¹Then came the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and these were the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. ²And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying: ³“Our father died in the wilderness; but he was not in the company of those who gathered together against the Lᴏʀᴅ, in company with Korah, but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons. ⁴Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers.” ⁵So Moses brought their case before the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁶And the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Moses, saying: ⁷“The daughters of Zelophehad speak what is right; you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father’s brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. ⁸And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. ⁹If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. ¹⁰If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. ¹¹And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the relative closest him in his family, and he shall possess it.’ “ And it shall be to the children of Israel a statute of judgment, just as the Lᴏʀᴅ commanded Moses. ¹²Now the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Moses: “Go up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. ¹³And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. ¹⁴For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes.” (These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin.) ¹⁵Then Moses spoke to the Lᴏʀᴅ, saying: ¹⁶“Let the Lᴏʀᴅ, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, ¹⁷who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lᴏʀᴅ may not be like sheep which have no shepherd.” ¹⁸And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to Moses: “Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; ¹⁹set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight. ²⁰And you shall give some of your authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. ²¹He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the Lᴏʀᴅ for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him—all the congregation.” ²²So Moses did as the Lᴏʀᴅ commanded him. He took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation. ²³And he laid his hands on him and inaugurated him, just as the Lᴏʀᴅ commanded by the hand of Moses.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lᴏʀᴅ! ²Let them be ashamed and confounded Who seek my life; Let them be turned back and confused Who desire my hurt. ³Let them be turned back because of their shame, Who say, “Aha, aha!” ⁴Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” ⁵But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lᴏʀᴅ, do not delay.

¹In You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. ²Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me. ³Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress. ⁴Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. ⁵For You are my hope, O Lᴏʀᴅ God; You are my trust from my youth. ⁶By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. ⁷I have become as a wonder to many, But You are my strong refuge. ⁸Let my mouth be filled with Your praise And with Your glory all the day. ⁹Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails. ¹⁰For my enemies speak against me; And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together, ¹¹Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.” ¹²O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! ¹³Let them be confounded and consumed Who are adversaries of my life; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor Who seek my hurt. ¹⁴But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more. ¹⁵My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day, For I do not know their limits. ¹⁶I will go in the strength of the Lᴏʀᴅ God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only. ¹⁷O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works. ¹⁸Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come. ¹⁹Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You? ²⁰You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, Shall revive me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth. ²¹You shall increase my greatness, And comfort me on every side. ²²Also with the lute I will praise you— And Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel. ²³My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, And my soul, which You have redeemed. ²⁴My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long; For they are confounded, For they are brought to shame Who seek my hurt.

¹The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap. ²The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid. ³The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, The kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Syria; They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” Says the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts. ⁴“In that day it shall come to pass That the glory of Jacob will wane, And the fatness of his flesh grow lean. ⁵It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, And reaps the heads with his arm; It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain In the Valley of Rephaim. ⁶Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, Like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five in its most fruitful branches,” Says the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel. ⁷In that day a man will look to his Maker, And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. ⁸He will not look to the altars, The work of his hands; He will not respect what his fingers have made, Nor the wooden images nor the incense altars. ⁹In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough And an uppermost branch, Which they left because of the children of Israel; And there will be desolation. ¹⁰Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, Therefore you will plant pleasant plants And set out foreign seedlings; ¹¹In the day you will make your plant to grow, And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; But the harvest will be a heap of ruins In the day of grief and desperate sorrow. ¹²Woe to the multitude of many people Who make a noise like the roar of the seas, And to the rushing of nations That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! ¹³The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. ¹⁴Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who rob us.

¹Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings, Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, ²Which sends ambassadors by sea, Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, “Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin, To a people terrible from their beginning onward, A nation powerful and treading down, Whose land the rivers divide.” ³All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth: When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it; And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it. ⁴For so the Lᴏʀᴅ said to me, “I will take My rest, And I will look from My dwelling place Like clear heat in sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” ⁵For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect And the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks And take away and cut down the branches. ⁶They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey And for the beasts of the earth; The birds of prey will summer on them, And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. ⁷In that time a present will be brought to the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts From a people tall and smooth of skin, And from a people terrible from their beginning onward, A nation powerful and treading down, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, To Mount Zion.

¹The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: ²Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; ³nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; ⁴and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. ⁵Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” ⁶Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. ⁸Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ⁹Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. ¹⁰But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. ¹¹To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. ¹²By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. ¹³She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son. ¹⁴Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.