¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,^(A) whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,^(B) that this man stands before you healed.

Going to War

20 When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours,^(A) do not be afraid^(B) of them,^(C) because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with^(D) you. ² When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. ³ He shall say: “Hear, Israel: Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted^(E) or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. ⁴ For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you^(F) to fight^(G) for you against your enemies to give you victory.^(H)”

⁵ The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in^(I) it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it. ⁶ Has anyone planted^(J) a vineyard and not begun to enjoy it?^(K) Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it. ⁷ Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.^(L)” ⁸ Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.”^{(M) 9} When the officers have finished speaking to the army, they shall appoint commanders over it.

¹⁰ When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.^{(N) 11} If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject^(O) to forced labor^(P) and shall work for you. ¹² If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. ¹³ When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.^{(Q) 14} As for the women, the children, the livestock^(R) and everything else in the city,^(S) you may take these as plunder^(T) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. ¹⁵ This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance^(U) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.^{(V) 17} Completely destroy^[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,^(W) and you will sin^(X) against the Lord your God.

¹⁹ When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?^{[b] 20} However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees^(Y) and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls.

Atonement for an Unsolved Murder

21 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,^{(Z) 2} your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. ³ Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke^{(AA) 4} and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. ⁵ The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings^(AB) in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.^{(AC) 6} Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands^(AD) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ⁷ and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. ⁸ Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person.” Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,^{(AE) 9} and you will have purged^(AF) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Captive Woman

¹⁰ When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands^(AG) and you take captives,^{(AH) 11} if you notice among the captives a beautiful^(AI) woman and are attracted to her,^(AJ) you may take her as your wife. ¹² Bring her into your home and have her shave her head,^(AK) trim her nails ¹³ and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month,^(AL) then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.^(AM)

The Right of the Firstborn

¹⁵ If a man has two wives,^(AN) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,^{(AO) 16} when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.^{(AP) 17} He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double^(AQ) share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength.^(AR) The right of the firstborn belongs to him.^(AS)

A Rebellious Son

¹⁸ If someone has a stubborn and rebellious^(AT) son^(AU) who does not obey his father and mother^(AV) and will not listen to them when they discipline him, ¹⁹ his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. ²⁰ They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ²¹ Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.^(AW) You must purge the evil^(AX) from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.^(AY)

Various Laws

²² If someone guilty of a capital offense^(AZ) is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, ²³ you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.^(BA) Be sure to bury^(BB) it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.^(BC) You must not desecrate^(BD) the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

BOOK III

Psalms 73–89

Psalm 73

A psalm of Asaph.

39 ¹ In the ninth year of Zedekiah^(A) king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar^(B) king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege^(C) to it. ² And on the ninth day of the fourth^(D) month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall^(E) was broken through.^{(F) 3} Then all the officials^(G) of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls,^(H) and headed toward the Arabah.^[a](I)

⁵ But the Babylonian^[b] army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah^(J) in the plains of Jericho. They captured^(K) him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah^(L) in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. ⁶ There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles^(M) of Judah. ⁷ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes^(N) and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.^(O)

⁸ The Babylonians^[c] set fire^(P) to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls^(Q) of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him,^(R) and the rest of the people.^{(S) 10} But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

¹¹ Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: ¹² “Take him and look after him; don’t harm^(T) him but do for him whatever he asks.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers^(U) of the king of Babylon ¹⁴ sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard.^(V) They turned him over to Gedaliah^(W) son of Ahikam,^(X) the son of Shaphan,^(Y) to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.^(Z)

¹⁵ While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him: ¹⁶ “Go and tell Ebed-Melek^(AA) the Cushite, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words^(AB) against this city—words concerning disaster,^(AC) not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. ¹⁷ But I will rescue^(AD) you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. ¹⁸ I will save^(AE) you; you will not fall by the sword^(AF) but will escape with your life,^(AG) because you trust^(AH) in me, declares the Lord.’”

Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin

4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard^(A) and the Sadducees^(B) came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. ² They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.^{(C) 3} They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail^(D) until the next day. ⁴ But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew^(E) to about five thousand.

⁵ The next day the rulers,^(F) the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. ⁶ Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas,^(G) John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. ⁷ They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,^(H) said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!^{(I) 9} If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame^(J) and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,^(K) whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,^(L) that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ Jesus is

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”^(N)

¹³ When they saw the courage of Peter and John^(O) and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,^(P) they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.^{(Q) 14} But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. ¹⁵ So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin^(R) and then conferred together. ¹⁶ “What are we going to do with these men?”^(S) they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign,^(T) and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸ Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.^{(U) 19} But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him?^(V) You be the judges! ²⁰ As for us, we cannot help speaking^(W) about what we have seen and heard.”^(X)

²¹ After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people^(Y) were praising God^(Z) for what had happened. ²² For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

The Believers Pray

²³ On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.^(AA) “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.^{(AB) 25} You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:^(AC)

²⁷ Indeed Herod^(AE) and Pontius Pilate^(AF) met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus,^(AG) whom you anointed. ²⁸ They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.^{(AH) 29} Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.^{(AI) 30} Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders^(AJ) through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”^(AK)

³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.^(AL) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit^(AM) and spoke the word of God^(AN) boldly.^(AO)

The Believers Share Their Possessions

³² All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.^{(AP) 33} With great power the apostles continued to testify^(AQ) to the resurrection^(AR) of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace^(AS) was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them,^(AT) brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet,^(AU) and it was distributed to anyone who had need.^(AV)

³⁶ Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas^(AW) (which means “son of encouragement”), ³⁷ sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.^(AX)