The book of Deuteronomy is from the Greek: Deuteronomion, or "second law,” a mistranslation of verse 17:18, which actually says, “a copy of the law,” and not the second law. In Hebrew, the name is Devarim, which is like all the books of Moses, the first word of the book, which means simply “words.” It is the fifth and final book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah or Pentateuch. In theological terms the book constitutes a covenant between Yahweh and the "Children of Israel"; this is the culmination of the series of covenants which begins with that between Yahweh and all living things after the Flood (Genesis 9). One of its most significant verses constitutes the shema ("Hear, O Israel, the LORD(Jesus) is our God(Elohim/Theos), the LORD(Jesus) is one!"), which today serves as the definitive statement of Jewish identity.
The book was largely written by Moses, and perhaps Joshua (Chapter 34), or most likely edited by Ezra. See note on Ezra in The Ezra-Nehemiah chapters.
1 These are the words Moses spoke to all the people of Israel while they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were camped in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between Paran on one side and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab on the other.
The Hebrew word, Suph, "red" (for "sea," which our translators have inserted, is not in the original, and Moses was now farther from the Red Sea than ever), probably meant a place noted for its reeds (Numbers 21:14).
Tophel--identified as Tafyle or Tafeilah, lying between Bozrah and Kerak.
Hazeroth--is a different place from that at which the Israelites encamped after leaving "the desert of Sinai."(Jamieson)
2 It is eleven days' journey from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir.
There are eleven days' journey from Horeb--Distances are computed in the East still by the hours or days occupied by the journey. A day's journey on foot is about twenty miles--on camels, at the rate of three miles an hour, thirty miles--and by caravans, about twenty-five miles. But the Israelites, with children and flocks, would move at a slow rate. The length of the Thor from Ezion-geber to Kadesh is a hundred miles. The days here mentioned were not necessarily successive days [ROBINSON], for the journey can be made in a much shorter period. But this mention of the time was made to show that the great number of years spent in traveling from Horeb to the plain of Moab was not owing to the length of the way, but to a very different cause; namely, banishment for their apostasy and frequent rebellions.
3 On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moses addressed the people of Israel, telling them everything the LORD(Jesus) had commanded him to say.
This would correspond to early January
4 This took place after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who had ruled in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who had ruled in Ashtaroth and Edrei.
Ashtaroth--the royal residence of Og, so called from Astarte ("the moon"), the tutelary goddess of the Syrians. Og was slain at. This is now known as EASTER.
5 On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying,
6 “When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough.
7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates.
8 Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the LORD(Jesus) swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.’”
9 "At that time I told you, 'You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.
10 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has increased your population, making you as numerous as the stars of the sky(heaven)!
11 And may the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised!
12 But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and quarrels?
13 Choose some well-respected men from each tribe who are known for their wisdom and understanding, and I will appoint them as your leaders.’
14 “You answered me, ‘Your plan is a good one.’
15 So I took the heads of your tribes, men wise and knowledgeable, 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 instructed the judges, ‘You must hear the cases of your fellow Israelites and the foreigners living among you. Be perfectly fair in your decisions
17 and impartial in your judgments. Hear the cases of those who are poor as well as those who are rich. Don’t be afraid of anyone’s anger, for the decision you make is God(Elohim/Theos)’s decision. Bring me any cases that are too difficult for you, and I will handle them.’
18 At that time I gave you instructions about everything you were to do.
19 Then, just as the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) commanded us, we left Mount Sinai and traveled through the great and terrifying wilderness, as you yourselves remember, and headed toward the hill country of the Amorites. When we arrived at Kadesh-barnea,
20 I said to you, ‘You have now reached the hill country of the Amorites that the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) is giving us.
21 Look! The LORD(Jesus) has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of your ancestors, has promised you. Don’t be afraid! Don’t be discouraged!’
22 But you all came to me and said, ‘First, let’s send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter.’
23 This seemed like a good idea to me, so I chose twelve scouts, one from each of your tribes.
24 They headed for the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and explored it.
25 They picked some of its fruit and brought it back to us. And they reported, ‘The land the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has given us is indeed a good land.’
