Va'etchananAnd I pleaded

1Reading 1 Deuteronomy 3:23–4:4Chapter page with footnotes →

Moses Forbidden to Cross the Jordan

^3:23And I made supplication to the LORD at that time, saying, ²⁴"O Lord GOD, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand; for who is a god in the heavens or on the earth who can do according to your works and according to your mighty acts? ²⁵Let me pass over, I pray, and see the good land which is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country, and the Lebanon."

²⁶But the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and did not listen to me; and the LORD said to me, "Enough for you; do not continue to speak to me again of this matter. ²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not pass over this Jordan. ²⁸But command Joshua, and strengthen him, and make him firm; for he shall pass over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see."

²⁹And we dwelt in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

An Exhortation to Obedience

^4:1And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and to the judgments which I am teaching you to do, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving to you. ²You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, and you shall not take away from it, to keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I am commanding you.

³Your eyes are the ones that have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor; for every man who went after the Baal of Peor, the LORD your God destroyed him from your midst. ⁴But you who cleave to the LORD your God are living, all of you, this day.

2Reading 2 Deuteronomy 4:5–40Chapter page with footnotes →

^4:5See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, as the LORD my God commanded me, to do so in the midst of the land to which you are going in to possess it. ⁶And you shall keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, "Surely a wise and understanding people is this great nation."

⁷For what great nation is there that has God near to it, as the LORD our God is in all our calling upon him? ⁸And what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Torah which I am setting before you this day?

⁹Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; and you shall make them known to your sons and to your sons' sons — ¹⁰the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble to me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they are living upon the ground, and that they may teach their sons."

¹¹And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ¹²And the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; the voice of words you were hearing, but a form you were not seeing — only a voice. ¹³And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, the ten words; and he wrote them upon two tablets of stone.

¹⁴And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, for you to do them in the land to which you are passing over to possess it.

A Warning against Idolatry

¹⁵And you shall take good heed to your souls — for you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire — ¹⁶lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image, the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the heavens, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters under the earth;

¹⁹and lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens, and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heavens, and you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under all the heavens. ²⁰But you the LORD has taken, and brought you out from the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is this day.

²¹And the LORD was angry with me on account of your words, and swore that I should not pass over the Jordan, and that I should not go into the good land which the LORD your God is giving to you as an inheritance. ²²For I am dying in this land; I am not passing over the Jordan; but you are passing over and shall possess that good land.

²³Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God which he made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image, the likeness of anything which the LORD your God has commanded you. ²⁴For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous god.

²⁵When you beget sons and sons' sons, and you have grown old in the land, and act corruptly, and make a graven image, the form of anything, and do the evil in the eyes of the LORD your God, to provoke him to anger; ²⁶I call to witness against you this day the heavens and the earth, that you shall surely perish quickly from off the land to which you are passing over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong days upon it, but shall surely be destroyed.

²⁷And the LORD shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations to which the LORD shall lead you. ²⁸And there you shall serve gods, the work of the hands of man, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹But from there you shall seek the LORD your God, and you shall find him, when you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰In your distress, and all these things have found you, in the latter end of days, you shall return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice. ³¹For the LORD your God is a merciful god; he will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

The LORD Alone Is God

³²For ask now of the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from one end of the heavens to the other end of the heavens, whether there has been like this great thing, or whether there has been heard like it. ³³Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴Or has God tried to go to take to himself a nation from the midst of a nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD, he is God; there is none else besides him.

³⁶From the heavens he made you hear his voice, to instruct you; and upon the earth he showed you his great fire; and his words you heard from the midst of the fire. ³⁷And because he loved your fathers, and chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, from Egypt, ³⁸to drive out nations greater and mightier than you from before you, to bring you in, to give to you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day;

³⁹And you shall know this day, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD, he is God in the heavens above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. ⁴⁰And you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your sons after you, and that you may prolong days upon the ground which the LORD your God is giving to you, all the days.

3Reading 3 Deuteronomy 4:41–49Chapter page with footnotes →

Cities of Refuge

^4:41Then Moses separated three cities beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, ⁴²that the manslayer might flee there, who slays his neighbor without knowledge, and he did not hate him in time past; and he shall flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³Bezer in the wilderness, in the land of the plain, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴And this is the Torah which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt;

⁴⁷and they took in possession his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the rising of the sun; ⁴⁸from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, even to mount Sion — that is Hermon — ⁴⁹and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

4Reading 4 Deuteronomy 5:1–18Chapter page with footnotes →

The Covenant at Horeb

^5:1And Moses called to all Israel, and he said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I am speaking in your ears this day; and you shall learn them and keep to do them. ²The LORD our God cut a covenant with us in Horeb.

³Not with our fathers did the LORD cut this covenant, but with us, we, these here this day, all of us alive. ⁴Face to face the LORD spoke with you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire,

The Ten Commandments

⁵I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain — saying: ⁶I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.

⁷There shall not be to you other gods before My face.

⁸You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. ⁹You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon sons, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation, to those who hate Me, ¹⁰and doing kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and to those who keep My commandments.

¹¹You shall not lift up the name of the LORD your God for vanity; for the LORD will not hold guiltless the one who lifts up His name for vanity.

¹²Keep the day of the Shabbat to sanctify it, as the LORD your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴but the seventh day is a Shabbat to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and your ox, and your donkey, and all your cattle, and your sojourner who is within your gates; so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest like you. ¹⁵And you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to make the day of the Shabbat.

¹⁶Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you; so that your days may be prolonged, and so that it may go well with you, upon the ground which the LORD your God is giving to you.

¹⁷You shall not murder.

¹⁸And you shall not commit adultery.

