Reuben and Gad Settle in Gilead

¹Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of vJazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. ²So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation, ³w“Ataroth, xDibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, yNebo, and Beon, ⁴the land zthat the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? ⁷Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? ⁸Your fathers did this, awhen I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. ⁹For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. ¹⁰bAnd the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, ¹¹‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, cfrom twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give dto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, ¹²none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the eKenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for fthey have wholly followed the Lord.’ ¹³And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them gwander in the wilderness forty years, until hall the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. ¹⁴And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! ¹⁵For if you iturn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said, j“We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷but kwe will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸lWe will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, mbecause our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.” ²⁰So nMoses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, ²¹and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has odriven out his enemies from before him ²²and the land is subdued before the Lord; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and pthis land shall be your possession before the Lord. ²³But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and qbe sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴rBuild cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.” ²⁵And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶sOur little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead, ²⁷tbut your servants will pass over, every man who is uarmed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord orders.”

²⁸So vMoses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to wJoshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. ²⁹And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. ³⁰However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. ³²We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

³³And xMoses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. ³⁴And the people of Gad built yDibon, zAtaroth, aAroer, ³⁵Atroth-shophan, bJazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶cBeth-nimrah and Beth-haran, dfortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷And the people of Reuben built eHeshbon, yElealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸fNebo, and gBaal-meon (htheir names were changed), and cSibmah. And they gave other names to the cities that they built. ³⁹And the sons of iMachir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰And Moses jgave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. ⁴¹And kJair the son of Manasseh went and captured their villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.1 ⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord

To the choirmaster: according to yJeduthun. A Psalm of zAsaph.

¹I acry aloud to God,

aloud to God, and he will hear me.

²bIn the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;

in cthe night my dhand is stretched out without wearying;

my soul erefuses to be comforted.

³When I remember God, I fmoan;

when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah

⁴You hold my eyelids open;

I am so gtroubled that I cannot speak.

⁵I consider hthe days of old,

the years long ago.

⁶I said,1 “Let me remember my isong in the night;

let me jmeditate in my heart.”

Then my spirit made a diligent search:

⁷“Will the Lord kspurn forever,

and never again lbe favorable?

⁸Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Are his mpromises at an end for all time?

⁹nHas God forgotten to be gracious?

oHas he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

¹⁰Then I said, “I will appeal to this,

to the years of the pright hand of the Most High.”2

¹¹I will remember the deeds of the Lord;

yes, I will qremember your wonders of old.

¹²I will ponder all your rwork,

and meditate on your smighty deeds.

¹³Your way, O God, is tholy.

uWhat god is great like our God?

¹⁴You are the God who vworks wonders;

you have wmade known your might among the peoples.

¹⁵You xwith your arm redeemed your people,

the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

¹⁶When ythe waters saw you, O God,

when the waters saw you, they were afraid;

indeed, the deep trembled.

¹⁷The clouds poured out water;

the skies zgave forth thunder;

your aarrows flashed on every side.

¹⁸bThe crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;

cyour lightnings lighted up the world;

the earth dtrembled and shook.

¹⁹Your eway was through the sea,

your path through the great waters;

yet your footprints fwere unseen.3

²⁰You gled your people like a flock

by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Judgment on the Whole Earth

¹Behold, cthe Lord will empty the earth1 and make it desolate,

and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

²dAnd it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;

as with the slave, so with his master;

as with the maid, so with her mistress;

eas with the buyer, so with the seller;

as with the lender, so with the borrower;

fas with the creditor, so with the debtor.

³gThe earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;

hfor the Lord has spoken this word.

⁴iThe earth mourns and withers;

the world languishes and withers;

the highest people of the earth languish.

⁵The earth lies jdefiled

under its inhabitants;

for kthey have transgressed the laws,

violated the statutes,

broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore la curse devours the earth,

and its inhabitants msuffer for their guilt;

therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,

and few men are left.

⁷nThe wine mourns,

the vine languishes,

all the merry-hearted sigh.

⁸oThe mirth of the tambourines is stilled,

the noise of the jubilant has ceased,

the mirth of the lyre is stilled.

⁹No more do they drink wine pwith singing;

strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰qThe wasted city is broken down;

revery house is shut up so that none can enter.

¹¹sThere is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;

tall joy has grown dark;

the gladness of the earth is banished.

¹²Desolation is left in the city;

the gates are battered into ruins.

¹³For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth

among the nations,

uas when an olive tree is beaten,

as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.

¹⁴They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;

over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.2

¹⁵vTherefore in the east3 give glory to the Lord;

in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁶wFrom the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,

of glory to xthe Righteous One.

But I say, “I waste away,

I waste away. Woe is me!

For ythe traitors have betrayed,

with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”

¹⁷zTerror and the pit and the snare4

are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!

¹⁸zHe who flees at the sound of the terror

shall fall into the pit,

and he who climbs out of the pit

shall be caught in the snare.

For athe windows of heaven are opened,

and bthe foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken,

the earth is split apart,

the earth is violently shaken.

²⁰The earth cstaggers like a drunken man;

it sways like a hut;

dits transgression lies heavy upon it,

and it falls, and will not rise again.

²¹On that day the Lord will punish

the host of heaven, in heaven,

and ethe kings of the earth, on the earth.

²²fThey will be gathered together

as prisoners in a pit;

they will be shut up in a prison,

and after many days gthey will be punished.

²³hThen the moon will be confounded

and the sun ashamed,

for ithe Lord of hosts reigns

on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and his glory will be before his elders.

Christ Our Advocate

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, ywe have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ²zHe is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but aalso for the sins of the whole world. ³And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we bkeep his commandments. ⁴Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments cis a liar, and cthe truth is not in him, ⁵but whoever dkeeps his word, in him truly ethe love of God is perfected. fBy this we may know that we are in him: ⁶whoever says he gabides in him hought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

The New Commandment

⁷Beloved, I am writing you ino new commandment, but jan old commandment kthat you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. ⁸At the same time, it is la new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because1 mthe darkness is passing away and nthe true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever says he is in the light and ohates his brother is still in darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him2 there is no pcause for stumbling. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and qwalks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children,

because ryour sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know shim who is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because tyou have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,

because uyou know the Father.

¹⁴I write to you, fathers,

because you know shim who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

because tyou are strong,

and the word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one.

Do Not Love the World

¹⁵vDo not love the world or the things in the world. wIf anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world—xthe desires of the flesh and ythe desires of the eyes and pride of life3—is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷And zthe world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Warning Concerning Antichrists

¹⁸Children, ait is the last hour, and as you have heard that bantichrist is coming, so now cmany antichrists have come. dTherefore we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹eThey went out from us, but they were not of us; for fif they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, gthat it might become plain that they all are not of us. ²⁰But you have been hanointed by ithe Holy One, and jyou all have knowledge.4 ²¹I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. ²²Who is the liar but khe who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is bthe antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. ²³lNo one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. ²⁴Let mwhat you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then nyou too will abide in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵And this is the promise that he made to us5—oeternal life.

²⁶I write these things to you about pthose who are trying to deceive you. ²⁷But qthe anointing that you received from him abides in you, and ryou have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and sis true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

Children of God

²⁸And now, little children, abide in him, so that twhen he appears uwe may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his vcoming. ²⁹If you know that whe is righteous, you may be sure that xeveryone who practices righteousness has been born of him.