lord, that he had worked for Israel.

³²They buried the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. They became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

³³Eleazar the son of Aaron died. They buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill country of Ephraim.

¹It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the Lord, saying, "Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?"

²The Lord said, "Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand."

³Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot." So Simeon went with him.

⁴Judah went up; and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men.

⁵They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

⁶But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

⁷Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, scavenged under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

⁹Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland.

¹⁰Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba); and they struck Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.

¹¹From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher.)

¹²Caleb said, "He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife."

¹³Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

¹⁴It happened, when she came to him, that she got him to ask her father for a field: and she got off from her donkey; and Caleb said to her, "What would you like?"

¹⁵She said to him, "Give me a blessing; since you have given me the land in the Negev, give me also springs of water." Then Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶The children of the Kenite, Moses' brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.

¹⁷Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah.

¹⁸Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.

¹⁹The Lord was with Judah; and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

²⁰They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak.

²¹The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²²The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and the Lord was with them.

²³The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)

²⁴The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, "Please show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you."

²⁵He showed them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family.

²⁶The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

²⁷Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

²⁸It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.

²⁹Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor.

³¹Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob;

³²but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to forced labor.

³⁴The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;

³⁵but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor.

³⁶The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

¹The angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, "I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you:

²and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this?

³Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you."

⁴It happened, when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

⁵They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

⁶Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord that he had worked for Israel.

⁸Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being one hundred ten years old.

⁹They buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

¹⁰Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel.

¹¹The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals;

¹²and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked the Lord to anger.

¹³They forsook the Lord, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

¹⁴The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had spoken, and as the Lord had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed.

¹⁶The Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them.

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not do so.

¹⁸When the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved the Lord because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them.

¹⁹But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they did not cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and he said, "Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice;

²¹I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died;

²²that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not."

²³So the Lord left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jewish people.

²The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."

³Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."

⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"

⁵Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God!

⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.'

⁸The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

⁹Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"

¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?

¹¹Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness.

¹²If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man.

¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.

²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God."

²²After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.

²³John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.

²⁴For John was not yet thrown into prison.

²⁵There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.

²⁶They came to John, and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and everyone is coming to him."

²⁷John answered, "A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Messiah,' but, 'I have been sent before him.'

²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

³²What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.

³³He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for he gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

³⁶One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won't see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."

¹In you, Lord, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed.

²Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

⁵For you are my hope, Lord God; my confidence from my youth.

⁶I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother's womb. I will always praise you.

⁷I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all the day.

⁹Do not reject me in my old age. Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

¹⁰For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

¹¹saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him."

¹²God, do not be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.

¹³Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

¹⁴But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.

¹⁵My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I do not know its full measure.

¹⁶I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord God. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.

¹⁷God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.

¹⁸Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, do not forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?

²⁰You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

²¹Increase my honor, and comfort me again.

²²I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!

²⁴My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.

¹Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table.

³She has sent out her maidens. She cries from the highest places of the city:

⁴"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,

⁵"Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!

⁶Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding."

⁷He who corrects a mocker invites insult. He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.

⁸Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Instruct a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it.

¹³The foolish woman is loud, Undisciplined, and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,

¹⁵To call to those who pass by, who go straight on their ways,

¹⁶"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here." as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,

¹⁷"Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant."

¹⁸But he doesn't know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.