The Circumcision and Passover at Gilgal

¹Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coastheard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over,their hearts melted and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites.

²At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel once again.”

³So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

⁴Now this is why Joshua circumcised them: All those who came out of Egypt—all the men of war—had died on the journey in the wilderness after they had left Egypt.

⁵Though all who had come out were circumcised, none of those born in the wilderness on the journey from Egypt had been circumcised.

⁶For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷And He raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. Until this time they were still uncircumcised, since they had not been circumcised along the way.

⁸And after all the nation had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they were healed.

⁹Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So that place has been called Gilgalto this day.

¹⁰On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.

¹¹The day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate unleavened bread and roasted grain from the produce of the land.

¹²And the day after they had eaten from the produce of the land, the manna ceased. There was no more manna for the Israelites, so that year they began to eat the crops of the land of Canaan.

The Commander of the LORD’s Army

¹³Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”

¹⁴“Neither,” He replied. “I have now come as Commander of the LORD’s army.”Then Joshua fell facedown in reverenceand asked Him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?”

¹⁵The Commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.”And Joshua did so.

The Wages of the Harlot

¹“If a man divorces his wifeand she leaves him to marry another,can he ever return to her?Would not such a land be completely defiled?But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?”declares the LORD.

²“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see.Is there any place where you have not been violated?You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers,like a nomad in the desert.You have defiled the landwith your prostitution and wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld,and no spring rains have fallen.Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute;you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just called to Me,‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.

⁵Will He be angry forever?Will He be indignant to the end?’This you have spoken,but you keep doing all the evil you can.”

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

⁶Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

⁷I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.

⁸She sawthat because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

⁹Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

A Call to Repentance

¹¹And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

¹²Go, proclaim this message toward the north:‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD.‘I will no longer look on you with anger,for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD.‘I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt,that you have rebelled against the LORD your God.You have scattered your favors to foreign godsunder every green treeand have not obeyed My voice,’”declares the LORD.

¹⁴“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

¹⁵Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

¹⁶“In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.

¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as an inheritance.

¹⁹Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sonsand give you a desirable land,the most beautiful inheritanceof all the nations!’I thought you would call Me ‘Father’and never turn away from following Me.

²⁰But as a woman may betray her husband,so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,”declares the LORD.

²¹A voice is heard on the barren heights,the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,because they have perverted their waysand forgotten the LORD their God.

²²“Return, O faithless children,and I will heal your faithlessness.”“Here we are. We come to You,for You are the LORD our God.

²³Surely deception comes from the hills,and commotion from the mountains.Surely the salvation of Israelis in the LORD our God.

²⁴From our youth, that shameful godhas consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds,their sons and daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame;let our disgrace cover us.We have sinned against the LORD our God,both we and our fathers;from our youth even to this daywe have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

The Complaint of Miriam and Aaron

¹Then Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, for he had taken a Cushite wife.

²“Does the LORD speak only through Moses?” they said. “Does He not also speak through us?” And the LORD heard this.

³Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁴And suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three, come out to the Tent of Meeting.” So the three went out,

⁵and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward,

⁶He said, “Hear now My words:If there is a prophet among you,I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision;I will speak to him in a dream.

⁷But this is not so with My servant Moses;he is faithful in all My house.

⁸I speak with him face to face,clearly and not in riddles;he sees the form of the LORD.Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

⁹So the anger of the LORD burned against them, and He departed.

¹⁰As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous,white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous,

¹¹and said to Moses, “My lord, please do not hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed.

¹²Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹³So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, please heal her!”

¹⁴But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”

¹⁵So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until she was brought in again.

¹⁶After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

I Have Stilled My Soul

¹My heart is not proud, O LORD,my eyes are not haughty.I do not aspire to great thingsor matters too lofty for me.

²Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul;like a weaned child with his mother,like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,both now and forevermore.