Whenever you reap your harvest in your field and leave some unraked grain there,<n id="1" /> you must not return to get it; it should go to the resident foreigner, orphan, and widow so that the <sc>Lordsc> your God may bless all the work you do.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man&#8217;s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband&#8217;s brother must go to her, marry her,<n id="1" /> and perform the duty of a brother-in-law.<n id="2" />

But if the man does not want to marry his brother&#8217;s widow, then she<n id="1" /> must go to the elders at the town gate and say, &#8220;My husband&#8217;s brother refuses to preserve his brother&#8217;s name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!&#8221;

you must take the first of all the ground&#8217;s produce you harvest from the land the <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he<n id="1" /> chooses to locate his name.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city&#8217;s riches.<n id="1" /> Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi,<n id="2" /> son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches.<n id="3" /> The <sc>Lordsc> was furious with the Israelites.<n id="4" />p>

Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment!<n id="1" /> They have taken some of the riches;<n id="2" /> they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions.<n id="3" />

I saw among the goods we seized a nice robe from Babylon,<n id="1" /> two hundred silver pieces,<n id="2" /> and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, so I took them. They are hidden in the ground right in the middle of my tent with the silver underneath.&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> told Joshua, &#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid and don&#8217;t panic!<n id="1" /> Take the whole army with you and march against Ai!<n id="2" /> See, I am handing over to you<n id="3" /> the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land.

Our leaders and all who live in our land told us, &#8216;Take provisions for your journey and go meet them. Tell them, &#8220;We are willing to be your subjects.<n id="1" /> Make a treaty with us.&#8221;&#8217;

<t /><p class="bodytext">Joshua conquered the whole land,<n id="1" /> including the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the lowlands,<n id="2" /> the Arabah, the hill country of Israel and its lowlands,

Joshua conquered<n id="1" /> the whole land, just as the <sc>Lordsc> had promised Moses,<n id="2" /> and he assigned Israel their tribal portions.<n id="3" /> Then the land was free of war.p>

But the Levites will not have an allotted portion among you, for their inheritance is to serve the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="1" /> Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their allotted land<n id="2" /> east of the Jordan which Moses the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant assigned them.&#8221;p>

but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates<n id="1" /> and brought him into<n id="2" /> the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,

<p class="bodytext">She summoned<n id="1" /> Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, &#8220;Is it not true that the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other.<n id="1" /> She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground<n id="2" /> while he was asleep from exhaustion,<n id="3" /> and he died.

<t /><p class="bodytext">That night the <sc>Lordsc> said to him, &#8220;Take the bull from your father&#8217;s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old.<n id="1" /> Pull down your father&#8217;s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Then build an altar for the <sc>Lordsc> your God on the top of this stronghold according to the proper pattern.<n id="1" /> Take the second bull and offer it as a burnt sacrifice on the wood from the Asherah pole that you cut down.&#8221;

So Gideon took ten of his servants<n id="1" /> and did just as the <sc>Lordsc> had told him. He was too afraid of his father&#8217;s family<n id="2" /> and the men of the city to do it in broad daylight, so he waited until nighttime.<n id="3" />p>

The men<n id="1" /> who were chosen<n id="2" /> took supplies<n id="3" /> and their trumpets. Gideon<n id="4" /> sent all the men of Israel back to their homes;<n id="5" /> he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites<n id="6" /> were camped down below<n id="7" /> in the valley.p>

Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Come on,<n id="2" /> you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength.&#8221;<n id="3" /> So Gideon killed<n id="4" /> Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.p>