Obey God and Prosper

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, ² so that you and your son and your grandson might ^(A)fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, ^(B)all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³ O Israel, you should listen and ^[a]be careful to do it, that ^(C)it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in ^(D)a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “^(E)Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the ^(F)Lord is one! ^5 (G)You shall love the Lord your God ^(H)with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ^6 (I)These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ^7 (J)You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^8 (K)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as ^[b]frontals ^[c]on your forehead. ^9 (L)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, ^(M)great and splendid cities which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and ^(N)you eat and are satisfied, ¹² then watch yourself, that ^(O)you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[d]slavery. ^13 (P)You shall ^[e]fear only the Lord your God; and you shall ^[f]worship Him and ^(Q)swear by His name. ^14 (R)You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a ^(S)jealous God; otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will ^[g]wipe you off the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “^(T)You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, ^(U)as you tested Him at Massah. ^17 (V)You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that ^(W)it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

²⁰ “^(X)When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; ²³ He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, ^(Y)to fear the Lord our God for our good always and ^(Z)for our survival, as it is today. ^25 (AA)It will be righteousness for us if we ^[h]are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.

Warnings

7 “^(AB)When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, ^(AC)seven nations greater and stronger than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you ^[i]defeat them, ^(AD)then you shall ^[j]utterly destroy them. ^(AE)You shall make no covenant with them ^(AF)and show no favor to them. ³ Furthermore, ^(AG)you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your ^[k]daughters to ^[l]their sons, nor shall you take ^[m]their daughters for your ^[n]sons. ⁴ For ^[o]they will turn your ^[p]sons away from ^[q]following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and ^(AH)He will quickly destroy you. ⁵ But thus you shall do to them: ^(AI)you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their ^[r]Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. ⁶ For you are ^(AJ)a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(AK)a people for His ^[s]own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the ^[t]earth.

⁷ “^(AL)The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but because the Lord loved you and kept the ^(AM)oath which He swore to your forefathers, ^(AN)the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of ^[u]slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God, ^(AO)He is God, ^(AP)the faithful God, ^(AQ)who keeps ^[v]His covenant and ^[w]His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who ^(AR)love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ but ^(AS)repays those who hate Him to ^[x]their faces, to destroy ^[y]them; He will not delay ^[z]with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Promises of God

¹² “^(AT)Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you ^[aa]His covenant and ^[ab]His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. ¹³ He will ^(AU)love you and bless you and ^(AV)multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, ^[ac]in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female ^(AW)barren among you or among your cattle. ^15 (AX)The Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you; ^(AY)your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(AZ)a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I ^(BA)dispossess them?’ ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well ^(BB)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (BC)the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, the Lord your God will send ^(BD)the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹ You shall not dread ^[ad]them, for ^(BE)the Lord your God is in your midst, ^(BF)a great and awesome God. ^22 (BG)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for the ^[ae]wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. ^23 (BH)But the Lord your God will deliver them before you, and will ^[af]throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ^24 (BI)He will deliver their kings into your hand so that you will make their name perish from under heaven; ^(BJ)no man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The graven images of their gods you are to ^(BK)burn with fire; you shall ^(BL)not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be ^(BM)snared by it, for it is an ^(BN)abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and like it come under the ^(BO)ban; you shall utterly detest it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is something banned.

