Joshua 7; Joshua 8; Joshua 9; Luke 1:21-38

1 The Lord's command to Israel not to take from Jericho anything that was to be destroyed was not obeyed. A man named Achan disobeyed that order, and so the Lord was furious with the Israelites. (Achan was the son of Carmi and grandson of Zabdi, and belonged to the clan of Zerah, a part of the tribe of Judah.)

2 Joshua sent some men from Jericho to Ai, a city east of Bethel, near Bethaven, with orders to go and explore the land. When they had done so,

3 they reported back to Joshua: "There is no need for everyone to attack Ai. Send only about two or three thousand men. Don't send the whole army up there to fight; it is not a large city."

4 So about three thousand Israelites made the attack, but they were forced to retreat.

5 The men of Ai chased them from the city gate as far as some quarries and killed about thirty-six of them on the way down the hill. Then the Israelites lost their courage and were afraid.

6 Joshua and the leaders of Israel tore their clothes in grief, threw themselves to the ground before the Lord's Covenant Box, and lay there till evening, with dust on their heads to show their sorrow.

7 And Joshua said, "Sovereign Lord! Why did you bring us across the Jordan at all? To turn us over to the Amorites? To destroy us? Why didn't we just stay on the other side of the Jordan?

8 What can I say, O Lord, now that Israel has retreated from the enemy?

9 The Canaanites and everyone else in the country will hear about it. They will surround us and kill every one of us! And then what will you do to protect your honor?"

10 The Lord said to Joshua, "Get up! Why are you lying on the ground like this?

11 Israel has sinned! They have broken the agreement with me that I ordered them to keep. They have taken some of the things condemned to destruction. They stole them, lied about it, and put them with their own things.

12 This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They retreat from them because they themselves have now been condemned to destruction! I will not stay with you any longer unless you destroy the things you were ordered not to take!

13 Get up! Purify the people and get them ready to come before me. Tell them to be ready tomorrow, because I, the Lord God of Israel, have this to say: "Israel, you have in your possession some things that I ordered you to destroy! You cannot stand against your enemies until you get rid of these things!'

14 So tell them that in the morning they will be brought forward, tribe by tribe. The tribe that I pick out will then come forward, clan by clan. The clan that I pick out will come forward, family by family. The family that I pick out will come forward, one by one.

15 The one who is then picked out and found with the condemned goods will be burned, along with his family and everything he owns, for he has brought terrible shame on Israel and has broken my covenant."

16 Early the next morning Joshua brought Israel forward, tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was picked out.

17 He brought the tribe of Judah forward, clan by clan, and the clan of Zerah was picked out. Then he brought the clan of Zerah forward, family by family, and the family of Zabdi was picked out.

18 He then brought Zabdi's family forward, one by one, and Achan, the son of Carmi and grandson of Zabdi, was picked out.

19 Joshua said to him, "My son, tell the truth here before the Lord, the God of Israel, and confess. Tell me now what you have done. Don't try to hide it from me."

20 "It's true," Achan answered. "I have sinned against the Lord, Israel's God, and this is what I did.

21 Among the things we seized I saw a beautiful Babylonian cloak, about five pounds of silver, and a bar of gold weighing over one pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. You will find them buried inside my tent, with the silver at the bottom."

22 So Joshua sent some men, who ran to the tent and found that the condemned things really were buried there, with the silver at the bottom.

23 They brought them out of the tent, took them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and laid them down in the presence of the Lord.

24 Joshua, along with all the people of Israel, seized Achan, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, together with Achan's sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys, and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned; and they took them to Trouble Valley.

25 And Joshua said, "Why have you brought such trouble on us? The Lord will now bring trouble on you!" All the people then stoned Achan to death; they also stoned and burned his family and possessions.

26 They put a huge pile of stones over him, which is there to this day. That is why that place is still called Trouble Valley. Then the Lord was no longer furious.

