Joshua 23, 24
1 Now it came to pass that after many days, the Lord gave rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and advanced in years. 2 So Joshua summoned all the children of Israel and their elders and leaders and their scribes and judges, and said to them, “I am old and advanced in years, 3 and you have seen everything the Lord your God did to all these nations before you, that the Lord your God is He who fought for you. 4 See, I have added to you these nations that are left to you by lots to your tribes, beginning at the Jordan and bordered by the Great Sea westward, all the nations I utterly destroyed before you. 5 For the Lord your God, He will utterly destroy them before you until they perish, and He will send wild animals against them until He utterly destroys them and their kings from before you; and you shall inherit their land as the Lord your God said to you. 6 Therefore strive diligently to keep and to do everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right or to the left, 7 and lest you go among these nations, those that remain among you. The names of their gods shall not be mentioned among you, and neither shall you worship them, nor serve them; 8 but you shall cleave to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. 9 For the Lord has utterly destroyed them before you, great and mighty nations, and no one has stood against you to this day. 10 One of you has chased a thousand, for the Lord your God fought for you, as He said to you. 11 Therefore take great heed to love the Lord your God. 12 For if you turn away and attach yourselves to the remnant of these nations among you, and intermarry and become mingled with them and they with you, 13 know for certain that the Lord will no longer utterly destroy these nations before you; but they shall be snares and traps for you, and nails in your heels and darts in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
14 “But I am going the way of all those on earth, and you shall know in your heart and soul that not one word has failed of all the words the Lord our God spoke concerning everything that pertains to you. Not one word of them has failed. 15 Therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things came upon you which the Lord promised you, so the Lord God will bring upon you all the evil things, until He utterly destroys you from this good land which the Lord has given you, 16 when you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them.”
Covenant at Shiloh
1 Then Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel to Shiloh, and summoned their elders, scribes, and judges; and he set them before God. 2 Then Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘From the beginning your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river, including Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, led him into all the land, multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac, Jacob and Esau. I gave Mount Seir to Esau as an inheritance, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. There they became a great nation, both large and mighty.’ 5 But the Egyptians maltreated them, so the Lord smote Egypt for what it did to them. 6 After that, you came out of Egypt to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horses to the Red Sea. 7 So we cried out to the Lord, and He placed a cloud and darkness between us and the Egyptians. Then He brought the sea upon them, and it covered them. Thus your eyes saw what the Lord did in the land of Egypt.
“You were in the desert for many days. 8 Then He brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan, and they fought with you; but the Lord gave them over into your hands that you might take possession of their land, and He utterly destroyed them from before you. 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam to lay a curse on you. 10 But the Lord your God would not destroy you, and greatly blessed you. He delivered you from their hands and gave them over to you. 11 Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The inhabitants of Jericho fought against you—also the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, but the Lord gave them into your hands. 12 He sent hornets before you and drove them out from before you, the twelve kings of the Amorites, but not with your sword or with your bow. 13 He gave you a land for which you did not labor, and cities you did not build; and you dwelt in them. You ate from vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, and serve Him in justice and righteousness. Remove the foreign gods your fathers served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 But if it does not please you to serve the Lord, choose gods for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, among whom you dwell in their land. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, because He is holy.”
16 Then the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord, so as to serve other gods. 17 The Lord our God, He is God. He brought us and our fathers from Egypt and preserved us on the whole journey where we went, and among all the nations through whom we passed. 18 The Lord cast out before us the Amorite and all the nations that inhabited the land. But as for us, we will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” 19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God, and He being jealous will not forgive your sins and your lawless deeds. 20 Whenever you forsake the Lord and serve other gods, then He shall come and deal harshly with you and will consume you, after He has done you good.” 21 Then the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22 So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord. 23 Now therefore, remove the foreign gods from among you and make your heart straight toward the Lord God of Israel.” 24 Again the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord, and obey His voice.”
