Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

Parashah 44: D’varim (Words) 1:1–3:22

1 These are the words Moshe spoke to all Isra’el on the far side of the Yarden River, in the desert, in the ‘Aravah, across from Suf, between Pa’ran and Tofel, Lavan, Hatzerot and Di-Zahav.

2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horev to Kadesh-Barnea by way of Mount Se‘ir.

3 On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moshe spoke to the people of Isra’el, reviewing everythingAdonaihad ordered him to tell them.

4 This was after he had defeated Sichon, king of the Emori, who lived in Heshbon, and ‘Og, king of Bashan, who lived in ‘Ashtarot, at Edre‘i.

5 There, beyond the Yarden, in the land of Mo’av, Moshe took it upon himself to expound thisTorahand said:

6 “Adonaispoke to us in Horev. He said, ‘You have lived long enough by this mountain.

7 Turn, get moving and go to the hill-country of the Emori and all the places near there in the ‘Aravah, the hill-country, the Sh’felah, the Negev and by the seashore — the land of the Kena‘ani, and the L’vanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates River.

8 I have set the land before you! Go in, and take possession of the landAdonaiswore to give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, and their descendants after them.’

9 “At that time I told you, ‘You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.

10 Adonaiyour God has multiplied your numbers, so that there are as many of you today as there are stars in the sky.

11 MayAdonai, the God of your ancestors, increase you yet a thousandfold and bless you, as he has promised you!(ii)

12 But you are burdensome, bothersome and quarrelsome! How can I bear it by myself alone?

13 Pick for yourselves from each of your tribes men who are wise, understanding and knowledgeable; and I will make them heads over you.’

14 “You answered me, ‘What you have said would be a good thing for us to do.’

15 So I took the heads of your tribes, men wise and knowledgable, and made them heads over you — leaders in charge of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers, tribe by tribe.

16 At that time I commissioned your judges, ‘Hear the cases that arise between your brothers; and judge fairly between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is with him.

17 You are not to show favoritism when judging, but give equal attention to the small and to the great. No matter how a person presents himself, don’t be afraid of him; because the decision is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it.’

18 I also gave you orders at that time concerning all the things you were to do.

19 “So we left Horev and went through all that vast and fearsome desert which you saw on the way to the hill-country of the Emori, asAdonaiour God ordered us; and we arrived at Kadesh-Barnea.

20 There I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill-country of the Emori, whichAdonaiour God is giving to us.

21 Look!Adonaiyour God has placed the land before you. Go up, take possession, asAdonai, the God of your ancestors, has told you. Don’t be afraid, don’t be dismayed.’

(iii)

22 “You approached me, every one of you, and said, ‘Let’s send men ahead of us to explore the country for us and bring back word concerning what route we should use in going up and what the cities we will encounter are like.’

23 The idea seemed good to me, so I took twelve of your men, one from each tribe;

24 and they set out, went up into the hills, came to the Eshkol Valley and reconnoitered it.

25 They took some of the produce of the land and brought it down to us; they also brought back word to us — ‘The landAdonaiour God is giving to us is good.’

26 “But you would not go up. Instead you rebelled against the order ofAdonaiyour God;

27 and in your tents you complained, ‘It’s becauseAdonaihated us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, only to hand us over to the Emori to destroy us.

28 What sort of place is it that we’re heading for? Our brothers made our courage fail when they said, “The people are bigger and taller than we are; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and finally, we have seen ‘Anakim there.”’

29 “I answered you, ‘Don’t be fearful, don’t be afraid of them.

30 Adonaiyour God, who is going ahead of you, will fight on your behalf, just as he accomplished all those things for you in Egypt before your eyes,

31 and likewise in the desert, where you saw howAdonaiyour God carried you, like a man carries his child, along the entire way you traveled until you arrived at this place.

32 Yet in this matter you don’t trustAdonaiyour God,

33 even though he went ahead of you, seeking out places for you to pitch your tents and showing you which way to go, by fire at night and by a cloud during the day.’

34 “Adonaiheard what you were saying, became angry and swore,

35 ‘Not a single one of these people, this whole evil generation, will see the good land I swore to give to your ancestors,

36 except Kalev the son of Y’funeh — he will see it; I will give him and his descendants the land he walked on, because he has fully followedAdonai.’

37 “Also, because of youAdonaiwas angry with me and said, ‘You too will not go in there.

