Old/New Testament

Chapter 4

Benefits of Obedience. ¹ Now listen, O Israel, to the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you to observe so that you might live and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ^2 [a]You will not add to what I command you, nor will you take away from it, so that you might observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, that I am giving you. ³ Your own eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor, for the Lord, your God, wiped out from all of those who followed Baal-peor from your midst. ⁴ But every one of you who clung to the Lord, your God, is alive today.

⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord, my God, commanded me, so that you might enter into the land into which you are going and take possession of it. ⁶ Carefully observe them, for the nations will consider this is your wisdom and your understanding. They will hear all these statutes and say, “Truly this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ For what nation is as great as we are? Who has God as near to them, as the Lord, our God, is whenever we call upon him? ⁸ What nation is so great that it has statutes and ordinances as righteous as this law that I set before you today?

⁹ Only be careful and watch yourselves closely lest you ever forget the things that your eyes have seen or you let them slip out of your mind. Teach them to your children and your children’s children, ¹⁰ especially about the day that you stood before the Lord, your God, in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I might let them hear my words. They will thus learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and they will be able to teach their children.” ¹¹ You approached and stood at the base of the mountain. The mountain blazed with flames reaching the very heavens, and it was covered with dark clouds and thick darkness. ¹² The Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but you did not see a form. There was only a voice. ¹³ He proclaimed his covenant to you which he ordered you to fulfill, the Ten Commandments, that he wrote upon two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ The Lord then commanded me to teach you the statutes and ordinances so that you might observe them in the land that you were crossing over to possess.

¹⁵ Pitfalls of Idolatry. Therefore, guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any kind of form when the Lord spoke to you on Horeb from the midst of the fire. ¹⁶ Do not become perverse and make an idol for yourselves of any shape or likeness, whether male or female, ¹⁷ whether it be a land animal or a bird that flies in the skies, ¹⁸ or like something that crawls on the ground or a fish in the waters beneath the earth. ¹⁹ When you look up into the skies and you see the sun and the moon and stars, all the hosts of heaven, do not be enticed to worship and serve the things that the Lord, your God, has assigned to every other nation under the heavens. ²⁰ But as for you, the Lord has chosen you and taken you out from the iron furnace,^[b] out of Egypt, to be a people who are his own possession, as you are today.

²¹ The Lord was angry with me because of you and he swore that I would not cross over the Jordan nor enter the fertile land that the Lord, your God, has given to you as an inheritance. ²² I must die in this land; I will not cross over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of this fertile land. ²³ Therefore, keep guard over yourselves, lest you forget the covenant that the Lord, your God, has made with you and you make an idol in the form of anything that the Lord, your God, has prohibited. ²⁴ The Lord, your God, is a consuming fire and a jealous God.

²⁵ When you have borne children and grandchildren and have dwelt in the land for a long time, if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, your God, and provoking him to anger, ²⁶ I will call upon the heavens and the earth to give witness against you on that day so that you might be utterly obliterated from the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not remain there long, but you will be totally wiped out.

²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the nations and only a few of you will survive among the foreign peoples where the Lord has led you. ²⁸ There you will serve gods, the work of human hands, made of wood and stone, which cannot see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

²⁹ But if you seek the Lord, your God, and you strive with all your heart and your soul, you will find him there. ³⁰ When you are in distress and all of these things happen to you in the future, you are to return to the Lord,^[c] your God, and obey his voice, ³¹ and he will not abandon you, nor destroy you nor forget the covenant that he made with your fathers, confirming it to them by oath, for the Lord, your God, is a merciful God.

³² Ask now about the days of old, the former times. From the day that God created humans upon the earth, inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything so great ever happened or has anything like it been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God speak from the midst of the flame, as you heard, and still live? ³⁴ Did God ever go and lead one nation from the midst of another nation by trials, signs, wonders, and battle, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great and wondrous deeds, all things that the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might come to know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. ³⁶ He had you hear his voice from out of the heavens so that he might instruct you. He showed you his great fire upon the earth so that you might hear his voice from the midst of the flames. ³⁷ It was because he loved your fathers and had chosen their descendants after them that he brought you out of Egypt before him by his great strength. ³⁸ He drove out greater and more powerful nations before you so that he might bring you into their land to give it to you as an inheritance, just as it is today.

³⁹ So today acknowledge it and take it to heart that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ You shall obey his statutes and the commandments that I give you today, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you for all time.

⁴¹ Cities of Refuge. Then Moses set aside three cities on the east of the Jordan ⁴² to which anyone who unintentionally killed another person with whom he had not previously been at enmity might flee. He could flee to one of these cities and save his life. ⁴³ They were Bezer,^[d] on the desert plateau, for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the men of Manasseh.

Moses’ Second Address

The Covenant with Israel^[e]

⁴⁴ Introduction. This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites. ⁴⁵ These are the stipulations, the statutes, and the judgments that Moses declared to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt ⁴⁶ and they were dwelling in the valley near Beth-peor on the east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and who was defeated by Moses and the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and also the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who reigned on the east side of the Jordan. ⁴⁸ This land extended from Aroer, that is on the bank of the Arnon River, up to Mount Sion (that is Hermon). ⁴⁹ It included all of the plain on the east side of the Jordan up to the Sea in the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

Chapter 5

The Ten Commandments.^{[f] 1} Moses then summoned all of the Israelites and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the decrees that I proclaim in your hearing today. Learn them and carefully observe them. ² The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with those of us who are still alive and present today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the flame.

⁵ “I stood between you and the Lord at that time, declaring the word of the Lord to you, for you were afraid and did not go up the mountain because of the fire. He said, ⁶ ‘I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out from the land of slavery. ⁷ You shall have no god other than me. ⁸ You shall not make any idols in the form of anything that dwells in the heavens above or on the earth below or even in the waters below the land. ⁹ You shall not prostrate yourself to them nor worship them. I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God. I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but I will show mercy to the thousandth generation on those who love me and observe my commandments.

