Numbers 21, Psalm 60, 61, Isaiah 10:5~34, James 4

Numbers 21,

1 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them.
 
2 Then Israel made this vow to the LORD : "If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities."
 
3 The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.
 
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;
 
5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"
 
6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
 
7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
 
8 The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."
 
9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
 
10 The Israelites moved on and camped at Oboth.
 
11 Then they set out from Oboth and camped in Iye Abarim, in the desert that faces Moab toward the sunrise.
 
12 From there they moved on and camped in the Zered Valley.
 
13 They set out from there and camped alongside the Arnon, which is in the desert extending into Amorite territory. The Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
 
14 That is why the Book of the Wars of the LORD says: "...Waheb in Suphah and the ravines, the Arnon
 
15 and the slopes of the ravines that lead to the site of Ar and lie along the border of Moab."
 
16 From there they continued on to Beer, the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Gather the people together and I will give them water."
 
17 Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well! Sing about it,
 
18 about the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people sank- the nobles with scepters and staffs." Then they went from the desert to Mattanah,
 
19 from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
 
20 and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.
 
21 Israel sent messengers to say to Sihon king of the Amorites:
 
22 "Let us pass through your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the king's highway until we have passed through your territory."
 
23 But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the desert against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he fought with Israel.
 
24 Israel, however, put him to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified.
 
25 Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all its surrounding settlements.
 
26 Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon.
 
27 That is why the poets say: "Come to Heshbon and let it be rebuilt; let Sihon's city be restored.
 
28 "Fire went out from Heshbon, a blaze from the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the citizens of Arnon's heights.
 
29 Woe to you, O Moab! You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh! He has given up his sons as fugitives and his daughters as captives to Sihon king of the Amorites.
 
30 "But we have overthrown them; Heshbon is destroyed all the way to Dibon. We have demolished them as far as Nophah, which extends to Medeba."
 
31 So Israel settled in the land of the Amorites.
 
32 After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, the Israelites captured its surrounding settlements and drove out the Amorites who were there.
 
33 Then they turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan and his whole army marched out to meet them in battle at Edrei.
 
34 The LORD said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you, with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon."
 
35 So they struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army, leaving them no survivors. And they took possession of his land.

Psalm 60, 61,

1 You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth upon us; you have been angry-now restore us!
 
2 You have shaken the land and torn it open; mend its fractures, for it is quaking.
 
3 You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger.
 
4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow. Selah
 
5 Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.
 
6 God has spoken from his sanctuary: "In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.
 
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.
 
8 Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."
 
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
 
10 Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies?
 
11 Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
 
12 With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.
 

1 Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
 
2 From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
 
3 For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.
 
4 I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah
 
5 For you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
 
6 Increase the days of the king's life, his years for many generations.
 
7 May he be enthroned in God's presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him.
 
8 Then will I ever sing praise to your name and fulfill my vows day after day.

Isaiah 10:5~34,

5 "Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
 
6 I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
 
7 But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations.
 
8 'Are not my commanders all kings?' he says.
 
9 'Has not Calno fared like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad, and Samaria like Damascus?
 
10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria-
 
11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?' "
 
12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.
 
13 For he says: " 'By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.
 
14 As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as men gather abandoned eggs, so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.' "
 
15 Does the ax raise itself above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it? As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!
 
16 Therefore, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.
 
17 The Light of Israel will become a fire, their Holy One a flame; in a single day it will burn and consume his thorns and his briers.
 
18 The splendor of his forests and fertile fields it will completely destroy, as when a sick man wastes away.
 
19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few that a child could write them down.
 
20 In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
 
21 A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.
 
22 Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.
 
23 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
 
24 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: "O my people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians, who beat you with a rod and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.
 
25 Very soon my anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their destruction."
 
26 The LORD Almighty will lash them with a whip, as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb; and he will raise his staff over the waters, as he did in Egypt.
 
27 In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.
 
28 They enter Aiath; they pass through Migron; they store supplies at Micmash.
 
29 They go over the pass, and say, "We will camp overnight at Geba." Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.
 
30 Cry out, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! Poor Anathoth!
 
31 Madmenah is in flight; the people of Gebim take cover.
 
32 This day they will halt at Nob; they will shake their fist at the mount of the Daughter of Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
 
33 See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low.
 
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

James 4

1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
 
2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
 
3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
 
4 You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
 
5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
 
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
 
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
 
8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
 
9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
 
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
 
11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
 
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?
 
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money."
 
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
 
15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
 
16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
 
17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.