38 Y’hoshua the son of Nun, your assistant — he will go in there. So encourage him, because he will enable Isra’el to take possession of it.(iv)

39 Moreover, your little ones, who you said would be taken as booty, and your children who don’t yet know good from bad — they will go in there; I will give it to them, and they will have possession of it.

40 But as for yourselves, turn around and head into the desert by the road to the Sea of Suf.’

41 “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned againstAdonai. Now we will go up and fight, in accordance with everythingAdonaiour God ordered us.’ And every man among you put on his arms, considering it an easy matter to go up into the hill-country.

42 ButAdonaisaid to me, ‘Tell them, “Don’t go up, and don’t fight, because I am not there with you; if you do, your enemies will defeat you.”’

43 So I told you, but you wouldn’t listen. Instead, you rebelled againstAdonai’s order, took matters into your own hands and went up into the hill-country;

44 where the Emori living in that hill-country came out against you like bees, defeated you in Se‘ir and chased you back all the way to Hormah.

45 You returned and cried beforeAdonai, butAdonaineither listened to what you said nor paid you any attention.

46 This is why you had to stay in Kadesh as long as you did.

1 “Then we turned and began traveling into the desert along the road to the Sea of Suf, asAdonaihad said to me; and we skirted Mount Se‘ir for a long time.(v)

2 FinallyAdonaisaid to me,

3 ‘You have been going around this mountain long enough! Head north,

4 and give this order to the people: “You are to pass through the territory of your kinsmen the descendants of ‘Esav who live in Se‘ir. They will be afraid of you, so be very cautious,

5 and don’t get into disputes with them; for I am not going to give you any of their land, no, not even enough for one foot to stand on; inasmuch as I have given Mount Se‘ir to ‘Esav as his possession.

6 Pay them money for the food you eat, and pay them money for the water you drink.

7 ForAdonaiyour God has blessed you in everything your hands have produced. He knows that you have been traveling through this vast desert; these forty yearsAdonaiyour God has been with you; and you have lacked nothing.’

8 “So we went on past our kinsmen the descendants of ‘Esav living in Se‘ir, left the road through the ‘Aravah from Eilat and ‘Etzyon-Gever, and turned to pass along the road through the desert of Mo’av.

9 Adonaisaid to me, ‘Don’t be hostile toward Mo’av or fight with them, because I will not give you any of their land to possess, since I have already given ‘Ar to the descendants of Lot as their territory.’”

10 (The Emim used to live there, a great and numerous people as tall as the ‘Anakim.

11 They are also considered Refa’im, as are the ‘Anakim, but the Mo’avim call them Emim.

12 In Se‘ir the Horim used to live, but the descendants of ‘Esav dispossessed and destroyed them, settling in their place. Isra’el did similarly in the land it came to possess, whichAdonaigave to them.)

13 “‘Now get going, and crossVadiZered!’

“So we crossedVadiZered.

14 The time between our leaving Kadesh-Barnea and our crossingVadiZered was thirty-eight years — until the whole generation of men capable of bearing arms had been eliminated from the camp, asAdonaihad sworn they would be.

15 Moreover,Adonai’s hand was against them to root them out of the camp until the last of them was gone.

16 When all the men who were able to bear arms had died and were no longer part of the people,

17 Adonaisaid to me,

18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Mo’av at ‘Ar.

19 When you approach the descendants of ‘Amon, don’t bother them or fight with them, for I will not give you any of the territory of the people of ‘Amon to possess, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their territory.’”

20 (This too is considered a land of the Refa’im: Refa’im, whom the Emori call Zamzumim, used to live there.

21 They were a large, numerous people, as tall as the ‘Anakim; butAdonaidestroyed them as the people of ‘Amon advanced and settled in their place —

22 just as he destroyed the Horim as descendants of ‘Esav advanced into Se‘ir and settled in their place, where they live to this day.

23 It was the same with the ‘Avim, who lived in villages as far away as ‘Azah — the Kaftorim, coming from Kaftor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)

24 “‘Get up, get moving, and cross the Arnon Valley! Here, I have put in your hands Sichon the Emori, king of Heshbon, and his land; commence the conquest, begin the battle!

25 Today I will start putting the fear and dread of you into all the peoples under heaven, so that the mere mention of your name will make them quake and tremble before you.’

26 “I sent envoys from the K’demot Desert to Sichon king of Heshbon with a peaceable message,

27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will keep to the road, turning neither right nor left.

