The Daily Audio Bible
9 Listen, Israel, today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and to take possession of nations larger and stronger than you, nations with large cities that have fortified walls reaching up to the skies, 2 with people strong and tall, the Anakites, whom you know and about whom you have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the descendants of Anak?”
3 So know today that the Lord your God himself is crossing over in front of you. Like a consuming fire he will destroy them, and he will subdue them before you. You will take possession of their land and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord promised you.
4 When the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the Lord brought me in to take possession of this land,” when actually it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is handing over their land to you.
5 You are not entering to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart, but because of the wickedness of these nations. The Lord your God is handing over their land to you, in order to confirm the promise that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
6 Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, because a stiff-necked people[a] is what you are. 7 Remember and do not forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the wilderness. From the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until your arrival at this place, you have been rebels against the Lord. 8 Even at Horeb you made the Lord angry. Yes, the Lord was angry enough at you to destroy you.
9 When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water. 10 Then the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you from the middle of the fire on the mountain, on the day of the assembly. 11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
12 Then the Lord said to me, “Get moving and go down quickly from here because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have turned away quickly from the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a thing of molten metal.”
13 The Lord also said to me, “I have seen these people, and what a stiff-necked people they are! 14 Leave me alone, and I will destroy them. I will blot out their name from under the heavens, and I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”
15 So I turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands, while the mountain was burning with fire.
16 I saw how you were sinning against the Lord your God by making for yourselves a calf from molten metal and by quickly turning aside from the way that the Lord your God had commanded you to go.
17 I grabbed the two tablets and I threw them from my two hands[b] and I shattered them right before your eyes.
18 Then I lay facedown before the Lord forty days and forty nights like the first time. I did not eat bread and I did not drink water, because of all the sin that you committed by doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and making him angry.
19 I was afraid of the heated anger of the Lord, who was angry enough at you to destroy you, but the Lord listened to me again at that time.
20 The Lord was even angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I prayed also for Aaron at that time.
21 Then I took that wicked thing that you had made, the calf. I burned it with fire and crushed it by grinding it until it was as fine as dust. Then I threw its dust into the gully that goes down from the mountain.
22 Again and again, at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth Hatta’avah, you made the Lord angry.
23 Then, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, and he said, “Go up and take possession of the land that I have given to you,” you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not put your faith in him, and you did not obey him. 24 You have been rebels against the Lord ever since I have known you.
25 So I lay facedown before the Lord for forty days and forty nights. I lay facedown because the Lord said he would destroy you. 26 So I prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord God, do not destroy your people, your inheritance that you have redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
27 “Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of these people and at their wickedness and their sin. 28 Otherwise the land out of which you brought us will say, ‘This happened because the Lord did not have the power to bring them to the land that he had promised to them, or this happened because he hated them and brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’
29 “But they are your people and your possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.”
10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut out two tablets of stone like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark[c] out of wood. 2 Then I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first ones that you shattered, and you are to put them in the ark.”
3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and I cut out two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 He wrote on the tablets the same writing as on the first tablets, the Ten Commandments[d] that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire, on the day of the assembly. Then the Lord gave them to me. 5 I turned and came back down the mountain, and I put the tablets in the ark that I had made. There they are kept, as the Lord commanded me to do.
6 The people of Israel traveled from Be’eroth Bene Ja’akan to Moserah. Aaron died there, and he was buried there, and Eleazar his son served as priest in his place. 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of gullies filled with water.
8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord and to serve him, and to pronounce a blessing in his name, as they do to this day. 9 That is why Levi did not have an allotment of land and an inheritance with his brothers. The Lord himself is their inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.
10 I had stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the Lord listened to me again on this second occasion. The Lord agreed not to destroy you. 11 So the Lord said to me, “Set out and continue the journey at the head of the people, and they will enter and take possession of the land that I promised to give them with an oath to their fathers.”
12 So now, Israel, what is the Lord your God asking of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes that I am commanding you today for your own good.
14 Indeed, the heavens and the heaven of heavens,[e] the earth and everything that is on it—these belong to the Lord your God. 15 Still, the Lord attached himself to your fathers, loved them, and he chose their descendants after them (that’s you!) from all peoples, as it is today.
16 So cut away the tough shell of your sinful nature,[f] and do not be stubborn any longer.
17 The Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, the mighty one and the awesome one, who does not show favoritism and does not take a bribe. 18 He carries out justice for the fatherless and widows. He loves the alien who dwells among you and gives him food and clothing. 19 So you are to love the alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
20 Fear the Lord your God, serve him, cling to him, and take your oaths in his name.
21 He is your glory. He is your God, who performed for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.
22 When your fathers went down to Egypt, they numbered seventy people, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.
The Parable of the Sower
4 As a large crowd was gathering and people from one town after another were making their way to him, he spoke using a parable. 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path. It was trampled, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6 Other seed fell on rocky ground. As soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 Other seed fell into good soil. It grew and produced fruit—one hundred times as much as was sown.” As he said these things, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”
9 His disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?”
10 He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest I speak in parables so that ‘even though they see, they may not see, and even though they hear, they may not understand.’[a] 11 This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear it, but then the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root. So they believe for a while, but then fall away in a time of testing. 14 The seeds that fell into the thorns are the ones who hear the word, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of life, so they do not mature. 15 And the seeds in the good ground are the ones who hear the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it tightly, and produce fruit as they patiently endure.
16 “No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known and come to light. 18 So listen carefully, because whoever has will be given more, and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers
19 Jesus’ mother and brothers came to him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”
21 But he answered them, “My mother and brothers are those who are hearing and doing the word of God.”
His Shame
19 You know my disgrace, my shame, and my confusion.
All my foes are in front of you.
20 Disgrace has broken my heart, and I am helpless.
I waited for sympathy, but there was none.
I waited for comforters, but I did not find any.
21 Instead they put bitter poison in my food.
For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
His Curse
22 May the table set before them become a snare.
May it be a trap to them and their allies.[a]
23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see.
Make their legs always tremble.
24 Pour out your wrath on them.
Let the heat of your anger catch up with them.
25 May their camp be desolate.
May there be no one dwelling in their tents.
26 For they pursue those you have disciplined, O God,
and they talk about the pain of those you wound.
27 Add guilt to their guilt.
Do not let them enter into your righteousness.
28 May they be erased from the book of life.
May they not be listed among the righteous.
His Closing Prayer
29 But I am afflicted and in pain.
O God, may salvation from you set me on high.
30 I will praise God’s name in song.
I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving.
31 For the Lord this is better than an ox,
than a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32 The poor will see and be glad.
You who seek God, may your hearts live!
33 For the Lord listens to the needy,
and he does not despise the captives who belong to him.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and all that move in them,
35 for God will save Zion,
and he will build the cities of Judah.
Then people will settle there and possess it.
36 Then the descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will dwell in it.
2 A good person will obtain favor from the Lord,
but he will condemn a schemer.
3 A person cannot be made secure by wickedness,
but the roots of the righteous will never be uprooted.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.