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Day 68: Joshua 22–24 · Luke 19 · Psalm 116 · Commentary · Commentary² · Audio
The Bible text is included for reading continuity; it is accurate in substance, aligned with major modern translations, and may be read alongside any Bible you prefer.1
Special Note about the following Bible text: The following translation uses the Hebrew terms tamé (טָמֵא) and tahor (טָהוֹר) instead of the traditional “unclean” and “clean.” These terms describe ritual status in relation to sanctuary access, not moral fault, shame, or physical dirtiness. A fuller explanation will follow in a dedicated article.
Joshua 22
Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you and have listened to his voice in all that he commanded you.
You have not left your brothers these many days until this day, but have kept the responsibility of the command of Jehovah your God.
Now Jehovah your God has given rest to your brothers, just as he spoke to them. So now turn and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of Jehovah gave you beyond the Jordan.
Only be very careful to carry out the command and the instruction that Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded you: to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your being.”
So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
To the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua gave possession among their brothers west of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them and said to them, “Return to your tents with much wealth—very much livestock, silver and gold, bronze and iron, and many garments. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”
So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned and departed from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, of which they had taken possession according to the command of Jehovah through Moses.
When they came to the frontier of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar great in appearance.
And the people of Israel heard that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had built an altar at the frontier of the Jordan, at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.
When the people of Israel heard this, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go up against them for war.
Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, and with him ten leaders, one from each father’s house of the tribes of Israel, each one a head of a father’s house among the thousands of Israel.
They came to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, and spoke with them, saying that all the assembly of Jehovah asked why they had committed this unfaithful act against the God of Israel by turning away this day from following Jehovah, by building for yourselves an altar in rebellion this day against Jehovah.
Was the wrongdoing at Peor too small for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, though a plague came upon the assembly of Jehovah?
If you turn away this day from following Jehovah, then he will be angry tomorrow against all the assembly of Israel.
If the land of your possession is tamé, then cross over to the land of the possession of Jehovah, where the dwelling of Jehovah stands, and take possession among us. But do not rebel against Jehovah or rebel against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of Jehovah our God.
Did not Achan son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the matter of the devoted thing, and wrath came upon all the assembly of Israel? He did not perish alone in his wrongdoing.”
Then the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel:
“The Mighty One, God, Jehovah—the Mighty One, God, Jehovah—he knows, and Israel itself will know. If this was in rebellion or in unfaithfulness against Jehovah, do not save us this day.
If we have built an altar to turn away from following Jehovah, or if to offer burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer peace offerings on it, then Jehovah himself should require it.
Rather, we did this out of concern for a reason: in the future our sons may speak to your sons, saying, ‘What do you have to do with Jehovah, the God of Israel?
For Jehovah has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in Jehovah.’ So your sons might cause our sons to stop fearing Jehovah.
Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, so that we may carry out the service of Jehovah before him with our burnt offerings, our sacrifices, and our peace offerings, so that your sons will not say in the future to our sons, “You have no portion in Jehovah.”’
If it happens that they speak to us or to our generations in the future, then we will say, ‘Look at the pattern of the altar of Jehovah that our fathers made—not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.’
Far be it from us that we should rebel against Jehovah or turn away this day from following Jehovah by building an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering, or for sacrifice other than the altar of Jehovah our God that stands before his dwelling.”
When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly, the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.
Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that Jehovah is among us, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against Jehovah. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of Jehovah.”
Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them.
The report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel, and the people of Israel blessed God and did not speak any more of going up against them for war, to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad lived.
And the people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, for they said, “It is a witness between us that Jehovah is God.”
Joshua 23
After many days, Jehovah had given rest to Israel from all their enemies around them. Joshua was old and advanced in years, and he called all Israel—its elders, its heads, its judges, and its officers—and said to them,
“I am old and advanced in years.
You yourselves have seen all that Jehovah your God has done to all these nations because of you, because Jehovah your God has fought for you.
See, I have allotted to you these nations that remain as an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, and as far as the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun.
Jehovah your God himself will push them away from before you and drive them out from before you, and you will take possession of their land, just as Jehovah your God spoke to you.
Be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the instruction of Moses, so that you do not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left.
Do not mix with these nations that remain among you. Do not make mention of the name of their gods or cause anyone to swear by them. Do not serve them and do not bow down to them.
But hold fast to Jehovah your God, just as you have done to this day.
For Jehovah has driven out from before you great and strong nations, and as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.
One man of you puts to flight a thousand, because Jehovah your God has fought for you, just as he spoke to you.
So be very careful for yourselves to love Jehovah your God.
For if you turn back and cling to the remainder of these nations that remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go among them, and they among you, know for certain that Jehovah your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you.
Instead they will be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge on your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until he destroys you from off this good ground that Jehovah your God has given you.