28 You will sell me food to eat for money and give me water to drink for money. I only want to pass through.

29 Do as the people of ‘Esav living in Se‘ir and the Mo’avim living in ‘Ar did with me, until I cross the Yarden into the landAdonaiour God is giving us.’

30 “But Sichon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his territory, becauseAdonaiyour God had hardened his spirit and made him stubborn, so that he could hand him over to you, as is the case today.(vi)

31 Adonaisaid to me, ‘See, I have begun handing over Sichon and his territory before you; start taking possession of his land.’

32 Then Sichon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Yahatz;

33 andAdonaiour God handed him over to us, so that we defeated him, his sons and all his people.

34 At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed every city — men, women, little ones — we left none of them.

35 As booty for ourselves we took only the cattle, along with the spoil from the cities we had captured.

36 From ‘Aro‘er, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the city in the valley, all the way to Gil‘ad, there was not one city too well fortified for us to capture —Adonaiour God gave all of them to us.

37 The only land you didn’t approach was that of the descendants of ‘Amon — the region around the Yabok River, the cities in the hills and wherever elseAdonaiour God forbade us to go.

1 “Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and ‘Og the king of Bashan came out against us with all his people to fight at Edre‘i.

2 Adonaisaid to me, ‘Don’t be afraid of him; for I have handed him, all his people and his territory over to you; you will do to him as you did to Sichon king of the Emori, who lived at Heshbon.’

3 SoAdonaiour God also handed over to us ‘Og the king of Bashan with all his people, and we defeated him until he had no one left.

4 At that time we captured all his cities; there was not one city of theirs that we didn’t capture. There were sixty cities, all the region of Argov, the kingdom of ‘Og in Bashan;

5 all of them fortified cities with high walls, gates and bars — in addition to a great number of unwalled towns.

6 We completely destroyed them, as we did with Sichon king of Heshbon, annihilating every city —men, women and little ones.

7 But we took all the livestock, along with the spoil from the cities, as booty for ourselves.

8 “At that time we captured the territory of the two kings of the Emori east of the Yarden between the Arnon Valley and Mount Hermon,”

9 the Hermon which the Tzidonim call Siryon and the Emori call S’nir,

10 “all the cities of the plain, all Gil‘ad and all Bashan, as far as Salkhah and Edre‘i, cities of the kingdom of ‘Og in Bashan.”

11 ‘Og king of Bashan was the last survivor of the Refa’im. His bed was made of iron; it is still in Rabbah with the people of ‘Amon. It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, using the normal cubit [thirteen-and-a-half by six feet].

12 “Of this land that we took possession of then, I assigned to the Re’uveni and the Gadi the territory extending from ‘Aro‘er along the Arnon Valley together with half the hill-country of Gil‘ad, including its cities.

13 The rest of Gil‘ad and all Bashan, the kingdom of ‘Og, I gave to the half-tribe of M’nasheh.”

The whole region of Argov together with all of Bashan form what is called the land of Refa’im.

14 Ya’ir the son of M’nasheh took all the region of Argov, as far as the border with the G’shuri and the Ma‘akhati; he named this whole area, including Bashan, after himself — it remains Havot-Ya’ir to this day.

(vii)

15 “I gave Gil‘ad to Machir;

16 and to the Re’uveni and the Gadi I gave the territory from Gil‘ad to the Arnon Valley, with the middle of the valley as the border, as far as the Yabok River, which is the border with the people of ‘Amon;

17 the ‘Aravah too, the Yarden being its border, from Kinneret to the Sea of the ‘Aravah, the Dead Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

18 “At that time I gave you this order: ‘Adonaiyour God has given you this land to possess. But all of you who are fit to fight must cross over, armed, ahead of your brothers the people of Isra’el.

19 Your wives, your little ones and your livestock — I know you have much livestock — will stay in your cities which I have given you,(Maftir)

20 untilAdonaiallows your brothers to rest, as he has allowed you; and they too take possession of the landAdonaiyour God is giving them on the west side of the Yarden. At that point you will return, each man to his own possession which I have given you.’

21 “Also at that time I gave this order to Y’hoshua: ‘Your eyes have seen everything thatAdonaiyour God has done to these two kings.Adonaiwill do the same to all the kingdoms you encounter when you cross over.

