JOSHUA 2

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Rahab Shelters Spies  2:1 Then Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. 2 It was told the king of Jericho, saying, “Behold, men from the sons of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 And the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 It came about when it was time to shut the gate at dark, that the men went out; I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” 6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them in the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. 7 So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan to the fords; and as soon as those who were pursuing them had gone out, they shut the gate.
    8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. 10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, 13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 So the men said to her, “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
The Promise to Rahab    15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. 16 She said to them, “Go to the hill country, so that the pursuers will not happen upon you, and hide yourselves there for three days until the pursuers return. Then afterward you may go on your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, 18 unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household. 19 It shall come about that anyone who goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be free; but anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be free from the oath which you have made us swear.” 21 She said, “According to your words, so be it.” So she sent them away, and they departed; and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
    22 They departed and came to the hill country, and remained there for three days until the pursuers returned. Now the pursuers had sought them all along the road, but had not found them. 23 Then the two men returned and came down from the hill country and crossed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they related to him all that had happened to them. 24 They said to Joshua, “Surely the LORD has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us.”

PSALM 77

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Comfort in Trouble from Recalling God’s Mighty Deeds.For the choir director; according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.
77:1 My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud;

My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.

2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;

In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness;

My soul refused to be comforted.

3 When I remember God, then I am disturbed;

When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah.

4 You have held my eyelids open;

I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5 I have considered the days of old,

The years of long ago.

6 I will remember my song in the night;

I will meditate with my heart,

And my spirit ponders:

7 Will the Lord reject forever?

And will He never be favorable again?

8 Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?

Has His promise come to an end forever?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious,

Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.

10 Then I said, “It is my grief,

That the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

11 I shall remember the deeds of the LORD;

Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

12 I will meditate on all Your work

And muse on Your deeds.

13 Your way, O God, is holy;

What god is great like our God?

14 You are the God who works wonders;

You have made known Your strength among the peoples.

15 You have by Your power redeemed Your people,

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

16 The waters saw You, O God;

The waters saw You, they were in anguish;

The deeps also trembled.

17 The clouds poured out water;

The skies gave forth a sound;

Your arrows flashed here and there.

18 The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;

The lightnings lit up the world;

The earth trembled and shook.

19 Your way was in the sea

And Your paths in the mighty waters,

And Your footprints may not be known.

20 You led Your people like a flock

By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

PSALM 78

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God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.A Maskil of Asaph.
78:1 Listen, O my people, to my instruction;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings of old,

3 Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

4 We will not conceal them from their children,

But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,

And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

5 For He established a testimony in Jacob

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they should teach them to their children,

6 That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,

That they may arise and tell them to their children,

7 That they should put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments,

8 And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,

Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

10 They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk in His law;

11 They forgot His deeds

And His miracles that He had shown them.

12 He wrought wonders before their fathers

In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

14 Then He led them with the cloud by day

And all the night with a light of fire.

15 He split the rocks in the wilderness

And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.

16 He brought forth streams also from the rock

And caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18 And in their heart they put God to the test

By asking food according to their desire.

19 Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,

And streams were overflowing;

Can He give bread also?

Will He provide meat for His people?”

21 Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath;

And a fire was kindled against Jacob

And anger also mounted against Israel,

22 Because they did not believe in God

And did not trust in His salvation.

23 Yet He commanded the clouds above

And opened the doors of heaven;

24 He rained down manna upon them to eat

And gave them food from heaven.

25 Man did eat the bread of angels;

He sent them food in abundance.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens

And by His power He directed the south wind.

27 When He rained meat upon them like the dust,

Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

28 Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp,

Round about their dwellings.

29 So they ate and were well filled,

And their desire He gave to them.

30 Before they had satisfied their desire,

While their food was in their mouths,

31 The anger of God rose against them

And killed some of their stoutest ones,

And subdued the choice men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this they still sinned

And did not believe in His wonderful works.

33 So He brought their days to an end in futility

And their years in sudden terror.

34 When He killed them, then they sought Him,

And returned and searched diligently for God;

35 And they remembered that God was their rock,

And the Most High God their Redeemer.

