¹And once He was casting out a demon, and it was dumb. And when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke, and the crowds marveled.

But some of them said, By  ¹Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, He casts out the demons.

And others, tempting Him, sought from Him a sign out of heaven.

 ¹But He, knowing their  ²thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself becomes desolate, and a house divided against a house falls.

And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I cast out the demons.

But if I by Beelzebul cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

But if I by the  ¹finger of God cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own  ¹homestead, his possessions are in peace.

But when one  ¹stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes away his whole armor in which he had trusted and distributes his spoil.

 ¹He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

 ¹When the unclean spirit goes out from the man, it roams through waterless places, seeking rest, and not finding it, it says, I will return to my house from which I came out.

And it comes and finds it swept and decorated.

Then it goes and takes along other spirits more evil than itself, seven of them, and they enter and settle down there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

And as He said these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.

But He said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

 ¹And as the crowds were thronging together, He began to say, This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something more than Solomon is here.

Ninevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something more than Jonah is here.

 ¹And after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel  ²inquired of Jehovah, saying, Who will go up for us first against the Canaanites, in order to fight against them?

And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up. I have now given the land into his hand.

And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and we will fight against the Canaanites; and I will go also with you into your lot. And Simeon went with him.

So Judah went up, and Jehovah gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they struck ten thousand of their men in Bezek.

And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought with him; and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

And Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him and caught him, and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.

And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off gleaned scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword; and they set the city on fire.

And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who inhabited the hill country and the Negev and the lowland.

Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba.) And they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

And he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.)

And Caleb said, Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give to him Achsah my daughter as wife.

Then Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

And when she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for the field. And she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want?

And she said to him, Give me a blessing, for you have given me land in the Negev; give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is to the south of Arad. And they went and dwelt with the people.

Then Judah went with Simeon his brother and struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath; and they  ¹utterly destroyed it. And they called the name of the city  ²Hormah.

And Judah took Gaza and its territory and Ashkelon and its territory and Ekron and its territory.

And Jehovah was with Judah. And they took possession of the hill country, but they could not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they had chariots of iron.

And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken; and he dispossessed the three sons of  ¹Anak from there.

 ¹But the Jebusites, who dwelt in Jerusalem, the children of Benjamin did not dispossess; thus the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

And the house of Joseph, they also, went up against Bethel; and Jehovah was with them.

And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.)

And those who watched saw a man coming out of the city; and they said to him, Show us now the entrance of the city, and we will show mercy to you.

And he showed them the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go.

And the man went into the land of the Hittites; and he built a city and called its name Luz, which is its name unto this day.

And Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-shean with its towns or Taanach with its towns or the inhabitants of Dor with its towns or the inhabitants of Ibleam with its towns or the inhabitants of Megiddo with its towns, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.

And when Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites forced labor; but they did not utterly dispossess them.

And Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt among them in Gezer.

Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became forced labor.

Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon and Ahlab and Achzib and Helbah and Aphik and Rehob;

But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land, for they did not dispossess them.

Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land. Yet the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

And the Amorites pushed the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down into the valley.

And the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed so that they became forced labor.

And the border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

Then the  ¹Angel of Jehovah went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And He said, I caused you to go up out from Egypt, and I brought you into the land that I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break My covenant with you,

And you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars. But you did not listen to My voice. What is this that you have done?

Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.

And when the Angel of Jehovah had spoken these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept.

And they called the name of that place  ¹Bochim. And they offered to Jehovah there.

Now when Joshua sent the people away, each of the children of Israel went to his own inheritance to possess the land.

And the people served Jehovah throughout all the days of Joshua and throughout all the days of the elders whose days extended after Joshua's and who saw all the great work of Jehovah that He had done for Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.

And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in  ¹Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

And all that generation as well were gathered to their fathers; and another generation, who did not know Jehovah or the work that He had done for Israel, rose up after them.

And the children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and served the Baals.

And they  ¹forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt; and they followed after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who surrounded them; and they worshipped them and provoked Jehovah to anger.

And they forsook Jehovah and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

Then the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of plunderers; and they plundered them. And He sold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies.

Whenever they went out, the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had spoken and as Jehovah had sworn to them; and they were greatly distressed.

And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges either, but they went about as harlots after other gods and worshipped them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, the way of obeying the commandments of Jehovah; this they did not do.

And when Jehovah raised up judges for them, Jehovah was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies throughout all the days of the judge; for Jehovah would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and crushed them.

But when the judge died, they turned and acted more corruptly than their fathers by following after other gods in order to serve them and worship them; they did not cease from any of their practices or from their stubborn way.

And the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel; and He said, Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and they do not listen to My voice,

I for My part will no longer dispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,

In order to test Israel through them as to whether or not they will keep the way of Jehovah by walking in  ¹it, as their fathers kept it.

So Jehovah left these nations, not dispossessing them quickly, and did not deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

And these are the nations that Jehovah left in order that through them He might test Israel (that is, all who had not known all the battles of Canaan),

But only so that the generations of the children of Israel might learn to know war, at least those who had not previously known  ¹the battles:

The five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

And they were for the testing of Israel, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Jehovah, which He commanded their fathers through Moses.

And the children of Israel  ¹dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

And they took their daughters as their wives and gave their own daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.