Now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and with all your being that not one word of all the good words that Jehovah your God spoke concerning you has failed. All have come to pass for you. Not one word of them has failed.
But just as all the good words that Jehovah your God spoke to you have come upon you, so Jehovah will bring upon you all the harmful words, until he destroys you from off this good ground that Jehovah your God has given you.
If you cross over the covenant of Jehovah your God that he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of Jehovah will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good ground that he has given you.”
Joshua 24
Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders of Israel, its heads, its judges, and its officers, and they presented themselves before God.
Joshua said to all the people, “This is what Jehovah, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your fathers lived beyond the River—Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor—and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, led him through all the land of Canaan, multiplied his offspring, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave the hill country of Seir to possess, and Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.
Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with what I did in its midst, and afterward I brought you out. I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea, where the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Sea of Reeds. Then they cried out to Jehovah, and he placed darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them, and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness many days.
Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them from before you. Then Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and made war against Israel, and he sent and called Balaam son of Beor to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam. Instead he blessed you repeatedly, and I delivered you out of his hand.
Then you crossed over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, along with the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I gave them into your hand. I sent the hornet before you, and it drove them out from before you, the two kings of the Amorites, not by your sword and not by your bow. I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you lived in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.
Now therefore fear Jehovah and serve him in integrity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Jehovah. If it is evil in your eyes to serve Jehovah, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.”
The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake Jehovah to serve other gods. For Jehovah our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the peoples through whom we passed. Jehovah drove out from before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve Jehovah, because he is our God.”
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve Jehovah, because he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. If you forsake Jehovah and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do harm to you and consume you after he has done you good.”
The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve Jehovah.”
Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Jehovah, to serve him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses.”
Then he said, “Now therefore put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to Jehovah, the God of Israel.”
The people said to Joshua, “Jehovah our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.”
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and set for them statute and judgment at Shechem. Joshua wrote these words in the book of the instruction of Jehovah, and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Jehovah. Joshua said to all the people, “Look, this stone will be a witness against us, because it has heard all the words of Jehovah that Jehovah spoke to us. It will be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.”
So Joshua sent the people away, each to his inheritance.
After these things Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of one hundred ten years. They buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, those who had known all the work that Jehovah had done for Israel.
The bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem in the piece of land that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and it became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.
Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which belonged to Phinehas his son and had been given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.
Luke 19
He entered Jericho and was passing through. A man named Zacchaeus was there. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, since he was short. So he ran ahead and climbed into a sycamore tree to see him, because he was about to pass that way.
When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, because today I must stay at your house.” So he hurried down and welcomed him with joy. When they saw it, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone in to stay with a sinner.”
Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by accusation, I restore it fourfold.”
Jesus said to him, “Today restoration has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to restore the lost.”
As they were listening, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God was about to appear immediately. He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten units of money and said to them, ‘Do business until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’
“When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered the servants to be called so that he might know what they had gained. The first came, saying, ‘Lord, your unit of money has made ten more.’ He said to him, ‘Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ The second came, saying, ‘Your unit of money has made five.’ He said, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
“Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your unit of money, which I kept laid away in a cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a severe person. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you worthless servant. You knew that I am a severe person, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, so that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
He said to those standing by, ‘Take the unit of money from him and give it to the one who has ten.’
They said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten units!’
‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who does not have, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to rule over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”
When he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
As he approached Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
So those who were sent went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said, “Why are you untying the colt?”
They said, “The Lord needs it.”
They brought it to Jesus, and throwing their garments on the colt, they set him on it. As he went along, people were spreading their garments on the road. As he drew near, already on the way down from the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the powerful works they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
As he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had known on this day the things that make for peace—but now they are hidden from your eyes. Days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barrier around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you. They will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
He was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the legal experts and the leading men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find what they might do, because all the people were hanging on his words.
Psalm 116
I love the Lord,
because he hears my voice,
my pleas for mercy.
Because he has turned his ear to me,
I will call on him all my days.
The cords of death wrapped around me,
the distress of the grave found me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“Lord, please save my life.”
The Lord is gracious and righteous;
our God shows compassion.
The Lord guards the simple;
I was brought low, and he saved me.
Return, my life, to your rest,
for the Lord has dealt generously with you.
For you have rescued my life from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
I kept trusting
even when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
I said in my alarm,
“All humans are deceptive.”
What can I give back to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful ones.
Lord, I am indeed your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your female servant.
You have freed me from my bonds.
I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
Commentary - Day 68
Joshua 22–24 · Luke 19 · Psalm 116
Summary:
This day’s reading holds together witness, inheritance, and recognition through visible acts.
In Joshua 22, the altar built at the Jordan nearly becomes the cause of war, but its purpose is declared as witness, not rebellion. In Joshua 23–24, Joshua recounts the history of Israel at Shechem and sets a stone beneath an oak so the covenant words remain tied to a place.
