321 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle; 2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the meeting, 3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 4 The land which the Lord gave into the hands of the children of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle. 5 And they said, With your approval, let this land be given to your servants as their heritage: do not take us over Jordan. 6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Are your brothers to go to the war, while you take your rest here? 7 Why would you take from the children of Israel the desire to go over into the land which the Lord has given them? 8 So did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they took from the children of Israel the desire to go into the land which the Lord had given them. 10 And at that time the Lord was moved to wrath, and made an oath, saying, 11 Truly, not one of the men of twenty years old and over who came out of Egypt will see the land which I gave by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not been true to me with all their heart; 12 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun: because they have been true to the Lord. 13 Then the Lord was angry with Israel, and he made them wanderers in the waste land for forty years? till all that generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord was dead. 14 And now you have come to take the place of your fathers, another generation of sinners, increasing the wrath of the Lord against Israel. 15 For if you are turned away from him, he will send them wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause of the destruction of all this people.
16 Then they came to him, and said, We will make safe places for our cattle here, and towns for our little ones; 17 But we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel till we have taken them to their place: but our little ones will be safe in the walled towns against the people of the land. 18 We will not come back to our houses till every one of the children of Israel has come into his heritage. 19 For we will not have our heritage with them on the other side of Jordan and forward; because our heritage has come to us on this side of Jordan to the east. 20 Then Moses said to them, If you will do this, arming yourselves to go before the Lord to the war, 21 Every armed man of you going across Jordan before the Lord till he has overcome and sent in flight all who are against him, 22 And the land is under the rule of the Lord: then after that you may come back, having done no wrong to the Lord and to Israel; and this land will be yours for your heritage before the Lord. 23 But if you do not do this, then you are sinners against the Lord; and you may be certain that your sin will have its reward. 24 So get to work building your towns for your little ones, and safe places for your sheep; and do as you have said. 25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord says. 26 Our little ones, our wives, and our flocks, and all our cattle, will be there in the towns of Gilead; 27 But your servants will go over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to the fight, as my lord says.
28 So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel. 29 And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben go with you over Jordan, every man armed for the fight before the Lord, and all the land is given into your hands, then let them have the land of Gilead for a heritage: 30 But if they do not go over with you armed, they will have to take their heritage with you in the land of Canaan. 31 Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do. 32 We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you will give us our heritage on this side of Jordan. 33 So Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, all the land with its towns and the country round them. 34 And the children of Gad were the builders of Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer; 35 And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah; 36 And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran: walled towns and shut-in places for sheep. 37 And the children of Reuben were the builders of Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim; 38 And Nebo and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the towns they made. 39 And the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, driving out the Amorites who were living there. 40 And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh; and he made it his living-place. 41 And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the towns of Gilead, naming them Havvoth-Jair. 42 And Nobah went and took Kenath and its small towns, naming it Nobah, after himself.
331 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt in their armies, under the direction of Moses and Aaron. 2 And the stages of their journey on their way out were put down in writing by Moses at the order of the Lord: these are the stages of their journey and the way they went. 3 On the fifteenth day of the first month they went out from Rameses; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out by the power of the Lord before the eyes of all the Egyptians, 4 While the Egyptians were placing in the earth the bodies of their sons on whom the Lord had sent destruction: and their gods had been judged by him. 5 So the children of Israel went from Rameses and put up their tents in Succoth. 6 And they went on from Succoth and put up their tents in Etham on the edge of the waste land. 7 And from Etham, turning back to Pi-hahiroth which is before Baal-zephon, they put up their tents before Migdol. 8 And journeying on from before Hahiroth, they went through the sea into the waste land: they went three days' journey through the waste land of Etham and put up their tents in Marah. 9 And from Marah they went on to Elim: and in Elim there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees; and they put up their tents there. 10 And they went on from Elim and put up their tents by the Red Sea. 11 Then from the Red Sea they went on and put up their tents in the waste land of Sin. 12 And they went on from the waste land of Sin, and put up their tents in Dophkah. 13 And they went on from Dophkah, and put up their tents in Alush. 14 And they went on from Alush, and put up their tents in Rephidim, where there was no drinking-water for the people. 15 And they went on from Rephidim, and put up their tents in the waste land of Sinai. 16 And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah. 17 And they went on from Kibroth-hattaavah, and put up their tents in Hazeroth. 18 And they went on from Hazeroth, and put up their tents in Rithmah. 19 And they went on from Rithmah, and put up their tents in Rimmon-perez. 