Deuteronomy 20

⁷“Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.

⁸With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁸The Lord Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

⁶Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

¹²Now behold, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with their trumpets sound the battle call against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.”

⁶And Moses sent the thousand from each tribe into battle, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who took with him the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.

⁸The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to sound the trumpets. This shall be a permanent statute for you and the generations to come.

⁹When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and saved from your enemies.

¹⁸Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God.” (For at that time it was with the Israelites.)

²⁷And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there,

²⁸and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before it.) The Israelites asked, “Should we again go out to battle against our brothers the Benjamites, or should we stop?” The Lord answered, “Fight, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

⁷Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought it to him,

⁸and David inquired of the Lord: “Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” the Lord replied, “for you will surely overtake them and rescue the captives.”

⁶So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

⁶I will not fear the myriads set against me on every side.

¹⁰Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹⁰One of you can put a thousand to flight, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as He promised.

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

²When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

¹²“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.

¹³The Lord of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

¹⁴The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

²²Do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God Himself will fight for you.”

³⁰The Lord your God, who goes before you, will fight for you, just as you saw Him do for you in Egypt

¹⁰One of you can put a thousand to flight, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as He promised.

²⁵No man will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

²⁷At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from all their homes and brought to Jerusalem to celebrate the joyous dedication with thanksgiving and singing, accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.

¹⁸Take also these ten portions of cheese to the commander of their unit. Check on the welfare of your brothers and bring back an assurance from them.

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

⁴⁸Then the officers who were over the units of the army—the commanders of thousands and of hundreds—approached Moses

¹⁵So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

¹⁴But Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who were returning from the battle.

²³When you enter the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you shall regard the fruit as forbidden. For three years it will be forbidden to you and must not be eaten.

²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the Lord.

⁵If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.

³⁰You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.

⁴A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.

²³If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’

¹⁹Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’

³Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the men: ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand of them turned back, but ten thousand remained.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

²⁸Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark.

³⁸But Paul thought it best not to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

⁹When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every wicked thing.

⁹For when your fathers went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land that the Lord had given them.

⁵Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’

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

¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

¹⁸Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled.

¹⁹I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

¹⁰And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

¹⁹bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to those far and near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.”

¹⁹No city made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites living in Gibeon; all others were taken in battle.

²⁰For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²⁷On that day he made them woodcutters and water carriers, as they are to this day for the congregation of the Lord and for the altar at the place He would choose.

²²Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by telling us you live far away from us, when in fact you live among us?

²³Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

¹⁴But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

⁴²Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

⁴³You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

²¹their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction—Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.

²²But Solomon did not consign any of the Israelites to slavery, because they were his men of war, his servants, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and cavalry.

⁶“I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”

⁷I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the Lord: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.

²⁷And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”

¹⁵Earlier, when David was in Edom, Joab the commander of the army had gone to bury the dead and had struck down every male in Edom.

¹⁶Joab and all Israel had stayed there six months, until he had killed every male in Edom.

⁸Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.

⁹You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the Lord will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.

¹⁷So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,

¹⁸but spare for yourselves every girl who has never had relations with a man.

¹A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

²And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”

⁸saying, “Return to your homes with your great wealth, with immense herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and very many clothes. Divide with your brothers the spoil of your enemies.”

⁹The Israelites captured the Midianite women and their children, and they plundered all their herds, flocks, and goods.

²⁵Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to carry off the plunder, and they found on the bodies an abundance of goods and valuables—more than they could carry away. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.

¹²They brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.

¹²“Kings and their armies flee in haste; she who waits at home divides the plunder.

¹⁴The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.

²So Israel made a vow to the Lord: “If You will deliver this people into our hands, we will devote their cities to destruction.”

³And the Lord heard Israel’s plea and delivered up the Canaanites. Israel devoted them and their cities to destruction; so they named the place Hormah.

¹⁶You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

¹When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

¹⁷Now the city and everything in it must be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all those with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent.

¹⁸But keep away from the things devoted to destruction, lest you yourself be set apart for destruction. If you take any of these, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster upon it.

³⁵So they struck down Og, along with his sons and his whole army, until no remnant was left. And they took possession of his land.

⁵When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens, then it will come down upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.

⁶The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

³⁵A sword is against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord, against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and wise men.

³⁶A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.

¹When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—

²and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

²¹And I will summon a sword against Gog on all My mountains, declares the Lord God, and every man’s sword will be against his brother.

²²I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

¹⁰Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the Lord, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.

¹⁸so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men, of horses and riders, of everyone slave and free, small and great.”

³⁰be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

³¹You must not worship the Lord your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

³³They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

¹¹Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹⁴Take note of anyone who does not obey the instructions we have given in this letter. Do not associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.

¹⁷“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

¹⁰The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.

⁶But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor.

²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

⁷So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

⁸‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it.

¹⁵Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

³³So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it.

⁶For this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst.

⁴For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:

¹⁷Pharaoh with his mighty army and vast horde will not help him in battle, when ramps are built and siege walls constructed to destroy many lives.

²⁸Where can we go? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying: ‘The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the heavens. We even saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’”

¹⁴There was a small city with few men. A mighty king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege ramps against it.