The Daily Audio Bible

Joshua fights against kings in the north

11 Jabin, king of Hazor, heard what had happened. So he sent a message to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron and the king of Acshaph. ² He also sent a message to the kings of the hill country in the north, in the Jordan Valley, south of Galilee.^[a] He also sent a message to people in the low hills and Naphoth Dor in the west. ³ So Canaanite people came from the east and from the west. They were Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites who lived in the hills. They were also Hivites who lived near Hermon mountain, in the region of Mizpah. ⁴ All these kings came with their big armies. They had many horses and chariots. The soldiers were too many to count. ⁵ These kings all joined together to fight against the Israelites. They put up their tents near the water at Merom.

⁶ The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them. This time tomorrow they will all be dead! I will give all of them to you Israelites. You must cut the legs of their horses so that they cannot run well. You must also burn their chariots.’

⁷ So Joshua and his whole army went to attack them at the Waters of Merom. They quickly attacked them by surprise. ⁸ The Lord caused the Israelites to win against them. The Israelite soldiers chased them as far as Sidon, Misrephoth Maim and the valley of Mizpah in the east. They killed their enemies as they chased them, until they were all dead. ⁹ Joshua did what the Lord had commanded him to do. He cut their horses' legs and he burned their chariots.

¹⁰ At that time, Hazor was the most important city among all those kingdoms that fought against the Israelites. So Joshua turned back and attacked Hazor. He killed its king. ¹¹ The Israelites killed everyone who lived there. Nothing in the city was left alive. They burned the city and destroyed it.

¹² Joshua took all these cities and he killed all their kings. He destroyed them all, as the Lord's servant Moses had told him to do. ¹³ But the Israelites did not burn the cities that were built on small hills. Hazor was the only city like that which Joshua did burn. ¹⁴ The Israelites took for themselves all the animals and the valuable things from those cities. But they killed all the people. They did not let any of them live. ¹⁵ Moses had told all the Lord's commands to Joshua. Joshua obeyed all the Lord's commands. He did everything that the Lord had told Moses.

The land that Joshua took for the Israelites

¹⁶ Joshua's army won against all the people who were living in the land. He took the hill country, the Negev in the south, and the land of Goshen. He took the low hills in the west and the Jordan Valley. He took the mountains and the hills of Israel. ¹⁷ The land went from Halak mountain near Edom country, to Baal Gad in the Lebanon valley, below Hermon mountain. He caught all the kings of those regions and he killed them all. ¹⁸ Joshua was fighting against those kings for a long time. ¹⁹ None of those kingdoms agreed not to fight against the Israelites, except the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. The Israelites fought battles against all the other kingdoms and they won. ²⁰ The Lord had caused the minds of those people to become hard. So they all decided to fight against the Israelites. The Lord wanted the Israelites to destroy those people completely, as he had commanded Moses.

²¹ During that time, Joshua went to fight against the Anakites, who lived in the hill country. They lived in Hebron, Debir and Anab, and among the hills of Judah and Israel. Joshua destroyed them all, and all their towns. ²² So no Anakites remained in Israel, except for a few who lived in Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.

²³ In that way, Joshua took the whole land. The Lord had promised Moses that he would give the land to his people. Joshua gave a part of the land to each tribe, for them to live in.

After all that, the people did not have to fight any more.

Kingdoms on the east side of the Jordan River

12 The Israelites killed these kings who ruled on the east side of the Jordan River. They destroyed them and they took their land. Their land went from the Arnon valley to Hermon mountain. It included all the land on the east side of the Jordan Valley.

² They killed Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. He ruled half of the Gilead region. That is from Aroer that was on the edge of the Arnon valley, as far as the Jabbok river. The Ammonites had the land on the other side of the river. ³ King Sihon's land also went along the east side of the Jordan Valley from the sea of Galilee to the Salt Sea. His land went south to Beth Jeshimoth and as far as Pisgah mountain.