20 And they went on from Rimmon-perez, and put up their tents in Libnah. 21 And they went on from Libnah, and put up their tents in Rissah. 22 And they went on from Rissah, and put up their tents in Kehelathah. 23 And they went on from Kehelathah, and put up their tents in Mount Shepher. 24 And they went on from Mount Shepher, and put up their tents in Haradah. 25 And they went on from Haradah, and put up their tents in Makheloth. 26 And they went on from Makheloth, and put up their tents in Tahath. 27 And they went on from Tahath, and put up their tents in Terah. 28 And they went on from Terah, and put up their tents in Mithkah. 29 And they went on from Mithkah, and put up their tents in Hashmonah. 30 And they went on from Hashmonah, and put up their tents in Moseroth. 31 And they went on from Moseroth, and put up their tents in Bene-jaakan. 32 And they went on from Bene-jaakan, and put up their tents in Hor-haggidgad. 33 And they went on from Hor-haggidgad, and put up their tents in Jotbathah. 34 And they went on from Jotbathah, and put up their tents in Abronah. 35 And they went on from Abronah, and put up their tents in Ezion-geber. 36 And they went on from Ezion-geber, and put up their tents in the waste land of Zin (which is Kadesh). 37 And they went on from Kadesh, and put up their tents in Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom. 38 And Aaron the priest went up into the mountain at the order of the Lord, and came to his death there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month. 39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at the time of his death in Mount Hor. 40 And news of the coming of the children of Israel came to the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who was living in the South in the land of Canaan. 41 And from Mount Hor they went on, and put up their tents in Zalmonah. 42 And they went on from Zalmonah, and put up their tents in Punon. 43 And they went on from Punon, and put up their tents in Oboth. 44 And they went on from Oboth, and put up their tents in Iye-abarim at the edge of Moab. 45 And they went on from Iyim, and put up their tents in Dibon-gad. 46 And from Dibon-gad they went on, and put up their tents in Almon-diblathaim. 47 And from Almon-diblathaim they went on, and put up their tents in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. 48 And they went on from the mountains of Abarim, and put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho; 49 Planting their tents by the side of Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab.
50 And in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, 51 Say to the children of Israel, When you go over Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 See that all the people of the land are forced out from before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones, and all their metal images, and all their high places: 53 And take the land for yourselves, for your resting-place: for to you I have given the land as your heritage. 54 And you will take up your heritage in the land by the decision of the Lord, to every family its part; the greater the family the greater its heritage, and the smaller the family the smaller will be its heritage; wherever the decision of the Lord gives to any man his part, that will be his; distribution will be made to you by your fathers' tribes. 55 But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land, then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in the land where you are living. 56 And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do to them, so I will do to you.
341 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land which is to be your heritage, the land of Canaan inside these limits,) 3 Then your south quarter will be from the waste land of Zin by the side of Edom, and your limit on the south will be from the east end of the Salt Sea, 4 And round to the south of the slope of Akrabbim, and on to Zin: and its direction will be south of Kadesh-barnea, and it will go as far as Hazar-addar and on to Azmon: 5 And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea. 6 And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west. 7 And your limit on the north will be the line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor: 8 And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad: 9 And the limit will go on to Ziphron, with its farthest point at Hazar-enan: this will be your limit on the north. 10 And on the east, your limit will be marked out from Hazar-enan to Shepham, 11 Going down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain, and on as far as the east side of the sea of Chinnereth: 12 And so down to Jordan, stretching to the Salt Sea: all the land inside these limits will be yours. 13 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel saying, This is the land which is to be your heritage, by the decision of the Lord, which by the Lord's order is to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe: 14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben, by their fathers' families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, by their fathers' families, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been given their heritage: 15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have been given their heritage on the other side of Jordan at Jericho, on the east looking to the dawn.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, 17 These are the names of the men who are to make the distribution of the land among you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun. 18 And you are to take one chief from every tribe to make the distribution of the land. 19 And these are the names of the men: of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. 20 And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel, the son of Ammihud. 21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Chislon. 22 And of the tribe of the children of Dan, a chief, Bukki, the son of Jogli. 23 Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of Manasseh, a chief, Hanniel, the son of Ephod: 24 And of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, a chief, Kemuel, the son of Shiphtan. 25 And of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, a chief, Elizaphan, the son of Parnach. 26 And of the tribe of the children of Issachar, a chief, Paltiel, the son of Azzan. 27 And of the tribe of the children of Asher, a chief, Ahihud, the son of Shelomi. 28 And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, a chief, Pedahel, the son of Ammihud. 29 These are they to whom the Lord gave orders to make the distribution of the heritage among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.