1 The Lord said to Joshua, "Take all the soldiers with you and go on up to Ai. Don't be afraid or discouraged. I will give you victory over the king of Ai; his people, city, and land will be yours.

2 You are to do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king, but this time you may keep its goods and livestock for yourselves. Prepare to attack the city by surprise from the rear."

3 So Joshua got ready to go to Ai with all his soldiers. He picked out thirty thousand of his best troops and sent them out at night

4 with these orders: "Hide on the other side of the city, but not too far away from it; be ready to attack.

5 My men and I will approach the city. When the men of Ai come out against us, we will turn and run, just as we did the first time.

6 They will pursue us until we have led them away from the city. They will think that we are running from them, as we did before.

7 Then you will come out of hiding and capture the city. The Lord your God will give it to you.

8 After you have taken the city, set it on fire, just as the Lord has commanded. These are your orders."

9 So Joshua sent them out, and they went to their hiding place and waited there, west of Ai, between Ai and Bethel. Joshua spent the night in camp.

10 Early in the morning Joshua got up and called the soldiers together. Then he and the leaders of Israel led them to Ai.

11 The soldiers with him went toward the main entrance to the city and set up camp on the north side, with a valley between themselves and Ai.

12 He took about five thousand men and put them in hiding west of the city, between Ai and Bethel.

13 The soldiers were arranged for battle with the main camp north of the city and the rest of the men to the west. Joshua spent the night in the valley.

14 When the king of Ai saw Joshua's men, he acted quickly. He and all his men went out toward the Jordan Valley to fight the Israelites at the same place as before, not knowing that he was about to be attacked from the rear.

15 Joshua and his men pretended that they were retreating, and ran away toward the barren country.

16 All the men in the city had been called together to go after them, and as they pursued Joshua, they kept getting farther away from the city.

17 Every man in Ai went after the Israelites, and the city was left wide open, with no one to defend it.

18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Point your spear at Ai; I am giving it to you." Joshua did as he was told,

19 and as soon as he lifted his hand, the men who had been hiding got up quickly, ran into the city and captured it. They immediately set the city on fire.

20 When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke rising to the sky. There was no way for them to escape, because the Israelites who had run toward the barren country now turned around to attack them.

21 When Joshua and his men saw that the others had taken the city and that it was on fire, they turned around and began killing the men of Ai.

22 The Israelites in the city now came down to join the battle. So the men of Ai found themselves completely surrounded by Israelites, and they were all killed. No one got away, and no one lived through it

23 except the king of Ai. He was captured and taken to Joshua.

24 The Israelites killed every one of the enemy in the barren country where they had chased them. Then they went back to Ai and killed everyone there.

25 Joshua kept his spear pointed at Ai and did not put it down until every person there had been killed. The whole population of Ai was killed that day - twelve thousand men and women.

27 The Israelites kept for themselves the livestock and goods captured in the city, as the Lord had told Joshua.

28 Joshua burned Ai and left it in ruins. It is still like that today.

29 He hanged the king of Ai from a tree and left his body there until evening. At sundown Joshua gave orders for the body to be removed, and it was thrown down at the entrance to the city gate. They covered it with a huge pile of stones, which is still there today.

30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel.

31 He made it according to the instructions that Moses, the Lord's servant, had given the Israelites, as it says in the Law of Moses: "an altar made of stones which have not been cut with iron tools." On it they offered burnt sacrifices to the Lord, and they also presented their fellowship offerings.

32 There, with the Israelites looking on, Joshua made on the stones a copy of the Law which Moses had written.

33 The Israelites, with their leaders, officers, and judges, as well as the foreigners among them, stood on two sides of the Lord's Covenant Box, facing the levitical priests who carried it. Half of the people stood with their backs to Mount Gerizim and the other half with their backs to Mount Ebal. The Lord's servant Moses had commanded them to do this when the time came for them to receive the blessing.