In Luke 19, Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus, then welcomes him into his house where restitution is promised. In the parable, servants receive coins and must account for them when the nobleman returns. Jesus then enters Jerusalem on a colt, weeps over the city, and clears sellers from the temple courts. Psalm 116 answers with thanksgiving spoken publicly, lifting the cup of salvation in the courts. Across the readings, objects remain—altar, stone, tree, coins, colt, cup—so memory stays tied to what can be seen.
The return of the eastern tribes to their land begins in peace and ends at the edge of war, not because of open rebellion but because of what appears to be one when an altar rises at the Jordan. An altar stands at the boundary, large and visible, and its appearance alone summons the rest of Israel to gather for battle. The memory of earlier failure—Peor, Achan—stands close enough that suspicion forms quickly around this new structure.
Yet the altar is not built for sacrifice but for witness, meant to stand where distance across the Jordan might otherwise erase belonging. The object remains in place, unchanged, but its meaning shifts when words are spoken. War pauses not because the structure disappears, but because its purpose is named, and the same altar that threatened division becomes testimony that the Lord is God. The boundary remains, but it no longer carries separation alone.
Joshua’s final words unfold after rest has been given and enemies subdued in the land already allotted to the tribes. The land is occupied, inheritance assigned, and strength remembered not as personal achievement but as something already acted on their behalf. His speech gathers past acts and future risks into the same field.
Remaining nations, marriages, names of other gods—real possibilities among the peoples still present—are spoken of not as distant possibilities but as things that lie close to daily life. The ground itself is described as good, yet not guaranteed. What has been spoken and fulfilled stands as evidence in possession of the land itself, and the promise that secured the land and the warning of removal from that same land are spoken together.
At Shechem the past is recited in long sequence—fathers beyond the river, deliverance from Egypt, crossing the sea, victories not won by sword or bow, cities not built, vineyards not planted—until memory reaches the present assembly gathered there. A choice is spoken openly: whether to serve the gods once worshiped or the Lord who brought them into the land. The people answer with certainty, but Joshua answers them with resistance, stating that they are not able to serve a holy God.
The exchange does not soften the declaration; it presses it further. Witnesses are named, and a stone is set beneath an oak near the sanctuary, holding the spoken words in place. Like the altar by the Jordan, it stands as a visible object that holds memory. Death follows—Joshua buried in his inheritance, Joseph’s bones placed in land purchased long before, Eleazar buried in territory given to his son—and the land receives the bodies connected to its history. Memory is fixed not only in speech but in burial.
In Jericho a man climbs a sycamore tree to see above a crowd. His wealth and position mark him, yet the movement begins with his attempt to see. The moment shifts when he is called by name and told to come down, not after correction but before it.
Grumbling rises from others who observe the company he keeps, yet inside the house restitution is spoken in measurable terms—half given, fourfold returned. Restoration is announced as something arriving to a household, tied to the identity of Abraham rather than erased by former conduct. The search for the lost appears not as a distant promise but as a present movement through streets and homes.
A parable follows while expectation presses forward toward Jerusalem. Servants receive money before departure—coins entrusted to them—and are left to act during absence. Some trade and increase what they have received; one hides his portion in cloth, preserving it without increase. Authority is assigned according to what has been gained, and refusal of rule is treated as open hostility. What the servants did with the coins during the nobleman’s absence becomes visible when he returns.
The road rises toward Jerusalem, and garments spread across the path beneath a colt that has never been ridden. Praise fills the descent from the Mount of Olives, voices declaring a king who comes in the name of the Lord. Objection is voiced from within the crowd, yet the response reaches beyond human speech, declaring that stones themselves would cry out if silence were imposed.
Near the city, tears accompany words of warning. The city is seen before its fall is described, and destruction is tied to failure to recognize visitation. The temple is entered, and sellers are driven out, returning the house to prayer while opposition gathers quietly. Authority stands in open teaching while plans to destroy it remain unfulfilled because the people remain attentive.
The psalm speaks from within remembered rescue. Cords of death, distress of the grave, tears, and stumbling are named as conditions already faced. Calling on the name of the Lord follows affliction, and thanksgiving follows deliverance through the lifting of the cup of salvation.
Vows are spoken publicly, in courts and among people, not as private gratitude but as declared loyalty. The speaker names himself servant, freed from bonds, and lifts the cup as an act done in sight of others. Memory moves toward offering, and rescue moves toward service without leaving the past behind.
Across these passages, visible objects carry memory where distance or time might loosen it: an altar at the Jordan, a stone beneath an oak, coins placed in servants’ hands, garments laid on a road, cups lifted in courts. Boundaries, inheritances, and returns remain constant features. What appears at first as division or risk often remains standing even after tension resolves. The witness is not removed; it is left in place, so that what has been spoken or received cannot disappear when voices fade.
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