30 And they went out from there, through Galilee; and it was his desire that no man might have knowledge of it; 31 For he was giving his disciples teaching, and saying to them, The Son of man is given up into the hands of men, and they will put him to death; and when he is dead, after three days he will come back from the dead. 32 But the saying was not clear to them, and they were in fear of questioning him about it.
33 And they came to Capernaum: and when he was in the house, he put the question to them, What were you talking about on the way? 34 But they said nothing: because they had had an argument between themselves on the way, about who was the greatest. 35 And seating himself, he made the twelve come to him; and he said to them, If any man has the desire to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all. 36 And he took a little child, and put him in the middle of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 Whoever will give honour to one such little child in my name, gives honour to me: and whoever gives honour to me, gives honour not to me, but to him who sent me.
38 John said to him, Master, we saw one driving out evil spirits in your name: and we said that he might not, because he is not one of us. 39 But Jesus said, Say not so: for there is no man who will do a great work in my name, and be able at the same time to say evil of me. 40 He who is not against us is for us.
41 Whoever gives you a cup of water, because you are Christ's, truly I say to you, he will in no way be without his reward.
42 And whoever is a cause of trouble to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him if a great stone was put round his neck and he was dropped into the sea. 43 And if your hand is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off; it is better for you to go into life with one hand than to have two hands and go into hell, into the eternal fire. 44 [] 45 And if your foot is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off: it is better for you to go into life with one foot than to have two feet and go into hell. 46 [] 47 And if your eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out: it is better for you to go into the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to go into hell, 48 Where their worm is ever living and the fire is not put out. 49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if the taste goes from it, how will you make it salt again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another.
(Read Mark 9:30-40)
The time of Christ's suffering drew nigh. Had he been delivered into the hands of devils, and they had done this, it had not been so strange; but that men should thus shamefully treat the Son of man, who came to redeem and save them, is wonderful. Still observe that when Christ spake of his death, he always spake of his resurrection, which took the reproach of it from himself, and should have taken the grief of it from his disciples. Many remain ignorant because they are ashamed to inquire. Alas! that while the Saviour teaches so plainly the things which belong to his love and grace, men are so blinded that they understand not his sayings. We shall be called to account about our discourses, and to account for our disputes, especially about being greater than others. Those who are most humble and self-denying, most resemble Christ, and shall be most tenderly owned by him. This Jesus taught them by a sign; whoever shall receive one like this child, receives me. Many have been like the disciples, ready to silence men who have success in preaching to sinners repentance in Christ's name, because they follow not with them. Our Lord blamed the apostles, reminding them that he who wrought miracles in his name would not be likely to hurt his cause. If sinners are brought to repent, to believe in the Saviour, and to live sober, righteous, and godly lives, we then see that the Lord works by the preacher.
(Read Mark 9:41-50)
It is repeatedly said of the wicked, Their worm dieth not, as well as, The fire is never quenched. Doubtless, remorse of conscience and keen self-reflection are this never-dying worm. Surely it is beyond compare better to undergo all possible pain, hardship, and self-denial here, and to be happy for ever hereafter, than to enjoy all kinds of worldly pleasure for a season, and to be miserable for ever. Like the sacrifices, we must be salted with salt; our corrupt affections must be subdued and mortified by the Holy Spirit. Those that have the salt of grace, must show they have a living principle of grace in their hearts, which works out corrupt dispositions in the soul that would offend God, or our own consciences.
