The Broken Jar

¹This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

²and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.Proclaim there the words I speak to you,

³saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring,

⁴because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

⁵They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

⁶So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

⁷And in this place I will ruinthe plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn.All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.

⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

¹⁰Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you,

¹¹and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹²This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth.

¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people,

¹⁵“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

New Stone Tablets

¹At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

²And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.”

³So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

⁴And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandmentsthat He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me,

⁵and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.

⁶The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakanto Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

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

⁸At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.

⁹That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.

¹⁰I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

A Call to Obedience

¹²And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹³and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good?

¹⁴Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

¹⁵Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.

¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

¹⁷For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

¹⁸He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

¹⁹So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

²¹He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen.

²²Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

God Instructs Joshua

¹Now after the death of His servant Moses, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying,

²“Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore arise, you and all these people, and cross over the Jordan into the land that I am giving to the children of Israel.

³I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised to Moses.

⁴Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great River Euphrates—all the land of the Hittites—and west as far as the Great Sea.

⁵No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

⁶Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

⁹Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua Takes Charge

¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people:

¹¹“Go through the camp and tell the people, ‘Prepare your provisions, for within three days you will cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.’”

¹²But to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said,

¹³“Remember what Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you when he said, ‘The LORD your God will give you rest, and He will give you this land.’

¹⁴Your wives, your young children, and your livestock may remain in the land that Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But all your mighty men of valor must be armed for battle to cross over ahead of your brothers and help them,

¹⁵until the LORD gives them rest as He has done for you, and your brothers also possess the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you may return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of that which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”

¹⁶So they answered Joshua, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go.

¹⁷Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. And may the LORD your God be with you, as He was with Moses.

¹⁸Anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words, all that you command him, will be put to death. Above all, be strong and courageous!”

The Earth Is the LORD’s

¹The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof,the world and all who dwell therein.

²For He has founded it upon the seasand established it upon the waters.

³Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?Who may stand in His holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart,who does not lift up his soul to an idolor swear deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the LORDand vindication from the God of his salvation.

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek Him,who seek Your face, O God of Jacob.Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates!Be lifted up, O ancient doors,that the King of Glory may enter!

⁸Who is this King of Glory?The LORD strong and mighty,the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates!Be lifted up, O ancient doors,that the King of Glory may enter!

¹⁰Who is He, this King of Glory?The LORD of Hosts—He is the King of Glory.Selah