Joshua 22

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has taken possession of his inheritance.

¹⁹Yet we will not have an inheritance with them across the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan.”

⁷When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them.

⁸We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

¹²But to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said,

¹³“Remember what Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you when he said, ‘The Lord your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land.’

²⁰Moses replied, “If you will do this—if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for battle,

²¹and if every one of your armed men crosses the Jordan before the Lord, until He has driven His enemies out before Him,

¹⁶and to the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the territory from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

¹⁷The Jordan River in the Arabah bordered it from Chinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) with the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

²³I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed.

²⁴But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has taken possession of his inheritance.

⁸The other half of Manasseh, along with the Reubenites and Gadites, had received the inheritance Moses had given them beyond the Jordan to the east, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had assigned to them:

²⁰until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as He has to you, and they too have taken possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to the possession I have given you.”

³³So Moses gave to the Gadites, to the Reubenites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan—the land including its cities and the territory surrounding them.

³⁴And the Gadites built up Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

⁴³Thus the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their fathers, and they took possession of it and settled in it.

⁴⁴And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had sworn to their fathers. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

¹⁵This is what Moses had given to the clans of the tribe of Reuben:

³⁷Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

⁶but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

²⁸And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

²⁶saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

²²For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

¹⁵If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

¹³Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

⁵⁰When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them.

⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁴³And Moses inspected all the work and saw that they had accomplished it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

¹⁸When David had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁰Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and departed from his presence.

¹Now this was the allotment for the tribe of Manasseh as Joseph’s firstborn son, namely for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh and father of the Gileadites, who had received Gilead and Bashan because Machir was a man of war.

²So this allotment was for the rest of the descendants of Manasseh—the clans of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These are the other male descendants of the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph.

³³So Moses gave to the Gadites, to the Reubenites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan—the land including its cities and the territory surrounding them.

²⁹This is what Moses had given to the clans of the half-tribe of Manasseh, that is, to half the tribe of the descendants of Manasseh:

³⁰The territory from Mahanaim through all Bashan—all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, including all the towns of Jair that are in Bashan, sixty cities;

²⁷Then divide the captives between the troops who went out to battle and the rest of the congregation.

⁹a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.

¹⁰When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the Lord your God for the good land that He has given you.

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

¹⁸But remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.

²⁴Who will listen to your proposal? The share of the one who went to battle will match the share of the one who stayed with the supplies. They will share alike.”

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

⁵So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor.

²⁹And Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, with every man armed for battle before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you are to give them the land of Gilead as a possession.

²⁶Our children, our wives, our livestock, and all our animals will remain here in the cities of Gilead.

¹Now the Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, surveyed the lands of Jazer and Gilead, and they saw that the region was suitable for livestock.

³¹half of Gilead; and Ashtaroth and Edrei, the royal cities of Og in Bashan. All this was for the clans of the descendants of Machir son of Manasseh, that is, half of the descendants of Machir.

⁷Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim is My helmet, Judah is My scepter.

²⁵The territory of Jazer, all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites as far as Aroer, near Rabbah;

²⁶Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

²⁵For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no share in the Lord!’ So your descendants could cause ours to stop fearing the Lord.

²⁶That is why we said, ‘Let us take action and build an altar for ourselves, but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.

¹⁸Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,

⁵and said to them, “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel,

⁶to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

⁴⁶and he said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and made a mound, and there by the mound they ate.

⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed.

¹²If, regarding one of the cities the Lord your God is giving you to inhabit, you hear it said

¹³that wicked men have arisen from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” (which you have not known),

⁷So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

⁸Tell them that if anyone from the house of Israel or any foreigner living among them offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice

⁹but does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord, that man must be cut off from his people.

²⁸All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

⁵The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim would say, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites would ask him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No,”

¹Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the Lord at Mizpah.

²The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers took issue with him

³and said, “You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

²For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

¹⁷Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.

¹⁸Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose—at any time, and not only when I am with you.

¹⁵you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock.

⁷On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand,

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.”

³⁰But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained.

³¹It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.

²⁵Aaron’s son Eleazar married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families by their clans.

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,

¹⁰lest he who hears you bring shame upon you, and your infamy never go away.

¹¹“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal.

¹²Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace.

⁴And one man from each tribe, the head of each family, must be there with you.

²⁵So Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them heads over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

¹⁵For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree together, so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be united in mind and conviction.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

⁴⁰But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.

