A Chosen People
1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, mthe Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.1 nYou shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 oYou shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you pquickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: qyou shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
6 r“For you are a people sholy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has tchosen you to be ua people for his treasured possession, vout of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord wloves you and is keeping xthe oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the yfaithful God who zkeeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12 a“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of bthe evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a csnare to you.
17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 you shall not be afraid of them but you shall dremember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great etrials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. fSo will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
The Twelve Apostles
1 uAnd he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them vauthority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 2 The names of the wtwelve apostles are these: first, xSimon, who is called Peter, and yAndrew his brother; zJames the son of Zebedee, and aJohn his brother; 3 bPhilip and cBartholomew; dThomas and eMatthew the tax collector; fJames the son of Alphaeus, and gThaddaeus;1 4 hSimon the Zealot,2 and iJudas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles
5 jThese twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere kamong the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the llost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And mproclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is nat hand.’3 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers,4 cast out demons. You received owithout paying; give pwithout pay. 9 Acquire qno gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics5 or sandals or a staff, for rthe laborer deserves his food. 11 And swhatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your tpeace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, ushake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be vmore bearable on the day of judgment for wthe land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Persecution Will Come
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of xwolves, so be ywise as serpents and zinnocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their asynagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before bgovernors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the cSpirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 dBrother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. eBut the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they fpersecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
