This shall be the priests' fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep -- they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach.

He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance.

The Lord then said to me, "What they have said is good.

Then, when the officers have finished speaking, they must appoint unit commanders to lead the troops.

so that they cannot teach you all the abhorrent ways they worship their gods, causing you to sin against the Lord your God.

and bring the heifer down to a wadi with flowing water, to a valley that is neither plowed nor sown. There at the wadi they are to break the heifer's neck.

Then they must proclaim, "Our hands have not spilled this blood, nor have we witnessed the crime.

Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, and they both bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife.

If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail,

They must declare to the elders of his city, "Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say -- he is a glutton and drunkard."

They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman's father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

Suppose a man comes across a virgin who is not engaged and overpowers and rapes her and they are discovered.

for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard you must not do so a second time; they should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.

If controversy arises between people, they should go to court for judgment. When the judges hear the case, they shall exonerate the innocent but condemn the guilty.

how they met you along the way and cut off all your stragglers in the rear of the march when you were exhausted and tired; they were unafraid of God.

When you finish tithing all your income in the third year (the year of tithing), you must give it to the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows so that they may eat to their satisfaction in your villages.

The Lord will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions.

Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, and they will respect you.

You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity.

They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, or lambs of your flocks until they have destroyed you.

They will besiege all of your villages until all of your high and fortified walls collapse -- those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you.

Then people will say, "Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship.

Gather the people -- men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages -- so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "You are about to die, and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they are going. They will reject me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

At that time my anger will erupt against them and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome them so that they will say at that time, 'Have not these disasters overcome us because our God is not among us?'

But I will certainly hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they will have done by turning to other gods.

For after I have brought them to the land I promised to their ancestors -- one flowing with milk and honey -- and they eat their fill and become fat, then they will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant.

Then when many disasters and distresses overcome them this song will testify against them, for their descendants will not forget it. I know the intentions they have in mind today, even before I bring them to the land I have promised."

His people have been unfaithful to him; they have not acted like his children -- this is their sin. They are a perverse and deceitful generation.

Remember the ancient days; bear in mind the years of past generations. Ask your father and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you.

They made him jealous with other gods, they enraged him with abhorrent idols.

They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors had not known about.

He said, "I will reject them, I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty.

They have made me jealous with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.

They will be starved by famine, eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; I will send the teeth of wild animals against them, along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

The sword will make people childless outside, and terror will do so inside; they will destroy both the young man and the virgin, the infant and the gray-haired man.

"I said, 'I want to cut them in pieces. I want to make people forget they ever existed.

They are a nation devoid of wisdom, and there is no understanding among them.

I wish that they were wise and could understand this, and that they could comprehend what will happen to them."

He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought security,

Surely he loves the people; all your holy ones are in your power. And they sit at your feet, each receiving your words.

He said to his father and mother, "I have not seen him," and he did not acknowledge his own brothers or know his own children, for they kept your word, and guarded your covenant.

They will teach Jacob your ordinances and Israel your law; they will offer incense as a pleasant odor, and a whole offering on your altar.

Bless, O Lord, his goods, and be pleased with his efforts; undercut the legs of any who attack him, and of those who hate him, so that they cannot stand.

May the firstborn of his bull bring him honor, and may his horns be those of a wild ox; with them may he gore all peoples, all the far reaches of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

They will summon peoples to the mountain, there they will sacrifice proper sacrifices; for they will enjoy the abundance of the seas, and the hidden treasures of the shores.

until the Lord gives your brothers a place like yours to settle and they conquer the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to them. Then you may go back to your allotted land and occupy the land Moses the Lord's servant assigned you east of the Jordan."

They told Joshua, "We will do everything you say. We will go wherever you send us.

Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: "Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho." They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there.

So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: "Turn over the men who came to you -- the ones who came to your house -- for they have come to spy on the whole land!"

But the woman hid the two men and replied, "Yes, these men were clients of mine, but I didn't know where they came from.

When it was time to shut the city gate for the night, the men left. I don't know where they were heading. Chase after them quickly, for you have time to catch them!"

Meanwhile the king's men tried to find them on the road to the Jordan River near the fords. The city gate was shut as soon as they set out in pursuit of them.

They went to the hill country and stayed there for three days, long enough for those chasing them to return. Their pursuers looked all along the way but did not find them.

Then the two men returned -- they came down from the hills, crossed the river, came to Joshua son of Nun, and reported to him all they had discovered.

They told Joshua, "Surely the Lord is handing over all the land to us! All who live in the land are cringing before us!"

Bright and early the next morning Joshua and the Israelites left Shittim and came to the Jordan. They camped there before crossing the river.

Joshua told the priests, "Pick up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people." So they picked up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.

The Lord told Joshua, "This very day I will begin to honor you before all Israel so they will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

The Israelites did just as Joshua commanded. They picked up twelve stones, according to the number of the Israelite tribes, from the middle of the Jordan as the Lord had instructed Joshua. They carried them over with them to the camp and put them there.

Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan in the very place where the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood. They remain there to this very day.

That day the Lord brought honor to Joshua before all Israel. They respected him all his life, just as they had respected Moses.

The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and as soon as they set foot on dry land, the water of the Jordan flowed again and returned to flood stage.

Now Joshua set up in Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken from the Jordan.

When all the Amorite kings on the west side of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the seacoast heard how the Lord had dried up the water of the Jordan before the Israelites while they crossed, they lost their courage and could not even breathe for fear of the Israelites.

This is why Joshua had to circumcise them: All the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt died on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt.

Now all the men who left were circumcised, but all the sons born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, a land rich in milk and honey.

He replaced them with their sons, whom Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised; their fathers had not circumcised them along the way.

When all the men had been circumcised, they stayed there in the camp until they had healed.

They ate some of the produce of the land the day after the Passover, including unleavened bread and roasted grain.

The manna stopped appearing the day they ate some of the produce of the land; the Israelites never ate manna again.

So Joshua made sure they marched the ark of the Lord around the city one time. Then they went back to the camp and spent the night there.

They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.

On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn and marched around the city as before -- only this time they marched around it seven times.

All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. They must go into the Lord's treasury."

The rams' horns sounded and when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.

They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.

So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside the Israelite camp.

But they burned the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord's house.

They returned and reported to Joshua, "Don't send the whole army. About two or three thousand men are adequate to defeat Ai. Don't tire out the whole army, for Ai is small."

So about three thousand men went up, but they fled from the men of Ai.

Joshua prayed, "O, Master, Lord! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us?

When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?"

Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! They have taken some of the riches; they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions.

The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation. I will no longer be with you, unless you destroy what has contaminated you.

I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon, two hundred silver pieces, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, so I took them. They are hidden in the ground right in the middle of my tent with the silver underneath."

They took it all from the middle of the tent, brought it to Joshua and all the Israelites, and placed it before the Lord.

Joshua said, "Why have you brought disaster on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you today!" All Israel stoned him to death. (They also stoned and burned the others.)

Then they erected over him a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day) and the Lord's anger subsided. So that place is called the Valley of Disaster to this very day.

I and all the troops who are with me will approach the city. When they come out to fight us like before, we will retreat from them.

They will attack us until we have lured them from the city, for they will say, 'They are retreating from us like before.' We will retreat from them.

Joshua sent them away and they went to their hiding place west of Ai, between Bethel and Ai. Joshua spent that night with the army.

All the troops that were with him marched up and drew near the city. They camped north of Ai on the other side of the valley.

Joshua and all Israel pretended to be defeated by them and they retreated along the way to the desert.