26 But you rebelled against the command of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and refused to go in.
27 You complained in your tents and said, ‘The LORD(Jesus) hates us. That’s why he has brought us here from Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered.
28 Where can we go? Our brothers have demoralized us with their report. They tell us, “The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there—the descendants of Anak!”’
There was great reason for his dwelling on this dark passage in their history, as it was their unbelief that excluded them from the privilege of entering the promised land (Hebrews 3:19); and that unbelief was a marvelous exhibition of human perversity, considering the miracles which God(Elohim/Theos) had wrought in their favor, especially in the daily manifestations they had of His presence among them as their leader and protector.
29 "I answered you, 'Don't be fearful, don't be afraid of them.
30 The LORD your God which goes before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes;
31 And you saw how the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’
32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos),
33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.
34 When the LORD(Jesus) heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore:
35 Not one of you from this wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors,
36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the LORD(Jesus) completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the very land he explored during his scouting mission.
37 And the LORD(Jesus) was also angry with me because of you. He said to me: Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land!
we know that it was several years afterwards that Moses betrayed an unhappy spirit of distrust at the waters of strife (Psalms 106:32,33). This verse must be considered therefore as a parenthesis. Moses implies here that his punishment was really for the sake of the people, and not really his sin. Remember, he is a CHRIST TYPE!
38 Instead, Joshua the son of Nun, your assistant -he will go in there. So encourage him, because he will enable Israel to take possession of it.
39 I will give the land to your little ones—your innocent children. You were afraid they would be captured, but they will be the ones who occupy it.
God(Elohim/Theos)'s ways are not as man's ways [Isaiah 55:8,9].
40 As for you, turn around now and go on back through the wilderness toward Suph.[Red Sea mistranslated in KJV]’
41 “Then you answered me, ‘We have sinned against the LORD(Jesus)! We will go into the land and fight for it, as the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded us.’ So your men strapped on their weapons, thinking it would be easy to attack the hill country.
42 “But the LORD(Jesus) told me to tell you, ‘Do not attack, for I am not with you. If you go ahead on your own, you will be crushed by your enemies.’
43 So I told you, but you wouldn't listen. Instead, you rebelled against the LORD(Jesus)’s command and arrogantly went into the hill country to fight.
44 But the Amorites who lived in that hill-country came out against you like bees. They chased and battered you all the way from Seir to Hormah.
45 Then you returned and cried before the LORD(Jesus), but he refused to listen.
46 So you stayed there at Kadesh for a long time.
Deuteronomy 2 “words” 2
1 “Then we turned around and headed back across the wilderness toward the Reed Sea (Suph)[mistranslated Red Sea in KJV] just as the LORD(Jesus) had instructed me, and we wandered around in the region of Mount Seir for a long time.
1 “Then we turned around and headed back across the wilderness toward the Reed Sea (Suph)[mistranslated Red Sea in KJV] just as the LORD(Jesus) had instructed me, and we wandered around in the region of Mount Seir for a long time.
2 And the LORD(Jesus) spoke to me, saying:
3 You have been going around in this mountain long enough; go and head north.
4 Give this order to the people: 'You will pass through the country belonging to your relatives the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel threatened, so be careful.
5 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 Seir to Esau as his property, and I will not give you even one square foot of their land.
6 Pay them money for the food you eat, and pay them money for the water you drink.
7 For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.”
8 “So we bypassed the territory of our relatives, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. We avoided the road through the Arabah Valley that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber. Then as we turned north along the desert route through Moab,
9 the LORD(Jesus) warned us: Do not bother the Moabites, the descendants of Lot, or start a war with them. I have given them Ar as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.’
GIANTS
10 (A race of giants called the Emites had once lived there. They were as strong and numerous and tall as the Anakites, another race of giants.
11 Both the Emites and the Anakites are also known as the Rephaites, though the Moabites call them Emites.
12 In earlier times the Horites had lived in Seir, but they were driven out and displaced by the descendants of Esau, just as Israel drove out the people of Canaan when the LORD(Jesus) gave Israel their land.)
