Joshua 4 - 6, Galatians 1 - 2, Psalm 135

Memorial Stones from the Jordan

4Now it happened when all the nation had completed crossing the ^aJordan, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, ²“^aTake for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, ³and command them, saying, ‘Carry for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in ^athe lodging place where you will lodge tonight.’” ⁴So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; ⁵and Joshua said to them, “¹Cross again before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you carry a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel, ⁶in order that this would be a sign among you, so that ^awhen your children ask ¹later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷then you shall say to them, ‘Because the ^awaters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a ^bmemorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

⁸Thus the sons of Israel did as Joshua commanded and carried twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel; and they carried them over with them to ^athe lodging place and laid them down there. ⁹But Joshua set up twelve ^astones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day. ¹⁰Now the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that Yahweh had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed. ¹¹And it happened when all the people had completed crossing, that the ark of Yahweh and the priests crossed before the people. ¹²^aAnd the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over in battle array before the sons of Israel, just as Moses had spoken to them; ¹³about 40,000 equipped for war crossed for battle before Yahweh to the desert plains of Jericho.

¹⁴^aOn that day, Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they ¹feared him, just as they had ²feared Moses all the days of his life.

¹⁵Then Yahweh said to ¹Joshua, ¹⁶“Command the priests who carry ^athe ark of the testimony that they come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁷So Joshua commanded the priests, saying, “Come up from the Jordan.” ¹⁸So it happened when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of Yahweh had come up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were ¹lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went over all its banks as before.

¹⁹Now the people came up from the Jordan on the ^atenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. ²⁰¹^,^aAnd those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up ^bat Gilgal. ²¹Then he said to the sons of ¹Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ²²then you shall make your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on ^adry land.’ ²³“For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as Yahweh your God had done to the ¹Red Sea, ^awhich He dried up before us until we had crossed, ²⁴that ^aall the peoples of the earth may know that the ^bhand of Yahweh is strong, so that you may ¹^,^cfear Yahweh your God ²forever.”

The Men of Israel Circumcised

5Now it happened when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the ^aCanaanites who were by the sea, ^bheard how Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until ¹they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel.

²At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, “Make for yourself ^aflint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.” ³So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at ¹Gibeath-haaraloth. ⁴Now this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: ^aall the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way when they came out of Egypt. ⁵For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. ⁶For the sons of Israel had walked ^aforty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, were completely destroyed because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh, ^bto whom Yahweh had sworn that He would not let them see the land which Yahweh had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷And their sons whom He raised up in their place, Joshua ¹circumcised; for they were uncircumcised because they had not circumcised them along the way.

⁸Now it happened that when they had completed circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were ¹healed. ⁹Then Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away ^athe reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called ¹Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰Then the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal and ^acelebrated the Passover on the evening of the ^bfourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. ¹¹And on the ¹day after the Passover, on ²that very day, they ate some of the yield of the land, unleavened cakes and roasted grain. ¹²^aThen the manna ceased on the ¹day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the produce of the land of Canaan during that year.

Commander of Yahweh’s Host

¹³Now it happened when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, ^aa man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” ¹⁴He said, “No! Rather I indeed come now as commander of the host of Yahweh.” And Joshua ^afell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his slave?” ¹⁵The commander of the host of Yahweh said to Joshua, “^aRemove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

The Destruction of Jericho

6Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out, and no one came in. ²And Yahweh said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with ^aits king and the valiant warriors. ³“And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. ⁴“Also seven priests shall carry seven ^atrumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. ⁵“And it will be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down ¹beneath itself, and the people will go up every man ²straight ahead.”

⁶So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Carry the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of Yahweh.” ⁷Then ¹he said to the people, “Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of Yahweh.” ⁸And so it happened that, when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh passed on forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came after them. ⁹And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and ^athe rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets. ¹⁰But Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout!” ¹¹So he had the ark of Yahweh ¹taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

¹²Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests carried the ark of Yahweh. ¹³^aAnd the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of Yahweh went on continually and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before them, and ^bthe rear guard came after the ark of Yahweh, and they continued to blow the trumpets. ¹⁴Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp; they did so for six days.

