The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁶ So Joshua got up early in the morning and brought Israel near by family groups. The family group of Judah was taken. ¹⁷ He brought the family group of Judah near. And he took the family of the Zerahites. He brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man. Zabdi was taken. ¹⁸ Then he brought those of Zabdi’s tent near man by man. And Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the family of Judah, was taken. ¹⁹ Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give honor and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel. Tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” ²⁰ Achan answered Joshua, saying, “It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I did. ²¹ I saw among what was left of the city a beautiful coat from Shinar. I saw 200 pieces of silver, and a large piece of gold as heavy as fifty pieces of silver. I had a desire for them and took them. See, they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under it.”

²² So Joshua sent men to the tent. There they found it, with the silver under it. ²³ They took these things from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the Lord. ²⁴ Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the coat, the large piece of gold, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys, sheep, tent and all that belonged to him. They brought them to the valley of Achor. ²⁵ And Joshua said, “Why have you brought trouble upon us? The Lord will trouble you this day.” Then all Israel threw stones at them. After that they burned them with fire. ²⁶ They put many stones over him that stand to this day. Then the Lord was no longer angry. The name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.

8 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid. Take all the men of war with you and go up to Ai. See, I have given the king of Ai into your hand, his people, his city, and his land. ² Do the same to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Take only its riches and its cattle for yourselves. Hide men behind the city to fight against it.”

³ So Joshua and all the men of war got ready to go up to Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 strong soldiers, and sent them out during the night. ⁴ He told them, “See, you are going to fight the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. ⁵ I and all the people will come near the city. When they come out to meet us as they did before, we will run from them. ⁶ They will come out after us until we have taken them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are running from us as they did before.’ So we will run from them. ⁷ Then you will come out of your hiding place and take the city. The Lord will give it to you. ⁸ When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord says. See, I have told you.” ⁹ When Joshua sent them away, they went to the hiding place. They waited between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.

¹⁰ Joshua got up early in the morning and gathered the people. Then he went up with the leaders of Israel in front of the people to Ai. ¹¹ All the men of war who were with him went up and came to the front of the city. They stayed on the north side of Ai. There was a valley between him and Ai. ¹² Then he took about 5,000 men and hid them between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. ¹³ So they put the men in their places. There was the army on the north side of the city, and the secret army on the west side of the city. But Joshua stayed that night in the center of the valley. ¹⁴ The king of Ai saw this. So the men of the city were quick to get up early and go out to meet Israel in battle at the chosen place near the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an army hiding behind the city. ¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten in front of them. And they ran away into the desert. ¹⁶ All the people in the city were called together to go after them. They went after Joshua, and were taken away from the city. ¹⁷ So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel. They left the city open and ran after Israel.

¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai. For I will give the city to you.” So Joshua held out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. ¹⁹ The men who were hiding got up in a hurry from their place and ran when he held out his hand. They went into the city and took it, and were quick to set it on fire. ²⁰ When the men of Ai looked back, they saw the smoke of the city going up to the sky. They had no place to run. Then the people of Israel who had been running away in the desert turned against those who went after them. ²¹ Joshua and all Israel saw that the men who had been hiding had taken the city. They saw the smoke from the city, so they turned around and killed the men of Ai. ²² The others came out from the city to meet them. The men of Ai were caught in the center of Israel. There were some on one side and some on the other side. They killed until no one was left alive. No one got away. ²³ But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴ Israel killed all the men of Ai in the field and in the desert where they had run after them. All of them were killed with the sword until they were destroyed. Then all Israel returned to Ai and destroyed it with the sword. ²⁵ All the men and women of Ai died that day, 12,000 in all. ²⁶ Joshua did not put down his hand he used to hold out the spear until he had destroyed all the people of Ai. ²⁷ Israel took only the cattle and the riches of that city for themselves, as the Lord had told Joshua. ²⁸ So Joshua burned Ai and destroyed it forever, as it is to this day. ²⁹ He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. When the sun went down, Joshua had them take his body down from the tree and throw it down at the gate of the city. They put many stones over it, and they are there to this day.