13 Moses continued, “Then the LORD(Jesus) said to us: Get moving. Cross the Zered Brook.’ So we crossed the brook.
14 Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the LORD(Jesus) had vowed would happen.
15 The LORD(Jesus) struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community.
16 When all the men who were able to bear arms had died and were no longer part of the people,
17 the LORD(Jesus) said to me,
18 Today you will cross the border of Moab at Ar
19 and enter the land of the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. But do not bother them or start a war with them. I have given the land of Ammon to them as their property, and I will not give you any of their land.
Giants:
20 (That area was once considered the land of the Rephaites, who had lived there, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummites.
21 They were also as strong and numerous and tall as the Anakites. But the LORD(Jesus) destroyed them so the Ammonites could occupy their land.
22 He had done the same for the descendants of Esau who lived in Seir, for he destroyed the Horites so they could settle there in their place. The descendants of Esau live there to this day.
That is to the day EZRA edited this book, some 500 years later or more
23 A similar thing happened when the Caphtorites from Caphtor [Crete] invaded and destroyed the Avvites, who had lived in villages in the area of Gaza.)
24 Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.
25 This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you.
26 {Moses then said} “From the wilderness of Kedemoth I sent ambassadors to King Sihon of Heshbon with this proposal of peace:
27 ‘Let us travel through your land. We will stay on the main road and won’t turn off into the fields on either side.
28 Sell us food to eat and water to drink, and we will pay for it. All we want is permission to pass through.
29 (As the children of Esau who live in Seir, and the Moabites who live in Ar, did ) until I pass through Jordan into the land which the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) gave us.
30 But King Sihon of Heshbon would not allow us to pass through by him, because the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) made Sihon stubborn, so He could help you defeat him, as he has now done.
31 And the LORD(Jesus) said to me: Look, I have begun to hand King Sihon and his land over to you. Begin now to conquer and occupy his land.
32 Then Sihon waged war against us and mobilized his forces at Jahaz.
33 And the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) handed him over to us, and we crushed him, his sons, and all his people.
34 We conquered all his towns and completely destroyed everyone—men, women, and children. Not a single person was spared.
completely destroyed The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the LORD(Jesus), either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
35 we took only the cattle, along with the spoil from the cities we had captured.
36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge, and from the town in the gorge, even as far as Gilead, not one town was too strong for us. The LORD(Jesus) our God gave us all of them.
37 However, in accordance with the command of the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) we did not encroach on any of the land of the Ammonites, neither the land along the course of the Jabbok nor that around the towns in the hills.
Deuteronomy 3 “words” 3
1 Then we turned and headed for the road to Bashan, where King Og and his entire army attacked us at Edrei.
Bashan ("fruitful" or "flat"), now El-Bottein, is located to the north of Gilead and extended as far as Hermon. It was a rugged mountainous country, valuable however for its rich pastures.
2 But the LORD(Jesus) told me: Do not be afraid of him, for I have given you victory over Og and his entire army, and I will give you all his land. Treat him just as you treated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon.
3 So the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) delivered King Og and all his people over to us, and we killed them all. Not one person survived.
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 Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 These towns were all fortified with high walls and gates with locked bars. We also took many unwalled villages at the same time.
6 We completely destroyed them, as we did with King Sihon of Heshbon. We destroyed all the people in every town we conquered—men, women, and children alike.
7 But we took all the livestock for ourselves and took plunder from all the towns.
8 And we took the land of the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River. From the Arnon Gorge all the way to Mount Hermon.
9 (Mount Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians, and the Amorites call it Senir.)
10 We had now conquered all the cities on the plateau and all Gilead and Bashan, as far as the towns of Salecah and Edrei, which were part of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.
11 For King Og of Bashan was the last survivor of the giant Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It can still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah.
giants--or"Rephaim." He was not the last giant, but the only living remnant in the trans-jordanic country (Joshua 15:14), of a certain gigantic race, supposed to be the most ancient inhabitants of Palestine.
thirteen feet long and six feet wide. Literally measured by the standard cubit, versus the Royal cubit, which was longer =. The Royal cubit was the Egyptian cubit, that was used in the mesurements of Noah's Ark!
It can still be seen. IE in the time of Ezra, who mainly put this book together.