¹¹ “ ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not consider blameless those who take his name in vain.

¹² “ ‘You shall observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. ¹³ You are to labor on six days, doing all of your work then. ¹⁴ The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. You shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor your cattle, nor even the foreigner living in your town. Thus your manservant and maidservant can rest as well. ¹⁵ Remember that you were once a slave in the land of Egypt. The Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.^[g]

¹⁶ “ ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you,^[h] so that you might have a long life and things might go well with you in the land that the Lord, your God, has given you.

¹⁷ “ ‘You shall not murder. ¹⁸ You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁹ You shall not steal. ²⁰ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ²¹ You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife. Nor shall you desire your neighbor’s house or land, or his manservant or his maidservant, or his ox or ass or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’ ”

²² Moses at Sinai. These are the things that the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly on the mountain from the midst of the flame, out of the cloud and the deep darkness, this and nothing more. He then wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me. ²³ When you heard the voice coming out of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire,^[i] all of the leaders of your tribes and your elders drew near to me.

²⁴ You said, “The Lord, our God, has shown us his glory and his majesty. We have heard his voice coming forth from out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God were to speak to him. ²⁵ But now, why should we die, for this great fire will consume us if we listen anymore to the voice of the Lord, our God? We will surely die. ²⁶ For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out from the midst of the flames, as we have, and continued to live? ²⁷ You approach him and listen to all that the Lord, our God, will say to you. Then you can tell us all that the Lord, our God, said to you. We will listen and obey.”

²⁸ The Lord heard what you said to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard what this people has said to you. Everything that they said is acceptable. ²⁹ Oh, that they would have fear of me in their hearts and they would observe all of my commandments always. Then things would go well with them and their children forever. ³⁰ Go tell them, ‘Go back to your tents.’ ³¹ But you, stay here with me, so that I can pass on to you all of the commandments and statutes and decrees that you are to teach them so that they might observe them in the land that I am giving to them to possess. ³² Therefore, be careful to observe what the Lord, your God, has commanded of you. Do not turn away from it to the right nor the left. ³³ Continue in all of the ways that the Lord, your God, has commanded you. Continue in them so that you may live and prosper and that you may long dwell on the land of your inheritance.”

Chapter 6

¹ These are the commands, statutes, and decrees that the Lord, your God, directed me to teach you so that you might observe them in the land to which you are going as your inheritance. ² Thus, you will fear the Lord, your God, and observe the statutes and commandments that I give you—you, and your children, and your children’s children—all the days of your life, so that you might live a long time.

³ Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that you might prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

The Law of Love.^{[j] 4} Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, is Lord alone. ⁵ You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶ You shall keep these things that I command you today in your heart. ⁷ Teach them to your children. You shall talk of them when you are sitting in your home, and when you are walking along the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^8 [k]Bind them as a reminder upon your hand, and wear them as a pendant between your eyes ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.

^10 [l]When the Lord, your God, will have brought you into the land that he promised to your forefathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that he would give to you, a land with large and pleasant cities that you did not build ¹¹ with houses filled with all kinds of good things that you did not provide, wells that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill of them, ¹² be sure not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery.

¹³ Fear the Lord, your God, and serve him. Swear oaths with his name. ¹⁴ You shall not seek after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you ¹⁵ for the Lord, your God, who lives among you is a jealous God.^[m] Beware lest the anger of the Lord, your God, be kindled and he wipe you off of the face of the earth.

¹⁶ You shall not tempt the Lord,^[n] your God, as you tempted him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall take heed to observe the commandments of the Lord, your God, and the decrees and statutes that he has given to you. ¹⁸ Do what the Lord regards as right and good so that things will go well with you and that you might enter in and take possession of the good land that the Lord promised to your fathers, ¹⁹ being able to cast out all of your enemies from before you, just as the Lord has promised.

²⁰ Instructing Children. In the future when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the decrees and statutes and ordinances that the Lord, our God, has commanded of you,” ²¹ you are to tell your son, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² The Lord performed signs and wonders in our sight, great and terrible things, that he imposed upon Egypt and upon Pharaoh and upon all of his household. ²³ He brought us out from there so that he might bring us into and give to us the land that he promised to our fathers.

²⁴ “The Lord commanded us to observe all of these statutes and to fear the Lord, our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, even as we are today. ²⁵ If we are diligent in observing all of these commandments before the Lord, our God, as he commanded of us, then this will be our righteousness.”

Jesus at Jerusalem—The Break with Judaism^[a]

Chapter 11

The Entry into Jerusalem.^{[b] 1} When they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent off two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village directly ahead of you, and as soon as you enter it you will find tied there a colt on which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say: ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back immediately.’ ”

⁴ The two went off and found a colt tied beside a door outside on the street. As they were untying it, ⁵ some of them said to them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had instructed them, and they allowed them to take it. ⁷ Then they brought the colt to Jesus and spread their cloaks on its back. And he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed kept crying out:

¹¹ He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, where he looked around at everything. Then, since the hour was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

¹² Jesus Curses a Sterile Fig Tree.^[d] On the next day, as they were leaving Bethany, he felt hungry. ¹³ Noticing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it. When he reached it, he found nothing except leaves, since it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ Then he said to it, “May no one ever again eat fruit from your branches.” And his disciples heard him say this.

¹⁵ Jesus Cleanses the Temple.^[e] Then they came to Jerusalem. He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were engaged there in buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. ¹⁶ Nor would he allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. ¹⁷ Then he taught them, saying: “Is it not written:^[f]

¹⁸ When the chief priests and the scribes heard about this, they plotted to do away with him. For they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.