22 Don’t be afraid of them, becauseAdonaiyour God will fight on your behalf.’

Haftarah D’varim: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 1:1–27

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah D’varim: Yochanan (John) 15:1–11; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 3:7–4:11

Parashah 45: Va’etchanan (I pleaded) 3:23–7:11

23 “Then I pleaded withAdonai,

24 ‘AdonaiElohim, you have begun to reveal your greatness to your servant, and your strong hand — for what other god is there in heaven or on earth that can do the works and mighty deeds that you do?

25 Please! Let me go across and see the good land on the other side of the Yarden, that wonderful hill-country and the L’vanon!’

26 ButAdonaiwas angry with me on account of you, and he didn’t listen to me.Adonaisaid to me, ‘Enough from you! Don’t say another word to me about this matter!

27 Climb up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, north, south and east. Look with your eyes — but you will not go across this Yarden.

28 However, commission Y’hoshua, encourage him and strengthen him; for he will lead this people across and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’

29 So we stayed in the valley across from Beit-P‘or.

1 “Now, Isra’el, listen to the laws and rulings I am teaching you, in order to follow them, so that you will live; then you will go in and take possession of the land thatAdonai, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

2 In order to obey themitzvotofAdonaiyour God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it.

3 You saw with your own eyes whatAdonaidid at Ba‘al-P‘or, thatAdonaidestroyed from among you all the men who followed Ba‘al-P‘or;

4 but you who stuck withAdonaiyour God are still alive today, every one of you.(ii)

5 Look, I have taught you laws and rulings, just asAdonaimy God ordered me, so that you can behave accordingly in the land where you are going in order to take possession of it.

6 Therefore, observe them; and follow them; for then all peoples will see you as having wisdom and understanding. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘This great nation is surely a wise and understanding people.’

7 For what great nation is there that has God as close to them asAdonaiour God is, whenever we call on him?

8 What great nation is there that has laws and rulings as just as this entireTorahwhich I am setting before you today?

9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves diligently as long as you live, so that you won’t forget what you saw with your own eyes, so that these things won’t vanish from your hearts. Rather, make them known to your children and grandchildren —

10 the day you stood beforeAdonaiyour God at Horev, whenAdonaisaid to me, ‘Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my very words, so that they will learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on earth, and so that they will teach their children.’

11 You approached and stood at the foot of the mountain; and the mountain blazed with fire to the heart of heaven, with darkness, clouds and thick mist.

12 ThenAdonaispoke to you out of the fire! You heard the sound of words but saw no shape, there was only a voice.

13 He proclaimed his covenant to you, which he ordered you to obey, the Ten Words; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

14 At that timeAdonaiordered me to teach you laws and rulings, so that you would live by them in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.

15 “Therefore, watch out for yourselves! Since you did not see a shape of any kind on the dayAdonaispoke to you in Horev from the fire,

16 do not become corrupt and make yourselves a carved image having the shape of any figure — not a representation of a human being, male or female,

17 or a representation of any animal on earth, or a representation of any bird that flies in the air,

18 or a representation of anything that creeps along on the ground, or a representation of any fish in the water below the shoreline.

19 For the same reason, do not look up at the sky, at the sun, moon, stars and everything in the sky, and be drawn away to worship and serve them;Adonaiyour God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky.

20 No, youAdonaihas taken and brought out of the smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are today.

21 “ButAdonaiwas angry with me on account of you and swore that I would not cross the Yarden and go into that good land, whichAdonaiyour God is giving you to inherit.

22 Rather, I must die in this land and not cross the Yarden; but you are to cross and take possession of that good land.

23 Watch out for yourselves, so that you won’t forget the covenant ofAdonaiyour God, which he made with you, and make yourself a carved image, a representation of anything forbidden to you byAdonaiyour God.

24 ForAdonaiyour God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 “When you have had children and grandchildren, lived a long time in the land, become corrupt and made a carved image, a representation of something, and thus done what is evil in the sight ofAdonaiyour God and provoked him;

26 I call on the sky and the earth to witness against you today that you will quickly disappear from the land that you are crossing the Yarden to possess. You will not prolong your days there but will be completely destroyed.

27 Adonaiwill scatter you among the peoples; and among the nations to whichAdonaiwill lead you away, you will be left few in number.

28 There you will serve gods which are the product of human hands, made of wood and stone, which can’t see, hear, eat or smell.

29 However, from there you will seekAdonaiyour God; and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and being.

30 In your distress, when all these things have come upon you, in theacharit-hayamim, you will return toAdonaiyour God and listen to what he says;

31 forAdonaiyour God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.