12 When we took ownership of this land, I gave to the tribes of Reuben and Gad the territory beyond Aroer along the Arnon Gorge, plus half of the hill country of Gilead with its towns.
13 Then I gave the rest of Gilead and all of Bashan—Og’s former kingdom—to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This entire Argob region of Bashan used to be known as the land of the Rephaites.
14 Jair, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh, conquered the whole Argob region in Bashan, all the way to the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. Jair renamed this region after himself, calling it the Towns of Jair, as it is still known today.)
15 I gave Gilead to the family of Makir.
16 But I also gave part of Gilead to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The area I gave them extended from the middle of the Arnon Gorge in the south to the Jabbok River on the Ammonite frontier.
17 They also received the Jordan Valley, all the way from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea,[literally: Salt Sea] with the Jordan River serving as the western boundary. To the east were the slopes of Pisgah.
18 At that time I gave you this order: ‘Although the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) 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 Israel.
19 Your wives, your children, and your many livestock, however, may stay behind in the towns I have given you.
20 When the LORD(Jesus) has given security to the rest of the Israelites, as he has to you, and when they occupy the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving them across the Jordan River, then you may all return here to the land I have given you.’
Moses Can't Enter the Land:
21 “Also at that time I gave Joshua this charge: ‘You have seen for yourself everything the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has done to these two kings. He will do the same to all the kingdoms on the west side of the Jordan.
22 Do not be afraid of the nations there, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will fight for you.’
23 Then I pleaded with the LORD(Jesus),
24 ‘O LORD(Jesus) God(Elohim/Theos), you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any God(Elohim/Theos) in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you do?
25 Please let me cross the Jordan to see the wonderful land on the other side, the beautiful hill country and the Lebanon mountains.’
This is very sad indeed. Moses wants to go, begs to go, but he cannot go! Moses must be a symbol that only God Jesus can enter the land with the people and not even Moses.
26 But the LORD(Jesus) was angry with me because of you, and he would not listen to me. ‘That’s enough!’ he declared. ‘Speak of it no more.
27 But go up to Pisgah Peak, and look over the land in every direction. Take a good look, but you may not cross the Jordan River.
28 Instead, commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead the people across the Jordan. He will give them all the land you now see before you as their possession.’
29 So we stayed in the valley near Beth-peor.
Deuteronomy 4 “words” 4
1 Now therefore listen carefully O Israel, to these laws and regulations that I am about to teach you. Obey them so that you may live, so you may enter and occupy the land that the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of your ancestors, is giving you.
2 Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) that I am giving you.
IMPORTANT. DO NOT ADD or SUBTRACT FROM THE BIBLE. This is repeated again in Revelation 22: 18-19!
3 You own eyes saw what the LORD(Jesus) did at Baal-peor. There the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) destroyed everyone who had worshiped Baal, the God(Elohim/Theos) of Peor.
4 But every single one of you who were faithful to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) are still alive today!
5 Look, I have taught you laws and rulings, just as the LORD(Jesus) my God(Elohim/Theos) commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
6 Therefore, observe them totally, and you will display your wisdom and intelligence among the surrounding nations. When they hear all these decrees, they will exclaim, ‘How wise and prudent are the people of this great nation!’
7 For what great nation has a God(Elohim/Theos) as near to them as the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) is near to us whenever we call on him?
8 What great nation is there that has laws and rulings as just as this entire Torah which 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 Never forget the day when you stood before the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at Mount Sinai,[Horeb] where he told me, ‘Summon the people before me, and I will personally instruct them. Then they will learn to fear me as long as they live, and they will teach their children to fear me also.’
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 And the LORD(Jesus) 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—the Ten Commandments[the Ten Words]—which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets.
14 At that time that the LORD(Jesus) ordered me to teach you his decrees and regulations so you would obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
15 Therefore, watch out! You did not see the LORD(Jesus)’s form on the day he spoke to you from the heart of the fire at Mount Sinai[Horeb].
16 Do not corrupt yourselves by making an idol in any form—whether of a man or a woman,
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; The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) gave them to all nations under the whole heaven[sky].