¹⁵Then it happened that on the seventh day they rose early at the ¹breaking of dawn and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. ¹⁶Now it happened that on the seventh time, the priests blew the trumpets, and Joshua said to the people, “^aShout! For Yahweh has given you the city. ¹⁷“And the city shall be ^adevoted to destruction, it and all that is in it belongs to Yahweh; only Rahab the harlot ¹and all who are with her in the house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. ¹⁸“But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest as you are devoting them to destruction, you also ^atake some of the things devoted to destruction and make the camp of Israel devoted to destruction and bring trouble on it. ¹⁹“^aBut all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh; they shall go into the treasury of Yahweh.” ²⁰So the people shouted, and ¹the priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the ^awall fell down ²beneath itself, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ³ahead, and they took the city. ²¹^aAnd they devoted to destruction everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

²²Now to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “^aGo into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.” ²³So the young men who were spies went in and ^abrought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴^aBut they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the ¹house of Yahweh. ²⁵However, ^aRahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua preserved alive; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for ^bshe hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

²⁶Then Joshua made them swear an oath at that time, saying, “^aCursed before Yahweh is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.” ²⁷So ^aYahweh was with Joshua, and the ^breport about him was in all the land.

Greetings and Grace

1Paul, ^aan apostle—^bnot sent from men nor through man, but ^cthrough Jesus Christ and God the Father, who ^draised Him from the dead— ²and all ^athe brothers who are with me, To ^bthe churches of Galatia:

³^aGrace to you and peace from ¹God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who ^agave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from ^bthis present evil ¹age, according to the will of ^cour God and Father, ⁵^ato whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Distorting the Gospel

⁶I marvel that you are so quickly deserting ^aHim who called you ¹by the grace of Christ for a ^bdifferent gospel, ⁷which is really not another, only there are some who are ^adisturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we, or ^aan angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel ¹contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be ²^,^baccursed! ⁹As we ^ahave said before, so I say again now, ^bif any man is proclaiming to you a gospel ¹contrary to what you received, let him be ²^,^caccursed!

¹⁰For am I now ^aseeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a ^bslave of Christ.

Paul Called by God

¹¹For ^aI make known to you, brothers, that the gospel which I am proclaiming as good news is ^bnot according to man. ¹²For ^aI neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a ^brevelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of ^amy former conduct in Judaism, how I ^bused to persecute ^cthe church of God beyond measure and ^dtried to destroy it. ¹⁴And I ^awas advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my ^bfathers. ¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb and ^acalled me through His grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might ^aproclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, ^bI did not immediately consult with ¹^,^cflesh and blood, ¹⁷^anor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to ^bDamascus.

¹⁸Then ^athree years later I went up ^bto Jerusalem to ¹become acquainted with ^cCephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I did not see any other of the apostles except ¹^,^aJames, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(Now in what I am writing to you, ¹I assure you ^abefore God that I am not lying!) ²¹Then ^aI went into the regions of ^bSyria and ^cCilicia. ²²And I was still unknown by ¹sight to ^athe churches of Judea which are ^bin Christ; ²³but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of ^athe faith which he once ^btried to destroy.” ²⁴And they ^awere glorifying God ¹because of me.