32 “Indeed, inquire about the past, before you were born: since the day God created human beings on the earth, from one end of heaven to the other, has there ever been anything as wonderful as this? Has anyone heard anything like it?

33 Did any other people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and stay alive?

34 Or has God ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from the very bowels of another nation, by means of ordeals, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an outstretched arm and great terrors — like all thatAdonaiyour God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35 This was shown to you, so that you would know thatAdonaiis God, and there is no other beside him.

36 From heaven he caused you to hear his voice, in order to instruct you; and on earth he caused you to see his great fire; and you heard his very words coming out from the fire.

37 Because he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt with his presence and great power,

38 in order to drive out ahead of you nations greater and stronger than you, so that he could bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is the case today;

39 know today, and establish it in your heart, thatAdonaiis God in heaven above and on earth below — there is no other.

40 Therefore, you are to keep his laws andmitzvotwhich I am giving you today, so that it will go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you will prolong your days in the landAdonaiyour God is giving you forever.”

(A: iii)

41 Then Moshe separated three cities on the east side of the Yarden, toward the sunrise,

42 to which a killer might flee, that is, someone who kills by mistake a person whom he did not previously hate, and upon fleeing to one of these cities might live there.

43 The cities were Betzer in the desert, in the flatland, for the Re’uveni; Ramot in Gil‘ad for the Gadi; and Golan in Bashan for the M’nashi.

44 This is theTorahwhich Moshe placed before the people of Isra’el —

45 these are the instructions, laws and rulings which Moshe presented to the people of Isra’el after they had come out of Egypt —

46 beyond the Yarden River, in the valley across from Beit-P‘or, in the land of Sichon king of the Emori, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moshe and the people of Isra’el defeated when they came out of Egypt;

47 and they took possession of his land and the land of ‘Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Emori, who were beyond the Yarden toward the sunrise;

48 from ‘Aro‘er on the edge of the Arnon Valley to Mount Si’on,” that is, Mount Hermon,

49 “with all the ‘Aravah beyond the Yarden eastward, all the way to the Dead Sea at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

1 (A: iv, S: iii)Then Moshe called to all Isra’el and said to them, “Listen, Isra’el, to the laws and rulings which I am announcing in your hearing today, so that you will learn them and take care to obey them.

2 Adonaiour God made a covenant with us at Horev.

3 Adonaidid not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us — with us, who are all of us here alive today.

4 Adonaispoke with you face to face from the fire on the mountain.

5 At that time I stood betweenAdonaiand you in order to tell you whatAdonaiwas saying; because, on account of the fire, you were afraid and wouldn’t go up onto the mountain. He said,

א

6 “‘I amAdonaiyour God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.

ב

7 “‘You are to have no other gods before me.

8 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline —

9 you are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I,Adonaiyour God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

10 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey mymitzvot.

ג

11 “‘You are not to misuse the name ofAdonaiyour God, becauseAdonaiwill not leave unpunished someone who misuses his name.

ד

12 “‘Observe the day ofShabbat, to set it apart as holy, asAdonaiyour God ordered you to do.

13 You have six days to labor and do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is aShabbatforAdonaiyour God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do.

15 You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, andAdonaiyour God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. ThereforeAdonaiyour God has ordered you to keep the day ofShabbat.

ה

16 “‘Honor your father and mother, asAdonaiyour God ordered you to do, so that you will live long and have things go well with you in the landAdonaiyour God is giving you.

ו

17 “‘Do not murder.

ז “‘Do not commit adultery.

ח “‘Do not steal.

ט “‘Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.

י

18 “‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife; do not covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

(A: v, S: iv)

19 “These wordsAdonaispoke to your entire gathering at the mountain from fire, cloud and thick mist, in a loud voice; then it ceased. But he wrote them on two stone tablets, which he gave to me.

20 When you heard the voice coming out of the darkness, as the mountain blazed with fire, you came to me, all the heads of your tribes and your leaders,

21 and said, ‘Here,Adonaiour God has shown us his glory and his greatness! We have heard his voice coming from the fire, and we have seen today that God does speak with human beings, and they stay alive.

22 But why should we keep risking death? This great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice ofAdonaiour God any more, we will die!

23 For who is there of all humanity that has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the fire, as we have, and stayed alive?

24 You, go near; and hear everythingAdonaiour God says. Then you will tell us everythingAdonaiour God says to you; and we will listen to it and do it.’

