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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkACT">
 <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="ACT.8">
 <div class="label">8</div><div class="p">1And Saul approved of their killing him.</div><div class="s1">The Church Persecuted and Scattered</div><div class="p">On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.</div><div class="s1">Philip in Samaria</div><div class="p">4Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8So there was great joy in that city.</div><div class="s1">Simon the Sorcerer</div><div class="p">9Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, &#8220;This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.&#8221; 11They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.</div><div class="p">14When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.</div><div class="p">18When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles&#8217; hands, he offered them money 19and said, &#8220;Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.&#8221;</div><div class="p">20Peter answered: &#8220;May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.&#8221;</div><div class="p">24Then Simon answered, &#8220;Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p">25After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.</div><div class="s1">Philip and the Ethiopian</div><div class="p">26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, &#8220;Go south to the road&#8212;the desert road&#8212;that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.&#8221; 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian#8:27 That is, from the southern Nile region eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means &#8220;queen of the Ethiopians&#8221;). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, &#8220;Go to that chariot and stay near it.&#8221;</div><div class="p">30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. &#8220;Do you understand what you are reading?&#8221; Philip asked.</div><div class="p">31&#8220;How can I,&#8221; he said, &#8220;unless someone explains it to me?&#8221; So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.</div><div class="p">32This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,</div><div class="q2">and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,</div><div class="q2">so he did not open his mouth.</div><div class="q1">33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.</div><div class="q2">Who can speak of his descendants?</div><div class="q2">For his life was taken from the earth.&#8221;#8:33 Isaiah 53:7,8 (see Septuagint)</div><div class="p">34The eunuch asked Philip, &#8220;Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?&#8221; 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.</div><div class="p">36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, &#8220;Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?&#8221; [37]#8:37 Some manuscripts include here Philip said, &#8220;If you believe with all your heart, you may.&#8221; The eunuch answered, &#8220;I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.&#8221; 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJOS">
 <div class="chapter ch23" data-usfm="JOS.23">
 <div class="label">23</div><div class="s1">Joshua&#8217;s Farewell to the Leaders</div><div class="p">1After a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man, 2summoned all Israel&#8212;their elders, leaders, judges and officials&#8212;and said to them: &#8220;I am very old. 3You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. 4Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain&#8212;the nations I conquered&#8212;between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5The Lord your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the Lord your God promised you.</div><div class="p">6&#8220;Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left. 7Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. 8But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.</div><div class="p">9&#8220;The Lord has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you. 10One of you routs a thousand, because the Lord your God fights for you, just as he promised. 11So be very careful to love the Lord your God.</div><div class="p">12&#8220;But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, 13then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you.</div><div class="p">14&#8220;Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. 15But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. 16If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord&#8217;s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJOS">
 <div class="chapter ch24" data-usfm="JOS.24">
 <div class="label">24</div><div class="s1">The Covenant Renewed at Shechem</div><div class="p">1Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.</div><div class="p">2Joshua said to all the people, &#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods. 3But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.</div><div class="p">5&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. 6When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen#24:6 Or charioteers as far as the Red Sea.#24:6 Or the Sea of Reeds 7But they cried to the Lord for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.</div><div class="p">8&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land. 9When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you. 10But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.</div><div class="p">11&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. 12I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you&#8212;also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow. 13So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.&#8217;</div><div class="p">14&#8220;Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p">16Then the people answered, &#8220;Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! 17It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.&#8221;</div><div class="p">19Joshua said to the people, &#8220;You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. 20If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.&#8221;</div><div class="p">21But the people said to Joshua, &#8220;No! We will serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p">22Then Joshua said, &#8220;You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Yes, we are witnesses,&#8221; they replied.</div><div class="p">23&#8220;Now then,&#8221; said Joshua, &#8220;throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.&#8221;</div><div class="p">24And the people said to Joshua, &#8220;We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.&#8221;</div><div class="p">25On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. 26And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord.</div><div class="p">27&#8220;See!&#8221; he said to all the people. &#8220;This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.&#8221;</div><div class="p">28Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.</div><div class="s1">Buried in the Promised Land</div><div class="p">29After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 30And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah#24:30 Also known as Timnath Heres (see Judges 2:9) in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.</div><div class="p">31Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.</div><div class="p">32And Joseph&#8217;s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver#24:32 Hebrew hundred kesitahs; a kesitah was a unit of money of unknown weight and value. from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph&#8217;s descendants.</div><div class="p">33And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkPSA">
 <div class="chapter ch85" data-usfm="PSA.85">
 <div class="label">85</div><div class="cl">Psalm 85#In Hebrew texts 85:1-13 is numbered 85:2-14.</div><div class="d">For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.</div><div class="q1">1You, Lord, showed favor to your land;</div><div class="q2">you restored the fortunes of Jacob.</div><div class="q1">2You forgave the iniquity of your people</div><div class="q2">and covered all their sins.#85:2 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.</div><div class="q1">3You set aside all your wrath</div><div class="q2">and turned from your fierce anger.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1">4Restore us again, God our Savior,</div><div class="q2">and put away your displeasure toward us.</div><div class="q1">5Will you be angry with us forever?</div><div class="q2">Will you prolong your anger through all generations?</div><div class="q1">6Will you not revive us again,</div><div class="q2">that your people may rejoice in you?</div><div class="q1">7Show us your unfailing love, Lord,</div><div class="q2">and grant us your salvation.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1">8I will listen to what God the Lord says;</div><div class="q2">he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants&#8212;</div><div class="q2">but let them not turn to folly.</div><div class="q1">9Surely his salvation is near those who fear him,</div><div class="q2">that his glory may dwell in our land.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1">10Love and faithfulness meet together;</div><div class="q2">righteousness and peace kiss each other.</div><div class="q1">11Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,</div><div class="q2">and righteousness looks down from heaven.</div><div class="q1">12The Lord will indeed give what is good,</div><div class="q2">and our land will yield its harvest.</div><div class="q1">13Righteousness goes before him</div><div class="q2">and prepares the way for his steps.</div>
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