20 Remember that the LORD(Jesus) rescued you from the iron-smelting furnace of Egypt, in order to make you to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are today.
21 But the LORD(Jesus) was angry with me because of you. He vowed that I would not cross the Jordan River into the good land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as your special possession.
22 You will cross the Jordan to occupy the land, but I will not. Instead, I will die here on the east side of the river.
23 So be careful not to break the covenant the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has made with you. Do not make idols of any shape or form, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has forbidden this.
24 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is a consuming fire; he is a jealous God(Elohim/Theos).
25 When you have children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time, do not corrupt yourselves by making idols of any kind. This is evil in the sight of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and will arouse his anger.
26 I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against you. If you break my covenant, you will quickly disappear from the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will live there only a short time; then you will be utterly destroyed.
27 And the LORD(Jesus) will scatter you among the nations, where only a few of you will survive.
28 There you will serve gods(Elohim/Theos) which are the product of human hands, made of wood and stone, which can't see, hear, eat or smell.
29 In your distress, when all these things have come upon you, in the acharit-hayamim, you will return to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and listen to what he says;
30 In the [distant] future, when you are suffering tribulation, you will finally return to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and listen to what he tells you.
31 For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is a merciful God(Elohim/Theos); he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.
There Is Only One God(Elohim/Theos)!
versus 27-31: Foreshadowing the time of the Babylonian captivity to Jesus' second coming!
32 Now search all of history, from the time God(Elohim/Theos) created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before?
33 Has any nation ever heard the voice of God(Elohim/Theos) speaking from fire—as you did—and survived?
34 Has God(Elohim/Theos) dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes.
35 He showed you these things so you would know that the LORD(Jesus) is God(Elohim/Theos) and there is no other.
36 He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it.
37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants, and he personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power.
38 He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as your special possession, as it is today.
39 So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD(Jesus) is God(Elohim/Theos) both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other.
The LORD GOD is One. The LORD (Yahweh) is not the personal name of Jesus, but the personal name of the Godhead! Jesus is the I AM, but the Yahweh is both the Father and the Son, and hence, they are ONE GOD!
40 Therefore, you are to keep his laws and commandments that I am giving you today, all will be well with you and your children. I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you for all time.
41 Then Moses set apart three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River.
42 Anyone who killed another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, could flee there to live in safety.
43 These were the cities: Bezer on the wilderness plateau for the tribe of Reuben; Ramoth in Gilead for the tribe of Gad; Golan in Bashan for the tribe of Manasseh.
44 This is the body of instruction that Moses presented to the Israelites.
45 These are the laws, decrees, and regulations[These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments] that Moses gave to the people of Israel when they left Egypt,
46 and as they camped in the valley near Beth-peor east of the Jordan River. (This land was formerly occupied by the Amorites under King Sihon, who ruled from Heshbon. But Moses and the Israelites destroyed him and his people when they came up from Egypt.
47 Israel took possession of his land and that of King Og of Bashan—the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.
48 So Israel conquered the entire area from Aroer at the edge of the Arnon Gorge all the way to Mount Sirion[Mount Sion], also called Mount Hermon.
49 And they conquered the eastern bank of the Jordan River as far south as the Dead Sea,[e] below the slopes of Pisgah.)
Deuteronomy 5 “words” 5
Ten Commandments :
1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said, “Listen O Israel. Hear the decrees and regulations I am giving you today, so you may learn them and obey them!
Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments--Whether this rehearsal of the law was made in a solemn assembly, or as some think at ageneral meeting of the elders as representatives of the people, is of little moment; it was addressed either directly or indirectly to the Hebrew people as principles of their peculiar constitution as a nation; and hence, as has been well observed, "the Jewish law has no obligation upon Christians, unless so much of it as given or commanded by Jesus Christ; for whatever in this law is conformable to the laws of nature, obliges us, not as given by Moses, but by virtue of an antecedent law common to all rational beings" [BISHOP WILSON].
