Chapter 10

Signatories to the Pact. ^1 [a]In view of all this, we are entering into a firm pact, which we are putting into writing. On the sealed document appear the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.

² On the sealed document: the governor Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah.

^3 (A)Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, ⁴ Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, ⁵ Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, ⁶ Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, ⁷ Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, ⁸ Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, ⁹ Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these are the priests.

¹⁰ The Levites: Jeshua, son of Azaniah; Binnui, of the descendants of Henadad; Kadmiel; ^11 (B)and their kinsmen Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, ¹² Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, ¹³ Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, ¹⁴ Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

¹⁵ The leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, ¹⁶ Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, ¹⁷ Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, ¹⁸ Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, ¹⁹ Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, ²⁰ Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, ²¹ Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, ²² Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, ²³ Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, ²⁴ Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, ²⁵ Hallhohesh, Pilha, Shobek, ²⁶ Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, ²⁷ Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, ²⁸ Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

Provisions of the Pact. ²⁹ The rest of the people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all others who have separated themselves from the local inhabitants in favor of the law of God, with their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who are of the age of discretion,

⁸ Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.”^[a] When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.^{(A) 9} Then the Lord asked Cain, Where is your brother Abel? He answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ God then said: What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! ¹¹ Now you are banned from the ground^[b] that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.^{(B) 12} If you till the ground, it shall no longer give you its produce. You shall become a constant wanderer on the earth. ¹³ Cain said to the Lord: “My punishment is too great to bear. ¹⁴ Look, you have now banished me from the ground. I must avoid you and be a constant wanderer on the earth. Anyone may kill me at sight.” ¹⁵ Not so! the Lord said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged seven times. So the Lord put a mark^[c] on Cain, so that no one would kill him at sight. ¹⁶ Cain then left the Lord’s presence and settled in the land of Nod,^[d] east of Eden.

Descendants of Cain and Seth. ^17 [e]Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Cain also became the founder of a city, which he named after his son Enoch. ¹⁸ To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehujael; Mehujael became the father of Methusael, and Methusael became the father of Lamech. ¹⁹ Lamech took two wives; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second Zillah.

^20 [a]May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord,^(A)

Chapter 24

Covenant Ceremony. ^1 (A)Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel. When they stood in ranks before God, ² Joshua addressed all the people: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In times past your ancestors, down to Terah,^(B) father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River^[a] and served other gods. ³ But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan.^(C) I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. ⁴ To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.^(D) To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir to possess, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

⁵ “Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and struck Egypt with the plagues and wonders that I wrought in her midst.^(E) Afterward I led you out. ⁶ And when I led your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors to the Red Sea with chariots and charioteers.^{(F) 7} When they cried out to the Lord,^(G) he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, upon whom he brought the sea so that it covered them. Your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. After you dwelt a long time in the wilderness, ^8 (H)I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your power. You took possession of their land, and I destroyed them at your approach. ^9 (I)Then Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, prepared to war against Israel. He summoned Balaam, son of Beor, to curse you, ^10 (J)but I would not listen to Balaam. Instead, he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his power. ¹¹ Once you crossed the Jordan^(K) and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, but I delivered them also into your power. ¹² And I sent the hornets^[b] ahead of you which drove them—the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites—out of your way; it was not your sword or your bow.^{(L) 13} I gave you a land you did not till and cities you did not build, to dwell in; you ate of vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.^(M)

^14 (N)“Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ^15 (O)If it is displeasing to you to serve the Lord, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. ¹⁷ For it was the Lord, our God, who brought us and our ancestors up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He performed those great signs before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among all the peoples through whom we passed. ¹⁸ At our approach the Lord drove out all the peoples, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

¹⁹ Joshua in turn said to the people, “You may not be able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God; he is a passionate God^(P) who will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, he will then do evil to you and destroy you, after having done you good.”

²¹ But the people answered Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.” ²² Joshua therefore said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” They replied, “We are witnesses!” ²³ “Now, therefore, put away the foreign gods that are among you and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ Then the people promised Joshua, “We will serve the Lord, our God, and will listen to his voice.”

²⁵ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem. ²⁶ Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was in the sanctuary of the Lord.^{(Q) 27} And Joshua said to all the people, “This stone shall be our witness,^(R) for it has heard all the words which the Lord spoke to us. It shall be a witness against you, should you wish to deny your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own heritage.^(S)

Death of Joshua. ^29 (T)After these events, Joshua, son of Nun, servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten, ³⁰ and they buried him within the borders of his heritage at Timnath-serah^(U) in the mountain region of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.^{[c] 31} Israel served the Lord during the entire lifetime of Joshua, and of those elders who outlived Joshua and who knew all the work the Lord had done for Israel. ^32 (V)The bones of Joseph,^[d] which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. This was a heritage of the descendants of Joseph. ³³ When Eleazar, son of Aaron, also died, he was buried on the hill which had been given to his son Phinehas^(W) in the mountain region of Ephraim.

^30 (A)join their influential kindred, and with the sanction of a curse take this oath to follow the law of God given through Moses, the servant of God, and to observe carefully all the commandments of the Lord, our Lord, his ordinances and his statutes.

^31 (B)We will not marry our daughters to the local inhabitants, and we will not accept their daughters for our sons.

^32 (C)When the local inhabitants bring in merchandise or any kind of grain for sale on the sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or on any other holy day. In the seventh year we will forgo the produce, and forgive every kind of debt.

^33 (D)We impose these commandments on ourselves: to give a third of a shekel each year for the service of the house of our God, ³⁴ for the showbread, the daily grain offering, the daily burnt offering, for the sabbaths, new moons, and festivals, for the holy offerings and sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, for every service of the house of our God. ^35 (E)We, priests, Levites, and people, have determined by lot concerning the procurement of wood: it is to be brought to the house of our God by each of our ancestral houses at stated times each year, to be burnt on the altar of the Lord, our God, as the law prescribes. ^36 (F)We have agreed to bring each year to the house of the Lord the first fruits of our fields and of our fruit trees, of every kind; ³⁷ also, as is prescribed in the law, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who serve in the house of our God, the firstborn of our children and our animals, including the firstborn of our flocks and herds. ^38 (G)The first batch of our dough, and our offerings of the fruit of every tree, of wine and oil, we will bring to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God. The tithe of our fields we will bring to the Levites; they, the Levites, shall take the tithe in all the cities of our service. ³⁹ An Aaronite priest shall be with the Levites when they take the tithe, and the Levites shall bring the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers of the treasury.

Chapter 8

Heavenly Priesthood of Jesus.^{[a] 1} The main point of what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,^{(A) 2} a minister of the sanctuary^[b] and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.^{(B) 3} Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.^{(C) 4} If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.^{(D) 5} They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle. For he says, “See that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”^{(E) 6} Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.^(F)

Old and New Covenants.^{[c] 7} For if that first covenant had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second one.