25 “Adonaiheard what you were saying when you spoke to me, andAdonaisaid to me, ‘I have heard what this people has said when speaking to you, and everything they have said is good.

26 Oh, how I wish their hearts would stay like this always, that they would fear me and obey all mymitzvot; so that it would go well with them and their children forever.

27 Go, tell them to return to their tents.

28 But you, stand here by me; and I will tell you all themitzvot, laws and rulings which you are to teach them, so that they can obey them in the land I am giving them as their possession.’

29 “Therefore you are to be careful to do asAdonaiyour God has ordered you; you are not to deviate either to the right or the left.

30 You are to follow the entire way whichAdonaiyour God has ordered you; so that you will live, things will go well with you, and you will live long in the land you are about to possess.

1 “Now this is themitzvah, the laws and rulings whichAdonaiyour God ordered me to teach you for you to obey in the land you are crossing over to possess,

2 so that you will fearAdonaiyour God and observe all his regulations andmitzvotthat I am giving you — you, your child and your grandchild — as long as you live, and so that you will have long life.

3 Therefore listen, Isra’el, and take care to obey, so that things will go well with you, and so that you will increase greatly, asAdonai, the God of your ancestors, promised you by giving you a land flowing with milk and honey.

(A:vi, S: v)

4 “Sh’ma, Yisra’el!AdonaiEloheinu,Adonaiechad[Hear, Isra’el!Adonaiour God,Adonaiis one];

5 and you are to loveAdonaiyour God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.

6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart;

7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

8 Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead,

9 and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.

(S: vi)

10 “WhenAdonaiyour God has brought you into the land he swore to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov that he would give you — cities great and prosperous, which you didn’t build;

11 houses full of all sorts of good things, which you didn’t fill; water cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig; vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant — and you have eaten your fill;

12 then be careful not to forgetAdonai, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.

13 You are to fearAdonaiyour God, serve him and swear by his name.

14 You are not to follow other gods, chosen from the gods of the peoples around you;

15 becauseAdonai, your God, who is here with you, is a jealous God. If you do, the anger ofAdonaiyour God will flare up against you and he will destroy you from the face of the earth.

16 Do not putAdonaiyour God to the test, as you tested him at Massah [testing].

17 Observe diligently themitzvotofAdonaiyour God, and his instructions and laws which he has given you.

18 You are to do what is right and good in the sight ofAdonai, so that things will go well with you, and you will enter and possess the good landAdonaiswore to your ancestors,

19 expelling all your enemies ahead of you, asAdonaisaid.

20 “Some day your child will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of the instructions, laws and rulings whichAdonaiour God has laid down for you?’

21 Then you will tell your child, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, andAdonaibrought us out of Egypt with a strong hand.

22 Adonaiworked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household, before our very eyes.

23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us to the land he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us.

24 Adonaiordered us to observe all these laws, to fearAdonaiour God, always for our own good, so that he might keep us alive, as we are today.

25 It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to obey all thesemitzvotbeforeAdonaiour God, just as he ordered us to do.’”

1 (vii)“Adonaiyour God is going to bring you into the land you will enter in order to take possession of it, and he will expel many nations ahead of you — the Hitti, Girgashi, Emori, Kena‘ani, P’rizi, Hivi and Y’vusi, seven nations bigger and stronger than you.

2 When he does this, whenAdonaiyour God hands them over ahead of you, and you defeat them, you are to destroy them completely! Do not make any covenant with them. Show them no mercy.

3 Don’t intermarry with them — don’t give your daughter to his son, and don’t take his daughter for your son.

4 For he will turn your children away from following me in order to serve other gods. If this happens, the anger ofAdonaiwill flare up against you, and he will quickly destroy you.

5 No, treat them this way: break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, cut down their sacred poles and burn up their carved images completely.

6 For you are a people set apart as holy forAdonaiyour God.Adonaiyour God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his own unique treasure.

7 Adonaididn’t set his heart on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people — on the contrary, you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 Rather, it was becauseAdonailoved you, and because he wanted to keep the oath which he had sworn to your ancestors, thatAdonaibrought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from a life of slavery under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.(Maftir)

9 From this you can know thatAdonaiyour God is indeed God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe hismitzvot, to a thousand generations.

10 But he repays those who hate him to their face and destroys them. He will not be slow to deal with someone who hates him; he will repay him to his face.

