See, I have today set before you life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am giving you today, loving the Lord, your God, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and ordinances, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 If, however, your heart turns away and you do not obey, but are led astray and bow down to other gods and serve them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore to your ...

When you have come into the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and have taken possession and settled in it, 2 you shall take some first fruits of the various products of the soil which you harvest from the land the Lord, your God, is giving you; put them in a basket and go to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose as the dwelling place for his name. 3 There you shall go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “Today I acknowledge to the Lord, my God, that I have indeed come into the land which the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 The priest shall then take the basket from your hands and set it in front of the altar of the Lord, your God. 5 Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord, your God, “My father was a refugee Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as a resident alien. But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous. 6 When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing h...

When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel, 2 he said to them, I am now one hundred and twenty years old and am no longer able to go out and come in; besides, the Lord has said to me, Do not cross this Jordan. 3 It is the Lord, your God, who will cross before you; he will destroy these nations before you, that you may dispossess them. (It is Joshua who will cross before you, as the Lord promised.) 4 The Lord will deal with them just as he dealt with Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and with their country, when he destroyed them. 5 When, therefore, the Lord delivers them up to you, you shall deal with them according to the whole commandment which I have given you. 6 Be strong and steadfast; have no fear or dread of them, for it is the Lord, your God, who marches with you; he will never fail you or forsake you. 7 Then Moses summoned Joshua and in the presence of all Israel said to him, “Be strong and steadfast, for you shall bring this people into the land which t...

Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and the woman conceived and bore a son. Seeing what a fine child he was, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket, daubed it with bitumen and pitch, and putting the child in it, placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the Nile, while her attendants walked along the bank of the Nile. Noticing the basket among the reeds, she sent her handmaid to fetch it. 6 On opening it, she looked, and there was a baby boy crying! She was moved with pity for him and said, “It is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and summon a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for you?” 8 Pharaoh’s daughter answered her, “Go.” So the young woman went and called the child’s own mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “T...

The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you act as midwives for the Hebrew women, look on the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this, allowing the boys to live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives.” 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and grew very numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, God built up families for them. 22 Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “Throw into the Nile every boy that is born, but you may let all the girls live.” Exodus 1:15-22 recounts Pharaoh's decree to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, commanding...

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! 5 Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. 6 Take to heart these words which I command you today. 7 Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 contains the heart of the Shema, Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone , (v. 4) the central declaration of Israel’s faith.  It underscores the absolute monotheism of Israel and calls for an all-encompassing love for God.  The phrase " The LORD is our God, the LORD alone " affirms both God's exclusive sovereignty and the necessity of Israel’s total devotion.  The command to love God with heart, soul, and strength (v. 5) highlights that...

Now therefore, Israel, hear the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 In your observance of the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I am commanding you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. 3 You have seen with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal-peor: the Lord, your God, destroyed from your midst everyone who followed the Baal of Peor; 4 but you, who held fast to the Lord, your God, are all alive today. 5 See, I am teaching you the statutes and ordinances as the Lord, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to possess. 6 Observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “This great nation is truly a wise and discerning people.” 7 For what great nation is there that has gods so close...

As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “Come on! Take your wife with you and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 When he hesitated, the men, because of the Lord’s compassion for him, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city. 17 As soon as they had brought them outside, they said: “Flee for your life! Do not look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Flee to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.” 18 “Oh, no, my lords!” Lot replied to them. 19 “You have already shown favor to your servant, doing me the great kindness of saving my life. But I cannot flee to the hills, or the disaster will overtake and kill me. 20 Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It is only a small place. Let me flee there—is it not a small place?—to save my life.” 21 “Well, then,” he replied, “I grant you this favor too. I will not overthrow the town you have ment...

But now that I am about to go to my own people, let me warn you what this people will do to your people in the days to come.” 15 Then he recited his poem: The oracle of Balaam, son of Beor, the oracle of the man whose eye is true, 16 The oracle of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, in rapture and with eyes unveiled. 17 I see him, though not now; I observe him, though not near: A star shall advance from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel, that will crush the brows of Moab, and the skull of all the Sethites, 18 Edom will be dispossessed, and no survivor is left in Seir. Israel will act boldly, 19 and Jacob will rule his foes. Balaam was a non-Israelite prophet or diviner who is best known for his interactions with the Israelites during their journey to the Promised Land.  Initially, Balaam was called by King Balak of Moab to curse Israel (Num 22:6), but God intervened, and each time Balaam tried to pronoun...

From Mount Hor they set out by way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, but the people’s patience was worn out by the journey; 5 so the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” 6 So the Lord sent among the people seraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of the Israelites died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, 8 and the Lord said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover. 9 Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered. In Numbers 21:4-9, the Israelites, weary from their journey through the wilderness, grow impat...

The Lord said to Moses: 2 Send men to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites. You shall send one man from each ancestral tribe, every one a leader among them. 3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, at the direction of the Lord. All of them were leaders among the Israelites. 25 They returned from reconnoitering the land forty days later. 26 Proceeding directly to Moses and Aaron and the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh, they made a report to them and to the whole community, showing them the fruit of the land. 27 They told Moses: “We came to the land to which you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit. 28 However, the people who are living in the land are powerful, and the towns are fortified and very large. Besides, we saw descendants of the Anakim there. 29 Amalekites live in the region of the Negeb; Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the highlands, and Canaanites along t...

Then he said, “A man had two sons, 12 and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. 13 After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. 14 When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. 15 So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. 16 And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. 17 Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. 18 I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one ...