One Year Bible.

Cities of Refuge

¹When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their cities and houses, ²then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. ³You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities.

⁴Now this is the situation regarding the manslayer who flees to one of these cities to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally, without intending to harm him: ⁵If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life.

⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm. ⁷This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities.

⁸And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them, ⁹and if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three.

¹⁰Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

¹¹If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, ¹²the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. ¹³You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

¹⁴You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

The Testimony of Two or Three Witnesses

¹⁵A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime, ¹⁷both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. ¹⁸The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, ¹⁹you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. ²⁰Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. ²¹You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Laws of Warfare

¹When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. ²When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army, ³saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them. ⁴For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

⁵Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ⁷Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.”

⁸Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.”

⁹When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it.

¹⁰When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace. ¹¹If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you.

¹²But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city. ¹³When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword. ¹⁴But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city— all its spoil— you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. ¹⁵This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

¹⁶However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷For you must devote them to complete destruction— the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites— as the LORD your God has commanded you, ¹⁸so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁹When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? ²⁰But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

The Blessed Fear of the LORD

¹A song of ascents.

Blessed are all who fear the LORD,

who walk in His ways!

²For when you eat the fruit of your labor,

blessings and prosperity will be yours.

³Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

flourishing within your house,

your sons like olive shoots

sitting around your table.

⁴In this way indeed shall blessing come

to the man who fears the LORD.

⁵May the LORD bless you from Zion,

that you may see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life,

⁶that you may see

your children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!

A New Heaven and a New Earth

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man,

and He will dwell with them.

They will be His people,

and God Himself will be with them as their God.

⁴‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’

and there will be no more death

or mourning or crying or pain,

for the former things have passed away.”

⁵And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” ⁶And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. ⁷The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem

⁹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal. ¹²The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls. ¹⁶The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal — 12,000 stadia in length and width and height. ¹⁷And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the angel was using.

¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

The first foundation was jasper,

the second sapphire,

the third chalcedony,

the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth carnelian,

the seventh chrysolite,

the eighth beryl,

the ninth topaz,

the tenth chrysoprase,

the eleventh jacinth,

and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.

²²But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.

²⁶And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.