Deuteronomy 9

1Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as heaven;

2A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak.

3Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the Lord has said.

4And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you.

5Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are upright are you going in to take their land; but because of the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

7Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the orders of the Lord.

8Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his wrath he would have put an end to you.

9When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water.

10And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting.

11Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement.

12And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image.

13And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked:

14Let me send destruction on them till their very name is cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.

15So turning round I came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of the agreement were in my hands.

16And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go.

17And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were broken before your eyes.

18And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath.

19For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord’s ear was open to my prayer.

20And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time.

21And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain.

22Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you made the Lord angry.

23And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice.

24From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord.

25So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you.

26And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.

27Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin:

28Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land.

29But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm.

Deuteronomy 10

1At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark.

3So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.

4And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me.

5And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.

6(And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest.

7From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

8At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord’s agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.

9For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.)

10And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.

11Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.

12And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul,

13Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good?

14The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.

15But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.

16Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.

17For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man’s position and takes no rewards:

18Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.

19So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.

20Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name.

21He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen.

22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number.

Job 8

1Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

2How long will you say these things, and how long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

3Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging?

4If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand.

5If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all;

6If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.

7And though your start was small, your end will be very great.

8Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:

9(For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:)

10Will they not give you teaching, and say words of wisdom to you?

11Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water?

12When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.

13So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:

14Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger than a spider’s thread.

15He is looking to his family for support, but it is not there; he puts his hope in it, but it comes to nothing.

16He is full of strength before the sun, and his branches go out over his garden.

17His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way in between them.

18If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.

19Such is the joy of his way, and out of the dust another comes up to take his place.

20Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and will not take evil-doers by the hand.

21The time will come when your mouth will be full of laughing, and cries of joy will come from your lips.

22Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the sinner will not be seen again.

Matthew 28

1Now late on the Sabbath, when the dawn of the first day of the week was near, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the place where his body was.

2And there was a great earth-shock; for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, rolling back the stone, took his seat on it.

3His form was shining like the light, and his clothing was white as snow:

4And for fear of him the watchmen were shaking, and became as dead men.

5And the angel said to the women, Have no fear: for I see that you are searching for Jesus, who was put to death on the cross.

6He is not here, for he has come to life again, even as he said. Come, see the Lord’s resting-place.

7And go quickly and give his disciples the news that he has come back from the dead, and is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him, as I have said to you.

8And they went away quickly, with fear and great joy, to give his disciples the news.

9And on the way, Jesus came to them, saying, Be glad. And they came and put their hands on his feet, and gave him worship.

10Then said Jesus to them, Have no fear: go and give word to my brothers to go into Galilee, and there they will see me.

11Now, while they were going, some of the watchmen came into the town and gave news to the chief priests of all the things which had taken place.

12And when they had come together with those in authority, and had made their decision, they gave much money to the watchmen, saying,

13Say, His disciples came by night and took him away secretly while we were sleeping.

14And if this comes to the ruler’s ears, we will see that he does not make you responsible.

15So they took the money, and did as they had been ordered: and this account has been current among the Jews till the present time.

16But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had given them orders to go.

17And when they saw him they gave him worship: but some were in doubt.

18And Jesus came to them and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

19Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:

20Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world.