Study Desk

And Josue said to them: How long are you indolent and slack, and go not in to possess the land which the Lord the God of your fathers hath given you?

The land in the midst between these mark ye out into seven parts; and you shall come hither to me, that I may cast lots for you before the Lord your God.

(21-41) And the Lord God gave to Israel all the land that he had sworn to give to their fathers: and they possessed it, and dwelt in it.

Neither have you left your brethren this long time, until this present day, keeping the commandment of the Lord your God.

Therefore as the Lord your God hath given your brethren rest and peace, as he promised: return, and go to your dwellings, and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan:

Yet so that you observe attentively, and in work fulfil the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you: that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cleave to him, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul.

Thus saith all the people of the Lord: What meaneth this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord the God of Israel, building a sacrilegious altar, and revolting from the worship of him?

But if you think the land of your possession to be unclean, pass over to the land wherein is the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: only depart not from the Lord, and from our society, by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord our God.

Did not Achan the son of Zare transgress the commandment of the Lord, and his wrath lay upon all the people of Israel? And he was but one man, and would to God he alone had perished in his wickedness.

The Lord the most mighty God, the Lord the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel also shall understand: If with the design of transgression we have set up this altar, let him not save us, but punish us immediately:

And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel?

God keep us from any such wickedness that we should revolt from the Lord, and leave off following his steps, by building an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, beside the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected before his tabernacle.

And the saying pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God, and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy the land of their possession.

And the children of Ruben, and the children of Gad called the altar which they had built, Our testimony, that the Lord is God,

And you see all that the Lord your God hath done to all the nations round about, how he himself hath fought for you:

The Lord your God will destroy them, and take them away from before your face, and you shall possess the land as he hath promised you.

But cleave ye unto the Lord your God, as you have done until this day.

And then the Lord God will take away before your eyes nations that are great and very strong, and no man shall be able to resist you.

One of you shall chase a thousand men of the enemies: because the Lord your God himself will fight for you, as he hath promised.

This only take care of with all diligence, that you love the Lord your God.