God’s Gracious Dealings

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you ^(BP)may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. ^2 (BQ)You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has ^(BR)led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ^(BS)testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you ^[ag]understand that ^(BT)man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (BU)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (BV)Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶ Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to ^[ah]fear Him. ⁷ For ^(BW)the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ When ^(BX)you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “^[ai]Beware that you do not ^(BY)forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² otherwise, ^(BZ)when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, ¹⁴ then your heart will become ^[aj]proud and you will ^(CA)forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[ak]slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through ^(CB)the great and terrible wilderness, with its ^(CC)fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He ^(CD)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶ In the wilderness He fed you manna ^(CE)which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might ^(CF)test you, to do good for you ^[al]in the end. ¹⁷ Otherwise, ^(CG)you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for ^(CH)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^(CI)I testify against you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰ Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so ^(CJ)you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^(CK)nations greater and mightier than you, great cities ^[am](CL)fortified to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(CM)Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that ^(CN)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as ^(CO)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(CP)you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(CQ)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before ^[an]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^(CR)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(CS)not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm ^(CT)the ^[ao]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶ “Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(CU)a ^[ap]stubborn people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^(CV)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(CW)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^(CX)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(CY)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ It came about ^(CZ)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (DA)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(DB)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ¹³ The ^(DC)Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[aq](DD)stubborn people. ^14 (DE)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(DF)blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “^(DG)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. ^18 (DH)I fell down before the Lord, ^(DI)as at the first, forty days and nights; ^(DJ)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(DK)because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(DL)I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, ^(DM)but the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (DN)I took your ^[ar]sinful thing, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

²² “Again at ^(DO)Taberah and at ^(DP)Massah and at ^(DQ)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ When the Lord sent you from ^(DR)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(DS)Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ^[as]command of the Lord your God; ^(DT)you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. ^24 (DU)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(DV)So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I ^[at]did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ^26 (DW)I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “^(DX)Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[au]promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, even ^(DY)Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^(DZ)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant

7 ^(A)When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, ^(B)He went to Capernaum.

² And a centurion’s slave, ^[a]who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. ³ When he heard about Jesus, ^(C)he sent some ^[b]Jewish elders asking Him to come and ^[c]save the life of his slave. ⁴ When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; ⁵ for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” ⁶ Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “^[d]Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; ⁷ for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just ^[e]say the word, and my ^[f]servant will be healed. ⁸ For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” ⁹ Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, ^(D)not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” ¹⁰ When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

¹¹ Soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him, ^[g]accompanied by a large crowd. ¹² Now as He approached the gate of the city, ^[h]a dead man was being carried out, the ^[i]only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. ¹³ When ^(E)the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “^[j]Do not weep.” ¹⁴ And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” ¹⁵ The ^[k]dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. ^16 (F)Fear gripped them all, and they began ^(G)glorifying God, saying, “A great ^(H)prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has ^[l]visited His people!” ^17 (I)This report concerning Him went out all over Judea and in all the surrounding district.

A Deputation from John

^18 (J)The disciples of John reported to him about all these things. ¹⁹ Summoning ^[m]two of his disciples, John sent them to ^(K)the Lord, saying, “Are You the ^[n]Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” ²⁰ When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the ^[o]Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’” ²¹ At that ^[p]very time He ^(L)cured many people of diseases and ^(M)afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. ²² And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the ^(N)blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the ^(O)poor have the gospel preached to them. ²³ Blessed is he ^[q]who does not take offense at Me.”

²⁴ When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ^25 [r]But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft ^[s]clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! ²⁶ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. ²⁷ This is the one about whom it is written,

²⁸ I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is ^[u]least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” ²⁹ When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they ^[v]acknowledged ^(Q)God’s justice, ^(R)having been baptized with ^(S)the baptism of John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and the ^[w](T)lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by ^[x]John.

³¹ “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? ³² They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ ³³ For John the Baptist has come ^(U)eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ ³⁴ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a ^[y]drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and ^[z]sinners!’ ³⁵ Yet wisdom ^(V)is vindicated by all her children.”

³⁶ Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to ^[aa]dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ^37 (W)And there was a woman in the city who was a ^[ab]sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, ³⁸ and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were ^(X)a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a ^[ac]sinner.”

Parable of Two Debtors

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he ^[ad]replied, “Say it, Teacher.” ⁴¹ “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred ^[ae](Y)denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² When they ^(Z)were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” ⁴⁴ Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you ^(AA)gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You ^(AB)gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. ^46 (AC)You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. ⁴⁷ For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then He said to her, “^(AD)Your sins have been forgiven.” ⁴⁹ Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say ^[af]to themselves, “^(AE)Who is this man who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ And He said to the woman, “^(AF)Your faith has saved you; ^(AG)go in peace.”