Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land: And you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king: but their goods and their cattle you may take for yourselves: let a secret force be stationed to make a surprise attack on the town from the back.

Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the word of the Lord came to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' helper, saying, Moses my servant is dead; so now get up! Go over Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which you put your foot I have given to you, as I said to Moses. read more.
From the waste land and this mountain Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea, in the west, will be your country. While you are living, all will give way before you: as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not take away my help from you or give you up. Take heart and be strong; for you will give to this people for their heritage the land which I gave by an oath to their fathers. Only take heart and be very strong; take care to do all the law which Moses my servant gave you, not turning from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may do well in all your undertakings. Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and you will do well. Have I not given you your orders? Take heart and be strong; have no fear and do not be troubled; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go,

And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hands Jericho with its king and all its men of war. Now let all your fighting-men make a circle round the town, going all round it once. Do this for six days. And let seven priests go before the ark with seven loud-sounding horns in their hands: on the seventh day you are to go round the town seven times, the priests blowing their horns. read more.
And at the sound of a long note on the horns, let all the people give a loud cry; and the wall of the town will come down flat, and all the people are to go straight forward.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, Get up; what are you doing with your face to the earth? Israel has done wrong, sinning against the agreement which I made with them: they have even taken of the cursed thing; acting falsely like thieves they have put it among their goods. For this reason the children of Israel have given way, turning their backs in flight before their attackers, because they are cursed: I will no longer be with you, if you do not put the cursed thing away from among you. read more.
Up! make the people holy; say to them, Make yourselves holy before tomorrow, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, There is a cursed thing among you, O Israel, and you will give way before your attackers in the fight till the cursed thing has been taken away from among you. So in the morning you are to come near, tribe by tribe; and the tribe marked out by the Lord is to come near, family by family; and the family marked out by the Lord is to come near, house by house; and the house marked out by the Lord is to come near, man by man. Then the man who is taken with the cursed thing is to be burned, with everything which is his; because he has gone against the agreement of the Lord and has done an act of shame in Israel.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses, So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood. read more.
And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe. And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate. And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight.


Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east; To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death: The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses, So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood. read more.
And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe. And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate. And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight.

But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight. But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death.

Then let certain towns be marked out as safe places to which anyone who takes the life of another in error may go in flight. In these towns you may be safe from him who has the right of punishment; so that death may not overtake the taker of life till he has been judged by the meeting of the people. Six of the towns which you give will be such safe places; read more.
Three on the other side of Jordan and three in the land of Canaan, to be safe places for flight. For the children of Israel and for the man from another country who is living among them, these six towns are to be safe places, where anyone causing the death of another through error may go in flight. But if a man gives another man a blow with an iron instrument, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. Or if he gives him a blow with a stone in his hand, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. Or if he gave him blows with a wood instrument in his hands, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. He whose right it is to give punishment for blood, may himself put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him. If in his hate he put a sword through him, or waiting secretly for him sent a spear or stone at him, causing his death; Or in hate gave him blows with his hand, causing death; he who gave the death-blow is to be put to death; he is a taker of life: he whose right it is to give punishment for blood may put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him. But if a man has given a wound to another suddenly and not in hate, or without design has sent something against him, Or has given him a blow with a stone, without seeing him, so causing his death, though he had nothing against him and no desire to do him evil: Then let the meeting of the people be judge between the man responsible for the death and him who has the right of punishment for blood, acting by these rules: And let the people keep the man responsible for the death safe from the hands of him who has the right of punishment for blood, and send him back to his safe town where he had gone in flight: there let him be till the death of the high priest who was marked with the holy oil. But if ever he goes outside the walls of the safe town where he had gone in flight, And the giver of punishment, meeting him outside the walls of the town, puts him to death, he will not be responsible for his blood: Because he had been ordered to keep inside the safe town till the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the taker of life may come back to the place of his heritage. These rules are to be your guide in judging through all your generations wherever you may be living. Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one witness is not enough. Further, no price may be given for the life of one who has taken life and whose right reward is death: he is certainly to be put to death. And no price may be offered for one who has gone in flight to a safe town, for the purpose of letting him come back to his place before the death of the high priest.

You are to have three towns marked out in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage. You are to make ready a way, and see that the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, is marked out into three parts, to which any taker of life may go in flight. This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there, after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate; read more.
For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe: For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate. And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose. And if the Lord your God makes wide the limits of your land, as he said in his oath to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he undertook to give to your fathers; If you keep and do all these orders which I give you today, loving the Lord your God and walking ever in his ways; then let three more towns, in addition to these three, be marked out for you: So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to death, for which you will be responsible. But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns; The responsible men of his town are to send and take him, and give him up to the one who has the right of punishment to be put to death. Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be well for you.