⁴ They killed Og, king of Bashan. He was one of the last Rephaites. He lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. ⁵ He ruled the land from Hermon mountain and Salecah in the north, and all of the Bashan region in the east. His land went as far as the borders of the kingdoms of Geshur and Maakah. He ruled half of the Gilead region, as far as the border of King Sihon of Heshbon.

⁶ The Lord's servant, Moses, and the Israelites won against these kings. Moses gave their land to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh to live in.^[b]

Kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan River

⁷ Joshua and the Israelites killed these kings who ruled on the west side of the Jordan River. Joshua gave these kings' land to the Israelite tribes for them to live in. He gave a different piece of land to each tribe. Their land went from Baal Gad in the Lebanon valley to Halak mountain, which is near Seir. ⁸ This included the hill country, the low hills in the west, the Jordan Valley, the mountains, the wilderness and the Negev. That was the land that belonged to the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ Joshua took the land of these kings:

Joshua and the Israelites took the land of these 31 kings.^[c]

Ten men that had a bad disease of the skin

¹¹ On his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus was travelling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² When he was going into a village, ten men came towards him. These men had a bad disease of the skin. They stopped and stood a long way away from Jesus. ¹³ They shouted, ‘Jesus, Master, please be kind to us.’

¹⁴ Jesus saw them and said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’

While they were going on their way, they became well again. ¹⁵ One of these ten men saw that Jesus had made him well. He turned back and he praised God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He went down on his knees in front of Jesus and thanked him. This man was from Samaria.

¹⁷ Then Jesus said, ‘I made ten men well again, didn't I? There should be another nine men somewhere! ¹⁸ But only this one man came back to thank God. And he is a foreign man from Samaria!’

¹⁹ Then Jesus spoke to the man. ‘Stand up and go on your way. You believed in me, so now you are really well.’

Jesus talks about the time when God will rule

²⁰ Then some Pharisees asked Jesus a question. ‘When will the kingdom of God begin here?’

Jesus replied, ‘When God begins to rule here, people will not see it with their eyes. ²¹ Nobody will say, “Look everyone! God is ruling here,” or “Look! God is ruling over there.” No, it is not like that. God is already ruling in the lives of his people.’

²² Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The time will come when you will very much want to see me, the Son of Man, return to the earth. But you will not see that day. ²³ People may say to you, “Look, there he is!” or “Here he is!” But do not go out with them to look. ²⁴ When lightning shines, it quickly makes the whole of the sky light from one side to the other. It will be like that on the day when the Son of Man returns.^{[a] 25} But before this happens, the people of today will refuse to accept me. And I will feel much pain.

²⁶ Remember what happened when Noah was alive.^[b] It will be like that at the time when the Son of Man returns to the earth. ²⁷ In Noah's time, people were eating their meals every day. Men and women continued to marry. They continued to do all this until the day when Noah went into his boat. Then it rained for a long time and there was deep water everywhere. The water killed all the people.

²⁸ The same kind of thing happened when Lot was alive.^[c] People in the city of Sodom were eating their meals every day. They were buying and selling things. They were planting their seeds and they were building their houses. ²⁹ But one day Lot went away from Sodom. On that same day, God caused it to rain fire and burning stones from the sky. This killed all the people in Sodom.

³⁰ It will happen quickly like that, on the day when I, the Son of Man, show myself clearly. ³¹ On that day, a person who is up on the roof of his house must not go back down into the house. He must not get his things that are inside the house to take with him. In the same way, people that are working outside in their fields must not go back to their homes. ³² Remember what happened to Lot's wife.^[d]

³³ Whoever wants to keep his own life safe will lose it. But whoever gives his life to serve me will have true life. ³⁴ I tell you this. At that time, two men will be sleeping in one bed. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other man behind. ^35-36 Two women will be preparing food together in the same place. God will take one of them away but he will leave the other one behind.’

³⁷ Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Where will this happen?’ Jesus replied, ‘If a dead body is lying somewhere, vultures will come together in that place.’^[e]

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The journey to Zion