2 The LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) made a covenant with us at Mount Sinai.
3 The LORD(Jesus) did not make this covenant with our ancestors only, but with all of us who are alive today.
The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us--The meaning is, "not with our fathers" only, "but with us" also, assuming it to be "a covenant" of grace. It may mean "not with our fathers" at all, if the reference is to the peculiar establishment of the covenant of Sinai; a law was not given to them as to us, nor was the covenant ratified in the same public manner and by the same solemn sanctions. Or, finally, the meaning may be "not with our fathers" who died in the wilderness, in consequence of their rebellion, and to whom God did not give the rewards promised only to the faithful; but "with us," who alone, strictly speaking, shall enjoy the benefits of this covenant by entering on the possession of the promised land. (Jamieson)
4 At the mountain the LORD(Jesus) spoke to you face to face from the heart of the fire.
5 I stood as an intermediary between you and the LORD(Jesus), for you were afraid of the fire and did not want to approach the mountain. He spoke to me, and I passed his words on to you. This is what he said:
I stood between the Lord and you at that time--as the messenger and interpreter of thy heavenly King, bringing near two objects formerly removed from each other at a vast distance, namely, God and the people (Galatians 3:19). In this character Moses was a type of Christ, who is the only mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), the Mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, 12:24).
and I passed his words on to you. to show you the word of the Lord--not the ten commandments--for they were proclaimed directly by the Divine Speaker Himself, but the statutes and judgments which are repeated in the subsequent portion of this book.
6 I am the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
7 You must not have any other God(Elohim/Theos) before me.
Before! We have other 'gods' or idols in our lives, but they can never come before God!
8 You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind, or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
9 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), am a jealous God(Elohim/Theos) punishing the children for the sins of the parents, also the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
10 But lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on all who love me and obey my commandments.
11 You must not misuse the name of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). The LORD(Jesus) will not let you go unpunished if you misuse my name in vain.
12 Keep the Sabbath day setting it apart as holy, as the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded you.
13 You have six days each week for your ordinary work,
14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys and other livestock, and any foreigners living among you. All your male and female servants must rest as you do.
15 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and mother, as the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) commanded you. Then you will live a long, full life and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
that it may go well with you--This clause is not in Exodus, but admitted into Ephesians 6:3.
17 Do not murder.
Not Kill! The word is do not murder! Killing is permissible, murder is not!
18 Do not commit adultery.
19 Do not steal.
20 Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.
21 Do not covet your neighbor’s wife. You must not covet your neighbor’s house or land, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.
22 These words the LORD(Jesus) spoke to all of you assembled there at the foot of 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.
23 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,
24 and said, ‘Look, the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God(Elohim/Theos) can speak to us humans, and yet we live!
25 But why should we keep risking death? If the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire.
26 For who is there of all humanity that has heard the voice of the living God(Elohim/Theos) speaking from the fire, as we have, and stayed alive?
27 Go yourself and listen to what the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) says. Then come and tell us everything he tells you, and we will listen and obey.’
28 “The LORD(Jesus) heard the request you made to me. And he said, ‘I have heard what the people said to you, and they are right.
29 Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever.
Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me--God can bestow such a heart, and has promised to give it, wherever it is asked (Jeremiah 32:40). But the wish which is here expressed on the part of God for the piety and steadfast obedience of the Israelites did not relate to them as individuals, so much as a nation, whose religious character and progress would have a mighty influence on the world at large.
30 Go and tell them, 'Return to your tents.'
31 But you stand here with me so I can give you all my commands, decrees, and regulations. You must teach them to the people so they can obey them in the land I am giving them as their possession.’
32 So Moses told the people, “You must be careful to obey all the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), following his instructions in every detail.
33 Stay on the path that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
Deuteronomy 6 “words” 6
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy,
2 so that you will fear the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) as long as you live you must observe all his regulations and commandments. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life.
3 Hear O Israel, and obey! Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear O Israel, The LORD(Jesus) is our God(Elohim/Theos), the LORD(Jesus) is One.