³⁰ Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Mount Ebal. ³¹ It was built just as the Lord’s servant Moses had told the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses. It was an altar made of stones which had not been cut. No one had used an iron object on them. On the altar they gave burnt gifts in worship to the Lord. And there they gave peace gifts in worship. ³² There Joshua wrote on the stones the Law of Moses in front of the people of Israel. ³³ All Israel stood on both sides of the special box, in front of the Levite religious leaders who carried the special box of the agreement of the Lord. Strangers stood there as well as those born among the people, with their leaders and heads and men who judge between what is right or wrong. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim. The other half stood in front of Mount Ebal. They did just as the Lord’s servant Moses had told them before. They prayed for good to come to the people of Israel. ³⁴ After this Joshua read all the words of the Law, the good and the bad that will happen. He read all that is written in the book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had said which Joshua did not read. He read it in front of all the people of Israel, with the women and children and strangers who were living among them.

9 The kings west of the Jordan, in the hill country and the valleys and beside the Great Sea toward Lebanon all heard what had happened. These kings were of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ² They gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

The Picture-Story of the Boss Who Stole

16 Jesus said to His followers, “There was a rich man who put a boss over his houses and lands. Someone told him that his boss was not using his riches in a right way. ² The rich man sent for the boss and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Tell me what you have done with my things. You are not to be the boss of my houses and lands anymore.’

³ “The boss said to himself, ‘What will I do now? The owner of the houses and lands is taking my work away from me. I cannot dig in the ground for a living. I am too proud to ask for help. ⁴ I know what I will do. I will make it so that when I lose this work I will be able to go to the homes of my friends.’

⁵ “He sent for the people who owed the rich man. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe the owner?’ ⁶ The first man said, ‘One hundred barrels of oil.’ The boss said to him, ‘Take your bill. Sit down at once and change it to fifty.’ ⁷ He asked another one, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One hundred bags of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and change it to eighty.’ ⁸ Then the rich man said that this sinful boss had been wise to plan for himself for the days ahead. For the people of the world are wiser in their day than the children of light.

⁹ “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by using the riches of the world that are so often used in wrong ways. So when riches are a thing of the past, friends may receive you into a home that will be forever. ¹⁰ He that is faithful with little things is faithful with big things also. He that is not honest with little things is not honest with big things. ¹¹ If you have not been faithful with riches of this world, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² If you have not been faithful in that which belongs to another person, who will give you things to have as your own? ¹³ No servant can have two bosses. He will hate the one and love the other. Or, he will be faithful to one and not faithful to the other. You cannot be faithful to God and to riches at the same time.”

Jesus Teaches That the Law Is Not Finished

¹⁴ The proud religious law-keepers heard all these things. They loved money so they made fun of Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “You are the kind of people who make yourselves look good before other people. God knows your hearts. What men think is good is hated in the eyes of God. ¹⁶ Until John came, you had the writings of the Law and of the early preachers. From that time until now the Good News of the holy nation of God has been preached. Everyone is pushing his way in. ¹⁷ But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one small part of a word in the Law to be of no more use.

¹⁸ “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman is not faithful in marriage and is guilty of sex sins.

God’s Rule

82 God takes His stand in the great meeting of His people. He judges among the rulers. ² How long will you rulers be wrong in how you judge? How long will you show favor to the sinful? ³ Do the right thing for the weak and those without a father. Stand up for the rights of those who are suffering and in need. ⁴ Save the weak and those in need. Set them free from the hand of the sinful.

⁵ They know nothing; they understand nothing. They walk around in the dark. All that the earth is built upon is shaking. ⁶ I said, “You are gods. You are all sons of the Most High. ⁷ But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

⁸ Rise up, O God! Say who is guilty or not guilty upon the earth! For all the nations belong to You.

² The one who is careful what he says will have good come to him, but the one who wants to hurt others will have trouble.

³ He who watches over his mouth keeps his life. He who opens his lips wide will be destroyed.