11 Therefore, you are to keep themitzvot, laws and rulings which I am giving you today, and obey them.

Haftarah Va’etchanan: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 40:1–26

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah Va’etchanan: Mattityahu (Matthew) 4:1–11; 22:33–40; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 4:1–13; 10:25–37; Acts 13:13–43; Romans 3:27–31; 1 Timothy 2:4–6; Ya‘akov (James) 2:14–26; and all the readings for Parashah 17

Parashah 46: ‘Ekev (Because) 7:12–11:25

12 “Because you are listening to these rulings, keeping and obeying them,Adonaiyour God will keep with you the covenant and mercy that he swore to your ancestors.

13 He will love you, bless you and increase your numbers; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground — your grain, wine, olive oil and the young of your cattle and sheep — in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.

14 You will be blessed more than all other peoples; there will not be a sterile male or female among you, and the same with your livestock.

15 Adonaiwill remove all illness from you — he will not afflict you with any of Egypt’s dreadful diseases, which you have known; instead, he will lay them on those who hate you.

16 You are to devour all the peoples thatAdonaiyour God hands over to you — show them no pity, and do not serve their gods, because that will become a trap for you.

17 If you think to yourselves, ‘These nations outnumber us; how can we dispossess them?’

18 nevertheless, you are not to be afraid of them; you are to remember well whatAdonaiyour God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt —

19 the great ordeals which you yourself saw, and the signs, wonders, strong hand and outstretched arm by whichAdonaiyour God brought you out.Adonaiwill do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

20 Moreover,Adonaiyour God will send the hornet among them until those who are left and those who hide themselves perish ahead of you.

21 You are not to be frightened of them, becauseAdonaiyour God is there with you, a God great and fearsome.

22 Adonaiyour God will expel those nations ahead of you little by little; you can’t put an end to them all at once, or the wild animals will become too numerous for you.

23 Nevertheless,Adonaiyour God will give them over to you, sending one disaster after another upon them until they have been destroyed.

24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their name from under heaven; none of them will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

25 You are to burn up completely the carved statues of their gods. Don’t be greedy for the silver or gold on them; don’t take it with you, or you will be trapped by it; for it is abhorrent toAdonaiyour God.

26 Don’t bring something abhorrent into your house, or you will share in the curse that is on it; instead, you are to detest it completely, loathe it utterly; for it is set apart for destruction.

1 “All themitzvotI am giving you today you are to take care to obey, so that you will live, increase your numbers, enter and take possession of the landAdonaiswore about to your ancestors.

2 You are to remember everything of the way in whichAdonailed you these forty years in the desert, humbling and testing you in order to know what was in your heart — whether you would obey hismitzvotor not.

3 He humbled you, allowing you to become hungry, and then fed you withman, which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that a person does not live on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth ofAdonai.

4 During these forty years the clothing you were wearing didn’t grow old, and your feet didn’t swell up.

5 Think deeply about it:Adonaiwas disciplining you, just as a man disciplines his child.

6 So obey themitzvotofAdonaiyour God, living as he directs and fearing him.

7 ForAdonaiyour God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs and water welling up from the depths in valleys and on hillsides.

8 It is a land of wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

9 a land where you will eat food in abundance and lack nothing in it; a land where the stones contain iron and the hills can be mined for copper.

10 So you will eat and be satisfied, and you will blessAdonaiyour God for the good land he has given you.

(ii)

11 “Be careful not to forgetAdonaiyour God by not obeying hismitzvot, rulings and regulations that I am giving you today.

12 Otherwise, after you have eaten and are satisfied, built fine houses and lived in them,

13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own,

14 you will become proud-hearted. ForgettingAdonaiyour God — who brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you lived as slaves;

15 who led you through the vast and fearsome desert, with its poisonous snakes, scorpions and waterless, thirsty ground; who brought water out of flint rock for you;

16 who fed you in the desert withman, unknown to your ancestors; all the while humbling and testing you in order to do you good in the end —

17 you will think to yourself, ‘My own power and the strength of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’

18 No, you are to rememberAdonaiyour God, because it is he who is giving you the power to get wealth, in order to confirm his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as is happening even today.

19 If you forgetAdonaiyour God, follow other gods and serve and worship them, I am warning you in advance today that you will certainly perish.

20 You will perish just like the nations thatAdonaiis causing to perish ahead of you, because you will not have heeded the voice ofAdonaiyour God.”