A Chosen People^(A)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(B)possess, and has cast out many ^(C)nations before you, ^(D)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(E)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(F)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (G)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(H)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(I)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[a]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[b]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(J)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(K)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(L)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(M)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(N)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(O)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[c]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(P)the faithful God ^(Q)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[d]be ^(R)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(S)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(T)love you and bless you and ^[e]multiply you; ^(U)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[f]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(V)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(W)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[g]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(X)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(Y)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (Z)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^20 (AA)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(AB)little by little; you will be unable to ^[h]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(AC)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(AD)no one shall be able to stand ^[i]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(AE)covet^[j] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(AF)for it is an ^[k]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(AG)you must ^[l]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(AH)multiply,^[m] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[n]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(AI)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(AJ)test you, ^(AK)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(AL)allowed you to hunger, and ^(AM)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(AN)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (AO)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (AP)You should ^[o]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(AQ)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(AR)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (AS)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (AT)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[p]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[q]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (AU)when your heart ^[r]is lifted up, and you ^(AV)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(AW)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(AX)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(AY)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(AZ)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(BA)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(BB)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(BC)that He may ^[s]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(BD)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(BE)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

^36 (A)Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. ³⁷ And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, ³⁸ and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ^(B)“This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

⁴¹ “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred ^(C)denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” ⁴⁴ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no ^(D)water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no ^(E)kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. ^46 (F)You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. ^47 (G)Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then He said to her, ^(H)“Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ^(I)“Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Then He said to the woman, ^(J)“Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

Many Women Minister to Jesus

8 Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and ^[a]bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, ² and ^(K)certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and ^[b]infirmities—Mary called Magdalene, ^(L)out of whom had come seven demons, ³ and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for ^[c]Him from their ^[d]substance.

An Urgent Plea for Help in Trouble

To the Chief Musician. Set to ^[a]“The Lilies.” A Psalm of David.

The House of the Righteous Shall Stand