⁴When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,

¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

²⁸They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

²⁹So they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.

¹While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

²who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

¹³After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

¹⁴shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

²²But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”

¹⁶“This is what the whole congregation of the Lord says: ‘What is this breach of faith you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the Lord and building for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel against the Lord this day?

⁴because they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.

¹⁴If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and if you do not rebel against the command of the Lord, and if both you and the king who rules over you follow the Lord your God, then all will be well.

¹Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

²¹When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

¹Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,

¹⁷Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘Your wife will become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters will fall by the sword. Your land will be divided by a measuring line, and you yourself will die on pagan soil. And Israel will surely go into exile, away from their homeland.’”

¹³Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam.

⁸‘No, Lord,’ I said, ‘for nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But the voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

¹⁴“No, Lord!” Peter answered. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

¹⁵The voice spoke to him a second time: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

²⁵Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

²⁶But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you.

¹The Israelites, however, acted unfaithfully regarding the things devoted to destruction. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart. So the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites.

⁵And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them, chasing them from the gate as far as the quarries and striking them down on the slopes. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

²⁴Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor.

¹⁸And he had the family of Zabdi come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

⁵Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.

⁶And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.

²⁶An honest answer given is like a kiss on the lips.

¹⁵But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect,

¹The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the Lord.

¹³He who answers a matter before he hears it—this is folly and disgrace to him.

²¹Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²²Have these men judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you any major issue, but all minor cases they can judge on their own, so that your load may be lightened as they share it with you.

⁴But Peter began and explained to them the whole sequence of events:

³⁹be heard by You from heaven, Your dwelling place. And may You forgive and act, and repay each man according to all his ways, since You know his heart—for You alone know the hearts of all men—

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹⁷For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

⁷though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.

¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord hold David’s enemies accountable.”

¹⁹And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name.

⁴But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

¹¹then the Lord your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the Lord.

²²Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”

⁶to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’

¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”

²⁰In the future, when your son asks, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?”

³³So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”

¹⁴In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

²⁷Rather, let it be a witness between us and you and the generations to come, that we will worship the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings.’ Then in the future, your descendants cannot say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord!’

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home,

²⁷If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

¹⁶So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”

¹Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”

²¹You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

⁴⁸Then Laban declared, “This mound is a witness between you and me this day.” Therefore the place was called Galeed.

⁵Instead, you must seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

⁶To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

³⁴So the Reubenites and Gadites named the altar Witness, for they said, “It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

¹¹then the Lord your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the Lord.

¹⁷Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

¹⁸Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in all you do,

⁴⁰See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

¹⁰As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan,

¹¹and if they are ashamed of all they have done, then make known to them the design of the temple—its arrangement and its exits and entrances—its whole design along with all its statutes, forms, and laws. Write it down in their sight, so that they may keep its complete design and all its statutes and may carry them out.

⁵The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁶The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!

⁷“Why does my lord say these things?” they asked. “Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

²³As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

²³If we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself hold us accountable.

³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

³³The Israelites were satisfied with the report, and they blessed God and spoke no more about going to war against them to destroy the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived.

⁴This plan pleased the king and the whole assembly.

⁸And seeing that his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women,

³God has delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian, into your hand. What was I able to do compared to you?” When he had said this, their anger against him subsided.

⁶So Achish summoned David and told him, “As surely as the Lord lives, you have been upright, and it seems right in my sight that you should march in and out with me in the army, because I have found no fault in you from the day you came to me until this day. But you are not good in the sight of the leaders.

³²Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me this day!

³³Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

¹¹And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.

¹²I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

¹⁰He continued, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that He will surely drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”

²³This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

⁶Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²And when they heard this, the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them.

¹³The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the land of Gilead, to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

¹³Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁹During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he blessed the God of heaven

²⁸Simeon took Him in his arms and blessed God, saying:

²⁰Then David said to the whole assembly, “Bless the Lord your God.” So the whole assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers. They bowed down and paid homage to the Lord and to the king.

³⁰When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation—the heads of Israel’s clans who were with him—heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were satisfied.

⁶But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you.

⁷For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we have been reassured about you, because of your faith.

¹²The whole assembly fell silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

²⁷Rather, let it be a witness between us and you and the generations to come, that we will worship the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings.’ Then in the future, your descendants cannot say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord!’

¹⁰“You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.

¹⁰“Away from Me, Satan!” Jesus told him. “For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

³⁹When all the people saw this, they fell facedown and said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”