1    Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. 

2    You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.” 

3    So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night

4    with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. 

5    When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. 

6    We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them, 

7    you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the Lord your God will give it to you. 

8   Set the town on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You have your orders.”

9    So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night. 

10   Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel. 

11   All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town. 

12   That night Joshua sent about 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town. 

13   So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.

14   When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town. 

15   Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten. 

16   Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town. 

17   There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.

18   Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded. 

19   As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

20   When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. 

21   When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai. 

22   Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped. 

23   Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

3    Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 

4    After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

5    And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.

6    For the Lord disciplines those he loves,

and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”

7    As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 

8    If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 

9    Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?

10   For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 

11   No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

12   So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 

13   Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

1   I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.

2   Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!

3   Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow.

4   Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Please, Lord, save me!”

5   How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours!

6   The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me.

7   Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.

8   He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

9   And so I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!

2   Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, 

3   and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. 

4   Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.

5   Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 

6   He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.

7   Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” 

8   Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.

9   As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

10  So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”

11  Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”

12  Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt? 

13  But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”

4   Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

5   “Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin.”

6   And yet, “Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.”

7   I observed yet another example of something meaningless under the sun. 

8   This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing.

1    At the Lord’s command, a man of God from Judah went to Bethel, arriving there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to burn incense. 

2    Then at the Lord’s command, he shouted, “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you.” 

3    That same day the man of God gave a sign to prove his message. He said, “The Lord has promised to give this sign: This altar will split apart, and its ashes will be poured out on the ground.”

4    When King Jeroboam heard the man of God speaking against the altar at Bethel, he pointed at him and shouted, “Seize that man!” But instantly the king’s hand became paralyzed in that position, and he couldn’t pull it back. 

5    At the same time a wide crack appeared in the altar, and the ashes poured out, just as the man of God had predicted in his message from the Lord.

6    The king cried out to the man of God, “Please ask the Lord your God to restore my hand again!” So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and he could move it again.

7    Then the king said to the man of God, “Come to the palace with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.”

8    But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place. 

9    For the Lord gave me this command: ‘You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.’” 

10   So he left Bethel and went home another way.

1    Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 

2    Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 

3    For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 

4    And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

5    So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 

6    Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 

7    You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 

8    But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 

9    Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 

10    Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 

11    In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

21  Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside.

22  I was so foolish and ignorant—I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

23  Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.

24  You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

25  Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.

26  My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

27  Those who desert him will perish, for you destroy those who abandon you.

28  But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

14   When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. 15   When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.

16   “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.

17   One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. 

18   And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

19   Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

20   So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.

21   “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

23   “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

24   The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

25   When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

26   Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” 

27   But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

28   Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”

29   Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”