34 Joshua then read aloud the whole Law, including the blessings and the curses, just as they are written in the book of the Law.

35 Every one of the commandments of Moses was read by Joshua to the whole gathering, which included women and children, as well as the foreigners living among them.

1 The victories of Israel became known to all the kings west of the Jordan - in the hills, in the foothills, and all along the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea as far north as Lebanon; these were the kings of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

2 They all came together and joined forces to fight against Joshua and the Israelites.

3 But the people of Gibeon, who were Hivites, heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

4 and they decided to deceive him. They went and got some food and loaded their donkeys with worn-out sacks and patched-up wineskins.

5 They put on ragged clothes and worn-out sandals that had been mended. The bread they took with them was dry and moldy.

6 Then they went to the camp at Gilgal and said to Joshua and the Israelites, "We have come from a distant land. We want you to make a treaty with us."

7 But the Israelites said, "Why should we make a treaty with you? Maybe you live nearby."

8 They said to Joshua, "We are at your service." Joshua asked them, "Who are you? Where do you come from?"

9 Then they told him this story: "We have come from a very distant land, sir, because we have heard of the Lord your God. We have heard about everything that he did in Egypt

10 and what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan: King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

11 Our leaders and all the people that live in our land told us to get some food ready for a trip and to go and meet you. We were told to put ourselves at your service and ask you to make a treaty with us.

12 Look at our bread. When we left home with it and started out to meet you, it was still warm. But look! Now it is dry and moldy.

13 When we filled these wineskins, they were new, but look! They are torn. Our clothes and sandals are worn out from the long trip."

14 The Israelites accepted some food from them, but did not consult the Lord about it.

15 Joshua made a treaty of friendship with the people of Gibeon and allowed them to live. The leaders of the community of Israel gave their solemn promise to keep the treaty.

16 Three days after the treaty had been made, the Israelites learned that these people did indeed live nearby.

17 So the people of Israel started out and three days later arrived at the cities where these people lived: Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim.

18 But the Israelites could not kill them, because their leaders had made a solemn promise to them in the name of the Lord, Israel's God. All the people complained to the leaders about this,

19 but they answered, "We have made our solemn promise to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel. Now we cannot harm them.

20 We must let them live because of our promise; if we don't, God will punish us.

21 Let them live, but they will have to cut wood and carry water for us." This was what the leaders suggested.

22 Joshua ordered the people of Gibeon to be brought to him, and he asked them, "Why did you deceive us and tell us that you were from far away, when you live right here?

23 Because you did this, God has condemned you. Your people will always be slaves, cutting wood and carrying water for the sanctuary of my God."

24 They answered, "We did it, sir, because we learned that it was really true that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to kill the people living in it as you advanced. We did it because we were terrified of you; we were in fear of our lives.

25 Now we are in your power; do with us what you think is right."

26 So this is what Joshua did: he protected them and did not allow the people of Israel to kill them.

27 But at the same time he made them slaves, to cut wood and carry water for the people of Israel and for the Lord's altar. To this day they have continued to do this work in the place where the Lord has chosen to be worshiped.

21 In the meantime the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he was spending such a long time in the Temple.

22 When he came out, he could not speak to them, and so they knew that he had seen a vision in the Temple. Unable to say a word, he made signs to them with his hands.

23 When his period of service in the Temple was over, Zechariah went back home.

24 Some time later his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and did not leave the house for five months.

25 "Now at last the Lord has helped me," she said. "He has taken away my public disgrace!"

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth.

27 He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary.

28 The angel came to her and said, "Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!"

29 Mary was deeply troubled by the angel's message, and she wondered what his words meant.

30 The angel said to her, "Don't be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you.

31 You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was,

33 and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!"

34 Mary said to the angel, "I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?"

35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.

36 Remember your relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old.

37 For there is nothing that God cannot do."

38 "I am the Lord's servant," said Mary; "may it happen to me as you have said." And the angel left her.