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

2Then after fourteen years I ^awent up again to Jerusalem with ^bBarnabas, taking ^cTitus along also. ²And I went up ¹because of a ^arevelation, and I laid out to them the ^bgospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, lest somehow I might be ^crunning, or had run, in vain. ³But not even ^aTitus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was ^bcompelled to be circumcised. ⁴But this was because of the ^afalse brothers secretly brought in, who ^bhad sneaked in to spy out our ^cfreedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to ^denslave us. ⁵But we did not yield in subjection to them for even ¹a moment, so that ^athe truth of the gospel would remain with you. ⁶But from those who ¹were of high ^areputation (what they were makes no difference to me; ^bGod ²shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. ⁷But on the contrary, seeing that I had been ^aentrusted with the ^bgospel ¹to the uncircumcised, just as ^cPeter had been ²to the circumcised ⁸(for He who worked in Peter unto his ^aapostleship ¹to the circumcised worked in me also unto the Gentiles), ⁹and recognizing ^athe grace that had been given to me, ^bJames and ^cCephas and ¹John, who were ^dreputed to be ^epillars, gave to me and ^fBarnabas the right ²hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ¹⁰Only they asked us to remember the poor—^athe very thing I also was eager to do.

Paul Opposes Peter (Cephas)

¹¹But when ^aCephas came to ^bAntioch, I opposed him to his face, because he ¹stood condemned. ¹²For prior to the coming of certain men from ^aJames, he used to ^beat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to shrink back and separate himself, ^cfearing ¹the party of the circumcision. ¹³And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even ^aBarnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that they ^awere not ¹straightforward about ^bthe truth of the gospel, I said to ^cCephas before everyone, “If you, being a Jew, ^dlive like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?²

¹⁵“We are ^aJews by nature and not ^bsinners from among the Gentiles; ¹⁶nevertheless ¹knowing that ^aa man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by ^bfaith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since ^cby the works of ²the Law no ³flesh will be justified. ¹⁷“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found ^asinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? ^bMay it never be! ¹⁸“For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I ^aprove myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹“For through ¹the Law I ^adied to ²the Law, so that I might live to God. ²⁰“I have been ^acrucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but ^bChrist lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in ^cthe Son of God, who ^dloved me and ^egave Himself up for me. ²¹“I do not set aside the grace of God, for ^aif righteousness comes through ¹the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

O Yahweh, Your Name Is Everlasting

135¹^,^aPraise Yah!Praise the name of Yahweh;Praise Him, O ^bslaves of Yahweh,²You who stand in the house of Yahweh,In the ^acourts of the house of our God!³¹Praise Yah, for ^aYahweh is good;^bSing praises to His name, ^cfor it is lovely.⁴For Yah has ^achosen Jacob for Himself,Israel for His ¹^,^btreasured possession.⁵For I know that ^aYahweh is greatAnd that our Lord is greater ^bthan all gods.⁶^aWhatever Yahweh pleases, He does,In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps.⁷The One who ^acauses the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;Who ^bmakes lightnings for the rain,Who ^cbrings forth the wind from His storehouses.⁸¹He ^astruck the firstborn of Egypt,From man to beast.⁹¹He sent ^asigns and wonders into your midst, O Egypt,Amongst ^bPharaoh and all his slaves.¹⁰¹^,^aHe ^bstruck many nationsAnd slew mighty kings,¹¹^aSihon, king of the Amorites,And ^bOg, king of Bashan,And ^call the kingdoms of Canaan;¹²And He ^agave their land as an inheritance,An inheritance to Israel His people.¹³O Yahweh, Your ^aname is everlasting,O Yahweh, Your ¹remembrance is ²from generation to generation.¹⁴For Yahweh will ^arender justice for His peopleAnd ^bwill give comfort to His slaves.¹⁵The ^aidols of the nations are silver and gold,The work of man’s hands.¹⁶They have mouths, but they do not speak;They have eyes, but they do not see;¹⁷They have ears, but they do not hear,Surely, there is not any breath in their mouths.¹⁸Those who make them will be like them,All who trust in them.¹⁹O house of ^aIsrael, bless Yahweh;O house of Aaron, bless Yahweh;²⁰O house of Levi, bless Yahweh;You ^awho fear Yahweh, bless Yahweh.²¹Blessed be Yahweh ^afrom Zion,Who ^bdwells in Jerusalem.¹Praise Yah!