25 So Joshua established a covenant with the people on that day, and gave them a law and judgment in Shiloh before the tabernacle of the God of Israel. 26 Then he wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up under the terebinth tree before the Lord. 27 After this, Joshua said to the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness among you, because it has heard everything said to it by the Lord, whatever He spoke to us today. This stone shall be among you as a witness in the last days, whenever you lie to the Lord my God.” 28 So Joshua sent the people away, and they went forth, each one to his place. 29 Then Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders, as many as were with Joshua and saw all the works of the Lord which he did for Israel.
The Death of Joshua and Eleazar
30 Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred and ten years. 31 They buried him within the boundary lines of his inheritance at Timnath Serah, on Mount Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gaash. 32 In his grave they placed with him the stone knives with which he circumcised the sons of Israel at Gilgal, when he brought them out of Egypt, as the Lord ordered them. They remain there to this very day. 33 The children of Israel also brought up the bones of Joseph from Egypt and buried them at Shechem, in the plot of land which Jacob purchased from the Amorites who dwelled in Shechem for one hundred lambs, and which was given to Joseph as his portion.
34 After this, Eleazar the son of Aaron the high priest died and was buried in Gabaath, which belonged to Phinehas his son, and which he had given him on Mount Ephraim. 35 On that day the children of Israel took the ark of God and carried it about among themselves, and Phinehas held the office of priest in place of Eleazar his father, until he died and was buried in his own place at Gabaath. 36 But each of the children of Israel departed to his own place and to his own city. Then the children of Israel worshipped Astarte and Astaroth and the gods of the nations round about them. So the Lord gave them over into the hands of Eglon the king of Moab, and he ruled over them for eighteen years.
Psalm 71
1 For Solomon.
O God, give Your judgments to the King,
And Your righteousness to the King’s Son,
2 That He may judge Your people in righteousness
And Your poor with judgment.
3 Let the mountains raise up peace for Your people
And the hills in righteousness.
4 He shall judge the poor of the people,
And shall serve the sons of the poor;
He shall humble the false accuser,
5 And He shall continue as long as the sun
And before the moon from generation to generation;
6 And He shall come down like rain on the fleece,
Like raindrops falling on the earth.
7 In His days, righteousness and abundance of peace shall flourish,
Until the moon is removed.
8 And He shall rule from sea to sea,
And from the river to the ends of the inhabited earth.
9 The Ethiopians shall bow down before Him,
And His enemies shall lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and their islands will come bearing gifts;
The kings of Arabia and Saba will bring presents.
11 All the kings of the earth shall worship Him;
All the Gentiles shall serve Him.
12 For He rescued the poor from the hand of a strong man,
And the needy, for whom there was no helper.
13 He shall spare the poor and needy,
And He shall save the souls of the needy;
14 He shall redeem their souls from usury and injustice,
And precious shall be their name in His sight.
15 He shall live, and there shall be given Him from the gold of Arabia;
They shall pray continually because of Him,
All the day long shall they bless Him.
16 He shall be a support on the earth upon the summits of the mountains;
His fruit shall be exalted more than Lebanon,
And they shall flourish from the city like the grass of the earth.
17 Let His name be blessed unto the ages;
His name shall remain before the sun,
And all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in Him;
All the Gentiles shall bless Him.
18 Blessed is the Lord God,
The God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
19 And blessed is the name of His glory forever and unto ages of ages,
And all the earth shall be filled with His glory. Amen! Amen!
20 The hymns of David the son of Jesse are ended.
Proverbs 14:31–36
31 A man with a gentle spirit is a healer of the heart,
But a sensual heart is the moth of the bones.
32 He who oppresses the poor provokes his Maker,
But he who honors Him has mercy upon a poor man.
33 In his evil an ungodly man will be rejected,
But a righteous man has confidence in his own holiness.
34 There is wisdom in the good heart of a man,
But wisdom is unknown in the heart of those without discernment.
35 Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sins diminish tribes.
36 A wise servant is acceptable to a king,
And by his own versatility he removes dishonor.
Luke 1:57–80
57 Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son.
58 When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
Circumcision of John the Baptist
59 So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias.
60 His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.”
62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled.
64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God.
65 Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea.
66 And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Zacharias’ Prophecy
67 Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
68 “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,
71 That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,
72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:
74 To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.