The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday March 23, 2023 (NIV)

Marriage of Female Heirs

36 The heads of the fathers' houses of the clan of the ^(A)people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the chiefs, the heads of the fathers' houses of the people of Israel. ² They said, ^(B)“The Lord commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and ^(C)my lord was commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. ³ But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. ⁴ And when ^(D)the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵ And Moses commanded the people of Israel according to the word of the Lord, saying, “The tribe of the people of Joseph ^(E)is right. ⁶ This is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best, ^(F)only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father. ⁷ The inheritance of the people of Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for every one of the people of Israel ^(G)shall hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. ⁸ And ^(H)every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel shall be wife to one of the clan of the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers. ⁹ So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’”

¹⁰ The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses, ^11 (I)for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father's brothers. ¹² They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father's clan.

¹³ These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel ^(J)in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

The Command to Leave Horeb

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in ^(K)the Arabah opposite ^(L)Suph, between ^(M)Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. ² It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to ^(N)Kadesh-barnea. ^3 (O)In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment to them, ⁴ after ^(P)he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ^(Q)Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in ^(R)Edrei. ⁵ Beyond the Jordan, ^(S)in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying, ⁶ “The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, ^(T)‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. ⁷ Turn and take your journey, and go to ^(U)the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in ^(V)the Arabah, ^(W)in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and ^(X)by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. ⁸ See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, ^(Y)to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’

Leaders Appointed

⁹ “At that time ^(Z)I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. ¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, ^(AA)you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. ^11 (AB)May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, ^(AC)as he has promised you! ^12 (AD)How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? ^13 (AE)Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ ¹⁴ And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ ¹⁵ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, ^(AF)and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. ¹⁶ And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and ^(AG)judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. ^17 (AH)You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for ^(AI)the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall ^(AJ)bring to me, and I will hear it.’ ¹⁸ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.

Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb and ^(AK)went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And ^(AL)we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. ^(AM)Do not fear or be dismayed.’ ²² Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³ The thing seemed good to me, and ^(AN)I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And ^(AO)they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ And ^(AP)you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(AQ)hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^(AR)to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where are we going up? ^(AS)Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^(AT)“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ^(AU)the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you ^(AV)will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God ^(AW)carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet in spite of this word ^(AX)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (AY)who went before you in the way ^(AZ)to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

The Penalty for Israel's Rebellion

³⁴ “And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ^35 (BA)‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, ^36 (BB)except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ ³⁷ Even with me ^(BC)the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. ^38 (BD)Joshua the son of Nun, ^(BE)who stands before you, he shall enter. ^(BF)Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. ³⁹ And as for ^(BG)your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today ^(BH)have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. ⁴⁰ But as for you, ^(BI)turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’

⁴¹ “Then you answered me, ^(BJ)‘We have sinned against the Lord. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every one of you fastened on his weapons of war and thought it easy to go up into the hill country. ⁴² And the Lord said to me, ^(BK)‘Say to them, Do not go up or fight, ^(BL)for I am not in your midst, lest you be defeated before your enemies.’ ⁴³ So I spoke to you, and you would not listen; but you rebelled against the command of the Lord and ^(BM)presumptuously went up into the hill country. ^44 (BN)Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you ^(BO)as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as ^(BP)Hormah. ⁴⁵ And you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord did not listen to your voice or give ear to you. ⁴⁶ So ^(BQ)you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

²⁹ And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company ^(A)of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. ³⁰ And the Pharisees and ^(B)their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, ^(C)“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹ And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ^32 (D)I have not come to call the righteous ^(E)but sinners ^(F)to repentance.”

A Question About Fasting

³³ And they said to him, ^(G)“The disciples of John ^(H)fast often and ^(I)offer prayers, ^(J)and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” ³⁴ And Jesus said to them, ^(K)“Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? ^35 (L)The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and ^(M)then they will fast in those days.” ³⁶ He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. ³⁷ And no one puts new wine into old ^(N)wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. ³⁸ But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. ³⁹ And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”^[a]

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath

6 ^(O)On a Sabbath,^[b] while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples ^(P)plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. ² But some of the Pharisees said, ^(Q)“Why are you doing ^(R)what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” ³ And Jesus answered them, ^(S)“Have you not read ^(T)what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: ⁴ how he entered the house of God and took and ate ^(U)the bread of the Presence, ^(V)which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” ⁵ And he said to them, ^(W)“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

A Man with a Withered Hand

⁶ On another Sabbath, ^(X)he entered the synagogue ^(Y)and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. ⁷ And the scribes and the Pharisees ^(Z)watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, ^(AA)so that they might find a reason to accuse him. ⁸ But ^(AB)he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. ⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, ^(AC)is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” ¹⁰ And ^(AD)after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And ^(AE)he did so, and his hand was restored. ¹¹ But they were filled with ^(AF)fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

How Awesome Are Your Deeds

To the choirmaster. A Song. A Psalm.