36 But they deceived Him with their mouth

And lied to Him with their tongue.

37 For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,

Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

38 But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;

And often He restrained His anger

And did not arouse all His wrath.

39 Thus He remembered that they were but flesh,

A wind that passes and does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness

And grieved Him in the desert!

41 Again and again they tempted God,

And pained the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember His power,

The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,

43 When He performed His signs in Egypt

And His marvels in the field of Zoan,

44 And turned their rivers to blood,

And their streams, they could not drink.

45 He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,

And frogs which destroyed them.

46 He gave also their crops to the grasshopper

And the product of their labor to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hailstones

And their sycamore trees with frost.

48 He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones

And their herds to bolts of lightning.

49 He sent upon them His burning anger,

Fury and indignation and trouble,

A band of destroying angels.

50 He leveled a path for His anger;

He did not spare their soul from death,

But gave over their life to the plague,

51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt,

The first issue of their virility in the tents of Ham.

52 But He led forth His own people like sheep

And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;

53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear;

But the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 So He brought them to His holy land,

To this hill country which His right hand had gained.

55 He also drove out the nations before them

And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement,

And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.

56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God

And did not keep His testimonies,

57 But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers;

They turned aside like a treacherous bow.

58 For they provoked Him with their high places

And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.

59 When God heard, He was filled with wrath

And greatly abhorred Israel;

60 So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,

The tent which He had pitched among men,

61 And gave up His strength to captivity

And His glory into the hand of the adversary.

62 He also delivered His people to the sword,

And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

63 Fire devoured His young men,

And His virgins had no wedding songs.

64 His priests fell by the sword,

And His widows could not weep.

65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,

Like a warrior overcome by wine.

66 He drove His adversaries backward;

He put on them an everlasting reproach.

67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph,

And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68 But chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion which He loved.

69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights,

Like the earth which He has founded forever.

70 He also chose David His servant

And took him from the sheepfolds;

71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him

To shepherd Jacob His people,

And Israel His inheritance.

72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,

And guided them with his skillful hands.

PROVERBS 10

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Contrast of the Righteous and the Wicked  10:1 The proverbs of Solomon.

A wise son makes a father glad,

But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

2 Ill-gotten gains do not profit,

But righteousness delivers from death.

3 The LORD will not allow the righteous to hunger,

But He will reject the craving of the wicked.

4 Poor is he who works with a negligent hand,

But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

5 He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely,

But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.

6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous,

But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

7 The memory of the righteous is blessed,

But the name of the wicked will rot.

8 The wise of heart will receive commands,

But a babbling fool will be ruined.

9 He who walks in integrity walks securely,

But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

10 He who winks the eye causes trouble,

And a babbling fool will be ruined.

11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,

But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

12 Hatred stirs up strife,

But love covers all transgressions.

13 On the lips of the discerning, wisdom is found,

But a rod is for the back of him who lacks understanding.

14 Wise men store up knowledge,

But with the mouth of the foolish, ruin is at hand.

15 The rich man’s wealth is his fortress,

The ruin of the poor is their poverty.

16 The wages of the righteous is life,

The income of the wicked, punishment.

17 He is on the path of life who heeds instruction,

But he who ignores reproof goes astray.

18 He who conceals hatred has lying lips,

And he who spreads slander is a fool.

19 When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable,

But he who restrains his lips is wise.

20 The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver,

The heart of the wicked is worth little.

21 The lips of the righteous feed many,

But fools die for lack of understanding.

22 It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich,

And He adds no sorrow to it.

23 Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool,

And so is wisdom to a man of understanding.

24 What the wicked fears will come upon him,

But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

25 When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more,

But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

26 Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

So is the lazy one to those who send him.

27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life,

But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

28 The hope of the righteous is gladness,

But the expectation of the wicked perishes.

29 The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the upright,

But ruin to the workers of iniquity.

30 The righteous will never be shaken,

But the wicked will not dwell in the land.

31 The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom,

But the perverted tongue will be cut out.

32 The lips of the righteous bring forth what is acceptable,

But the mouth of the wicked what is perverted.