Jerusalem Is Captured

1 Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel ^(A)inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us ^(B)against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” ² The Lord said, “^(C)Judah shall go up; behold, I have handed the land over to him.” ³ Then Judah said to his brother Simeon, “Go up with me into ^[a]the territory allotted me, and let’s fight the Canaanites; and ^[b]I in turn will go with you into ^[c]the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him. ⁴ Judah went up, and ^(D)the Lord handed over to them the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they ^[d]defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. ⁵ They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they ^[e]defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶ But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him, and cut off his ^[f]thumbs and big toes. ⁷ And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; ^(E)as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸ Then the sons of Judah fought against ^(F)Jerusalem and captured it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. ⁹ Afterward, the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, and in the ^[g]Negev, and in the lowland. ^10 (G)So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (the name of Hebron was previously Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

Capture of Other Cities

¹¹ Then ^(H)from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (the name of Debir was previously Kiriath-sepher). ¹² And Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him my daughter Achsah as a wife.” ¹³ Now ^(I)Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife. ¹⁴ Then ^(J)it happened that when she came to him, she incited him to ask her father for a field. Then later, she dismounted from ^[h]her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What ^[i]do you want?” ¹⁵ She said to him, “Give me a blessing: since you have given me the land of the ^[j]Negev, give me springs of water also.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶ Now the ^[k]descendants of ^(K)the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the ^(L)city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of ^(M)Arad; and they went and lived with the people. ¹⁷ Then Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called ^(N)Hormah. ¹⁸ And Judah took ^(O)Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. ¹⁹ Now the Lord was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not ^[l]drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had ^(P)iron chariots. ²⁰ Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, ^(Q)as Moses had ^[m]promised; and he drove out from there ^(R)the three sons of Anak. ^21 (S)But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the ^(T)Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²² Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. ²³ The house of Joseph had men spy out Bethel (^(U)the name of the city previously was Luz). ²⁴ And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city, and ^(V)we will treat you kindly.” ²⁵ So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, ^(W)but they let the man and all his family go free. ²⁶ Then the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and named it Luz, ^[n]which is its name to this day.

Places Not Conquered

^27 (X)But Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; so ^(Y)the Canaanites persisted in living in this land. ²⁸ And it came about, when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they did not drive them out completely.

²⁹ And ^(Z)Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰ Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of ^[o]Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.

³¹ Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or of Rehob. ³² So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³ Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

³⁴ Then the Amorites ^[p]forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley; ³⁵ yet the Amorites persisted in living on Mount Heres, in Aijalon and Shaalbim; but when the ^[q]power of the house of Joseph ^[r]grew strong, they became forced labor. ³⁶ The border of the Amorites ran from the ^(AA)ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

Israel Rebuked

2 Now ^(AB)the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to ^(AC)Bochim. And he said, “^(AD)I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘^(AE)I will never break My covenant with you, ² and as for you, ^(AF)you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; ^(AG)you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not ^[s]obeyed Me; what is this thing that you have done? ³ Therefore I also said, ‘^(AH)I will not drive them out from you; but they will ^[t]become ^(AI)like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’” ⁴ Now when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people raised their voices and wept. ⁵ So they named that place ^[u]Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the Lord.

Joshua Dies

^6 (AJ)When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went, each one to his inheritance, to take possession of the land. ⁷ The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who ^[v]survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel. ⁸ Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. ⁹ And they buried him in the territory of ^(AK)his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

²⁹ And He told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees: ³⁰ as soon as they put forth leaves, you see for yourselves and ^(A)know that summer is now near. ³¹ So you too, when you see these things happening, ^[a]recognize that ^(B)the kingdom of God is near. ³² Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place. ^33 (C)Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

³⁴ “But ^(D)be on your guard, so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that ^[b]this day will not come on you suddenly, like a trap; ³⁵ for it will come upon all those who live on the face of all the earth. ³⁶ But ^(E)stay alert at all times, praying that you will have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to ^(F)stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷ Now ^[c]during the day He was ^(G)teaching in the temple, but ^[d](H)at evening He would go out and spend the night on ^(I)the ^[e]mountain that is called ^[f]Olivet. ³⁸ And all the people would get up ^(J)very early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.

Preparing the Passover

22 ^(K)Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the ^(L)Passover, was approaching. ² And the chief priests and the scribes ^(M)were trying to find ^[g]a way to put Him to death, since they were afraid of the people.

^3 (N)And ^(O)Satan entered Judas, the one called Iscariot, ^[h]who belonged to the number of the twelve. ⁴ And he left and discussed with the chief priests and ^(P)officers how he was to betray Him to them. ⁵ And they were delighted, and agreed to give him money. ⁶ And so he consented, and began looking for a good opportunity to betray Him to them ^[i]away from the crowd.

^7 (Q)Now the first day of Unleavened Bread came, on which ^(R)the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ⁸ And so Jesus sent ^(S)Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat it.” ⁹ They said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare it?” ¹⁰ And He said to them, “When you have entered the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you; follow him into the house that he enters. ¹¹ And you shall say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”’ ¹² And he will show you a large, furnished upstairs room; prepare it there.” ¹³ And they left and found everything just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

BOOK 4

God’s Eternity and the Brevity of Human Life.

A Prayer of ^[a]Moses, the man of God.

Security of One Who Trusts in the Lord.