The True Family of Jesus.^* 46^x While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him. 47[Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.”]^* 48But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 49And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Memorial Stones. 1After the entire nation had completed the crossing of the Jordan, 2the LORD said to Joshua: Choose twelve men^a from the people, one from each tribe, 3and command them, “Take up twelve stones from this spot in the Jordan riverbed where the priests have been standing.^b Carry them over with you, and place them where you are to stay tonight.”

4Summoning the twelve men he had selected from among the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5Joshua said to them: “Go to the Jordan riverbed in front of the ark of the LORD, your God; lift to your shoulders one stone apiece, so that they will equal in number the tribes of the Israelites. 6In the future, these are to be a sign among you. When your children ask you,^* ‘What do these stones mean to you?’^c 7you shall answer them, ‘The waters of the Jordan ceased to flow before the ark of the covenant of the LORD when it crossed the Jordan.’^d Thus these stones are to serve as a perpetual memorial to the Israelites.” 8The twelve Israelites did as Joshua had commanded: they took up twelve stones from the Jordan riverbed as the LORD had said to Joshua, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites. They carried them along to the camp site, and there they placed them. 9Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the Jordan riverbed on the spot where the priests stood who were carrying the ark of the covenant. They are there to this day.

10^* The priests carrying the ark stood in the Jordan riverbed until everything had been done that the LORD had commanded Joshua to tell the people, just as Moses had commanded Joshua. The people crossed over quickly, 11and when all the people had completed the crossing, the ark of the LORD also crossed; and the priests were now in front of them. 12The Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh, armed, marched in the vanguard of the Israelites, as Moses had ordered. 13About forty thousand troops, equipped for battle, crossed over before the LORD to the plains of Jericho for war.

14That day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel,^e and so during his whole life they feared him as they had feared Moses.

14Thus says the LORD:

The earnings of Egypt, the gain of Ethiopia,

and the Sabeans,^* tall of stature,

Shall come over to you and belong to you;

they shall follow you, coming in chains.

Before you they shall bow down,

saying in prayer:

“With you alone is God; and there is none other,

no other god!^e

15Truly with you God is hidden,^*

the God of Israel, the savior!^f

16They are put to shame and disgrace, all of them;

they go in disgrace who carve images.

17Israel has been saved by the LORD,

saved forever!

You shall never be put to shame or disgrace

in any future age.”

18For thus says the LORD,

The creator of the heavens,

who is God,

The designer and maker of the earth

who established it,

Not as an empty waste^* did he create it,

but designing it to be lived in:

I am the LORD, and there is no other.

19I have not spoken in secret

from some place in the land of darkness,

I have not said to the descendants of Jacob,

“Look for me in an empty waste.”

I, the LORD, promise justice,

I declare what is right.

Faith of the Ancients. 1Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence^* of things not seen.^a 2Because of it the ancients were well attested. 3^b By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God,^* so that what is visible came into being through the invisible. 4^* By faith Abel offered to God a sacrifice greater than Cain’s. Through this he was attested to be righteous, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through this, though dead, he still speaks.^c 5By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and “he was found no more because God had taken him.” Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God.^d 6^* But without faith it is impossible to please him,^e for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7By faith Noah, warned about what was not yet seen, with reverence built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he condemned the world and inherited the righteousness that comes through faith.^f