Shema (Hebrew, “Hear [O Israel],” the first word of Deuteronomy 6:4), one of the two major rubrics (the other being the Tefillah) of the daily liturgy in Judaism, and the closest approximation to a creedal statement. The Shema consists of three scriptural paragraphs (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41), which are framed by introductory and concluding benedictions. The three paragraphs together affirm God's unity and providence and the Jews' obligation to serve him in love and perform his commandments. The surrounding benedictions praise God as creator of the universe, revealer of Torah, and redeemer and (in the evening recitation) protector of Israel. In accordance with the rabbinic interpretation of Deuteronomy 6:7, the Shema is recited twice daily, “when you lie down, and when you rise.” It thus forms a major part of the morning and evening services. The first paragraph is also recited immediately before going to bed at night. Originally the Shema was recited by the individual on beholding the sunrise and sunset. Shema is one of the sentences that are quoted in the New Testament. The Gospel of Mark 12:29 mentions that Jesus considered the Shema the beginning exhortation of the first of his two greatest commandments: "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, 'Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord'" (KJV). Jesus also refers to the Shema in The Gospel of John 10:30. A group of Jews in the Temple in Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, asks him if he is Messiah, the anointed one of God. Jesus concludes his response with the words "I and my Father are one" (KJV). This is an allusion to the Shema, which the Jews immediately recognize. In addition, the apostle Paul reworks the Shema in 1 Corinthians 8:6 vis-à-vis the risen Christ: "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."
5 And you are to love the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Mark 12:20
6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart.
7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
Unlike the “Lord's prayer”, we are to recite this all the time!
8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has brought you into the land he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 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 be careful not to forget the LORD(Jesus), who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
13 You must respect the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.
14 You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations,
15 for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who lives among you, is a jealous God(Elohim/Theos). His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth.
16 You must not test the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) as you did when you complained at Massah.
Luke 4:12
17 You must diligently obey the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos)—all the laws and commandments He has given you.
18 And you are to go right and good in the LORD(Jesus)’s sight, so all will go well with you. Then you will enter and occupy the good land that the LORD(Jesus) swore to give your ancestors,
19 and drive out all the enemies living in the land, just as the LORD(Jesus) said you would.
20 Someday in future times, your children will ask you, ‘What is the meaning of these laws, decrees, and commandments that the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded us to obey?’
21 Then you must tell them, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the LORD(Jesus) brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand.
22 The LORD(Jesus) did miraculous signs and wonders before our eyes, dealing terrifying blows against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his people.
23 He brought us out of Egypt so he could give us this land he had sworn to give our ancestors.
24 And the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear Him so He can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day.
25 For we will be counted as righteous when we obey all the commands the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has given us.’
The grand design of all the institutions prescribed to Israel was to form a religious people, whose national character should be distinguished by that fear of the Lord their God which would ensure their divine observance of His worship and their steadfast obedience to His will. The basis of their religion was an acknowledgment of the unity of God with the understanding and the love of God in the heart (Deuteronomy 6:4,5). Compared with the religious creed of all their contemporaries, how sound in principle, how elevated in character, how unlimited in the extent of its moral influence on the heart and habits of the people! Indeed, it is precisely the same basis on which rests the purer and more spiritual form of it which Christianity exhibits (Matthew 22:37, 12:30, Luke 10:27). Moreover, to help in keeping a sense of religion in their minds, it was commanded that its great principles should be carried about with them wherever they went, as well as meet their eyes every time they entered their homes. A further provision was made for the earnest inculcation of them on the minds of the young by a system of parental training, which was designed to associate religion with all the most familiar and oft-recurring scenes of domestic life. It is probable that Moses used the phraseology in Deuteronomy 6:7 merely in a figurative way, to signify assiduous, earnest, and frequent instruction; and perhaps he meant the metaphorical language in Deuteronomy 6:8 to be taken in the same sense also. But as the Israelites interpreted it literally, many writers suppose that a reference was made to a superstitious custom borrowed from the Egyptians, who wore jewels and ornamental trinkets on the forehead and arm, inscribed with certain words and sentences, as amulets to protect them from danger. These, it has been conjectured, Moses intended to supersede by substituting sentences of the law; and so the Hebrews understood him, for they have always considered the wearing of the Tephilim, or frontlets, a permanent obligation. The form was as follows: Four pieces of parchment, inscribed, the first with Exodus 13:2-10; the second with Exodus 13:11-16; the third with Deuteronomy 6:1-8; and the fourth with Deuteronomy 11:18-21, were enclosed in a square case or box of tough skin, on the side of which was placed the Hebrew letter (shin), and bound round the forehead with a thong or ribbon. When designed for the arms, those four texts were written on one slip of parchment, which, as well as the ink, was carefully prepared for the purpose. With regard to the other usage supposed to be alluded to, the ancient Egyptians had the lintels and imposts of their doors and gates inscribed with sentences indicative of a favorable omen [WILKINSON]; and this is still the case, for in Egypt and other Mohammedan countries, the front doors of houses (in Cairo, for instance) are painted red, white, and green, bearing conspicuously inscribed upon them such sentences from the Koran, as "God is the Creator," "God is one, and Mohammed is his prophet." Moses designed to turn this ancient and favorite custom to a better account and ordered that, instead of the former superstitious inscriptions, there should be written the words of God, persuading and enjoining the people to hold the laws in perpetual remembrance.(Jamieson)
Deuteronomy 7 “words” 7
1When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you.
