Study Desk

They will be wasted with hunger. They will be destroyed by burning heat and disease. I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, with the poison of things moving in the dust.

But I was afraid that those who hate them would fight in anger against them and would not understand. They would say, "We have won with our own strength. The Lord has not done this."'

He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not think of them.' He kept himself apart from his brothers, and his own children. Yes, they obeyed Your Word and kept Your agreement.

They will teach Your Laws to Jacob. They will teach Your Laws to Israel. They will put special perfume before You, and whole burnt gifts on Your altar.

O Lord, give him good things. Receive the work of his hands. Crush those who go against him and those who hate him, so they may not get up again."

His great power is like the first-born of his bull. His horns are like the horns of the wild bull. With them he will push all the nations to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh."

They will call the people to the mountain. There they will give gifts that are right with God. For they will take out the riches of the seas and the hidden riches of the sand."

They answered Joshua, saying, "We will do all that you have told us. And we will go anywhere you send us.

Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men from Shittim to go in secret to learn about the land. He said to them, "Go and spy out the land, and Jericho." So they went and came to the house of Rahab, a woman who sold the use of her body, and they stayed there.

So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you and have gone into your house. For they have come to spy out all the land."

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me. But I did not know where they were from.

They left and came to the hill country and stayed there for three days until those who were looking for them returned. The men had looked for them all along the road, but had not found them.

Then the two men came down from the hill country, crossed over the Jordan, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them.

Joshua got up early in the morning. He and all the people of Israel left Shittim and came to the Jordan. And they stayed there before they crossed.

They told the people, "When you see the special box of the agreement of the Lord your God with the religious leaders carrying it, leave your places and follow it.

Joshua said to the religious leaders, "Take up the special box of the agreement and cross over in front of the people." So they took up the special box of the agreement and went in front of the people.

They carried it to the Jordan and put their feet in the water. (For the Jordan water floods during the time of gathering grain.)

The sons of Israel did as Joshua told them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, just as the Lord told Joshua. There was one stone for each family group of the sons of Israel. They carried them over with them to the place where they stayed, and put them down there.

All the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings by the sea heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed. And their hearts became weak. There was no spirit in them any more because of the people of Israel.

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the desert, until all the men of war who came out of Egypt died, because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord. The Lord had promised them that He would not let them see the land He had promised to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.