Joshua 8, Psalm 139, Jeremiah 2, Matthew 16

Joshua 8,

1 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land.
 
2 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 an ambush behind the city."
 
3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night
 
4 with these orders: "Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don't go very far from it. All of you be on the alert.
 
5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them.
 
6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are running away from us as they did before.' So when we flee from them,
 
7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand.
 
8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See to it; you have my orders."
 
9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai-but Joshua spent that night with the people.
 
10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his men, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai.
 
11 The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city.
 
12 Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
 
13 They had the soldiers take up their positions-all those in the camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.
 
14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city.
 
15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the desert.
 
16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city.
 
17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.
 
18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city."
 
19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.
 
20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising against the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction, for the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the desert had turned back against their pursuers.
 
21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from the city, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai.
 
22 The men of the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives.
 
23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
 
24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the desert where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it.
 
25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day-all the people of Ai.
 
26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai.
 
27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the LORD had instructed Joshua.
 
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day.
 
29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.
 
30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel,
 
31 as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses-an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the LORD burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings.
 
32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.
 
33 All Israel, aliens and citizens alike, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, facing those who carried it-the priests, who were Levites. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.
 
34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law-the blessings and the curses-just as it is written in the Book of the Law.
 
35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the aliens who lived among them.

Psalm 139,

1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
 
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
 
4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
 
5 You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
 
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
 
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
 
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
 
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
 
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
 
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
 
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
 
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
 
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
 
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
 
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
 
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
 
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
 
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?
 
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
 
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
 
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Jeremiah 2,

1 The word of the LORD came to me:
 
2 "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: " 'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.
 
3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' " declares the LORD.
 
4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, all you clans of the house of Israel.
 
5 This is what the LORD says: "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.
 
6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?'
 
7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.
 
8 The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.
 
9 "Therefore I bring charges against you again," declares the LORD. "And I will bring charges against your children's children.
 
10 Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:
 
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.
 
12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD.
 
13 "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
 
14 Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?
 
15 Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.
 
16 Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.
 
17 Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?
 
18 Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Shihor? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the River?
 
19 Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
 
20 "Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, 'I will not serve you!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.
 
21 I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?
 
22 Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Sovereign LORD.
 
23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there,
 
24 a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving-in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.
 
25 Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.'
 
26 "As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced-they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets.
 
27 They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us!'
 
28 Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.
 
29 "Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me," declares the LORD.
 
30 "In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
 
31 "You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: "Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We are free to roam; we will come to you no more'?
 
32 Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.
 
33 How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
 
34 On your clothes men find the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this
 
35 you say, 'I am innocent; he is not angry with me.' But I will pass judgment on you because you say, 'I have not sinned.'
 
36 Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.
 
37 You will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them.

Matthew 16

1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
 
2 He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,'
 
3 and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
 
4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.
 
5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread.
 
6 "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
 
7 They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn't bring any bread."
 
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?
 
9 Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
 
10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?
 
11 How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
 
12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
 
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
 
14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
 
15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
 
16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
 
17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
 
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
 
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
 
20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
 
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
 
22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
 
23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
 
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
 
25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
 
26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
 
27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
 
28 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."