5Reading 5 Deuteronomy 5:19–6:3Chapter page with footnotes →

^5:19And you shall not steal.

²⁰And you shall not answer against your neighbor as a false witness.

²¹And you shall not covet the wife of your neighbor; and you shall not desire the house of your neighbor, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.

Moses Intercedes for the People

²²These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, a great voice, and He added no more; and He wrote them upon two tablets of stone, and gave them to me.

²³And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you drew near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders; ²⁴And you said: Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and His voice we have heard out of the midst of the fire; this day we have seen that God speaks with man and he lives. ²⁵And now, why should we die? for this great fire will consume us; if we continue to hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die. ²⁶For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷Draw near, you, and hear all that the LORD our God says; and you shall speak to us all that the LORD our God speaks to you, and we will hear and do.

²⁸And the LORD heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and the LORD said to me: I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹Who would give that this their heart would be to them, to fear Me and to keep all My commandments all the days; so that it might be well with them and with their sons forever. ³⁰Go, say to them: Return yourselves to your tents. ³¹But you, stand here with Me, and I will speak to you all the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I am giving to them to possess it.

³²And you shall keep to do as the LORD your God commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³³In all the way which the LORD your God commanded you you shall walk, so that you may live, and it be well for you, and you prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

^6:1And this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, to do in the land where you are crossing over to possess it, ²so that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and so that your days may be prolonged. ³And you shall hear, O Israel, and you shall keep to do, that it may be well for you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD the God of your fathers spoke to you — a land flowing with milk and honey.

6Reading 6 Deuteronomy 6:4–25Chapter page with footnotes →

^6:4Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD one. ⁵And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

⁶And these words, which I am commanding you this day, shall be upon your heart; ⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk in the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. ⁹And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰And it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you — great and good cities which you did not build, ¹¹and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not hew, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant — and you shall eat and be satisfied — ¹²beware for yourself, lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.

¹³The LORD your God you shall fear, and Him you shall serve, and by His name you shall swear. ¹⁴You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; ¹⁵for a jealous God is the LORD your God in your midst; lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from upon the face of the ground.

¹⁶You shall not test the LORD your God, as you tested Him in Massah. ¹⁷You shall surely keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He commanded you. ¹⁸And you shall do the right and the good in the eyes of the LORD, so that it may be well for you, and you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers, ¹⁹to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD spoke.

Teach Your Children

²⁰When your son asks you tomorrow, saying: What are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the LORD our God commanded you? ²¹then you shall say to your son: We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out from Egypt with a strong hand; ²²And the LORD gave signs and wonders, great and grievous, in Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his house, before our eyes; ²³And He brought us out from there, so that He might bring us in, to give to us the land which He swore to our fathers.

²⁴And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for good for us all the days, to keep us alive, as it is this day. ²⁵And it shall be righteousness for us, if we keep to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as He commanded us.

7Reading 7 Deuteronomy 7:1–11Chapter page with footnotes →

Drive Out the Nations

^7:1When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are going to possess it, and casts out many nations before you — the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite — seven nations greater and mightier than you, ²and the LORD your God gives them up before you, and you strike them, you shall utterly devote them to destruction; you shall not cut a covenant with them, and you shall not show them mercy.

³And you shall not intermarry with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, and his daughter you shall not take for your son. ⁴For he will turn aside your son from after Me, and they will serve other gods; and the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will destroy you quickly.

⁵But thus you shall do to them: their altars you shall break down, and their pillars you shall shatter, and their Asherim you shall hew down, and their carved images you shall burn with fire. ⁶For a holy people are you to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be for Him a people of treasured possession, out of all the peoples that are upon the face of the ground.

⁷Not because you were more than all the peoples did the LORD set His love upon you and choose you — for you were the fewest of all the peoples — ⁸but because of the LORD's love for you, and because He kept the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹And you shall know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, keeping the covenant and the kindness to those who love Him and to those who keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰and repaying those who hate Him to his face, to destroy him; He will not delay to the one who hates Him, to his face He will repay him.

¹¹And you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you this day, to do them.

PIsaiah 40:1–26Chapter page with footnotes →

Prepare the Way for the LORD

^40:1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

²Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to her, that her warfare is fulfilled, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.

³A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

⁵And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The Enduring Word

⁶A voice says: Cry! And he said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its kindness is as the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

Here Is Your God!

⁹Get up onto a high mountain, O herald of good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, O herald of good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God!

¹⁰Behold, the Lord GOD comes with strength, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹¹As a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arm he gathers the lambs and carries them in his bosom; he gently leads those that are nursing.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has measured the spirit of the LORD, and what man of his counsel makes him know?

¹⁴With whom did he take counsel, that he gave him understanding, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and made him know the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are reckoned as the dust of the scales; behold, he lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.

¹⁶And Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him; they are counted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God, and what likeness will you compare to him?

¹⁹The idol — a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts chains of silver.

²⁰He who is too poor for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks for himself a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not be moved.

²¹Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he that sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them as a tent to dwell in;

²³that brings princes to nothing, and makes the judges of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, when he also blows upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind carries them away like stubble.

²⁵To whom then will you liken me, that I should be equal? says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He that brings out their host by number, he calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and being strong in power, not one is missing.

AMark 12:28–34Chapter page with footnotes →

The Greatest Commandment

^12:28One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him: "What commandment is the foremost of all?"

²⁹Yeshua answered: "The foremost is: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; ³⁰and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your intellect and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. ³¹The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

³²The scribe said to Him: "Right, Teacher — You have truly stated that He is one and there is no one else besides Him; ³³and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the soul and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

³⁴When Yeshua saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him: "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.