the Hittites--This people were descended from Heth, the second son of Canaan (Genesis 10:15)
the Girgashites--supposed by some to be the same as the Gergesenes (Matthew 8:28), who lay to the east of Lake Gennesareth; but they are placed on the west of Jordan (Josh 24:11), and others take them for a branch of the large family of the Hivites, as they are omitted in nine out of ten places where the tribes of Canaan are enumerated; in the tenth they are mentioned, while the Hivites are not.
the Amorites--descended from the fourth son of Canaan. They occupied, besides their conquest on the Moabite territory, extensive settlements west of the Dead Sea, in the mountains.
the Canaanites--located in Phoenicia, particularly about Tyre and Sidon, and being sprung from the oldest branch of the family of Canaan, bore his name.
the Perizzites--that is, villagers, a tribe who were dispersed throughout the country and lived in unwalled towns.
the Hivites--who dwelt about Ebal and Gerizim, extending towards Hermon. They are supposed to be the same as the Avims.
the Jebusites--resided about Jerusalem and the adjacent country.
2 And when the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy.
3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters,
We are not to marry pagans. None believers of the real God and faith.
4 for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD(Jesus) will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.
5 This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah[Easter] poles and burn their idols.
6 For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). Of all the people on earth, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has chosen you to be His own special treasure.
7 The LORD(Jesus) did not set His heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!
8 Rather, it was was because the LORD(Jesus) loves you, and He was keeping the oath He had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the LORD(Jesus) rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
9 From this you can know that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is indeed God(Elohim/Theos). He is the faithful God(Elohim/Theos) who keeps His covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes His unfailing love on those who love him and obey his [Ten] Commandments.
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 the [Ten]commandments, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today.
12 If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will keep His covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors.
13 He will love you and bless you, and He will give you many children. He will give fertility to your land and your animals. When you arrive in the land he swore to give your ancestors, you will have large harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil, and great herds of cattle, sheep, and goats.
14 You will be blessed above all the nations of the earth. None of your men or women will be childless, and all your livestock will bear young.
A promise to Israel that we would be blessed above all nations of the earth physically! This never happened until the formation of Great Britain and the United States!
15 And the LORD(Jesus) will protect you from all sickness. He will not let you suffer from the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all your enemies!
16 You must destroy all the nations the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) hands over to you. Show them no mercy, and do not worship their gods, or they will trap you.
17 Perhaps you will think to yourselves, ‘How can we ever conquer these nations that are so much more powerful than we are?’
18 But don’t be afraid of them! Just remember what the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) did to Pharaoh and to all the land of Egypt.
19 Remember the great terrors the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) sent against them. You saw it all with your own eyes! And remember the miraculous signs and wonders, and the strong hand and powerful arm with which he brought you out of Egypt. The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will use this same power against all the people you fear.
20 And then the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will send terror[hornet] to drive out the few survivors still hiding from you!
21 No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is among you, and he is a great and awesome God(Elohim/Theos).
22 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you.
23 But the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will hand them over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they are destroyed.
24 He will put their kings in your power, and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all.
25 You must burn their idols in fire, and you must not covet the silver or gold that covers them. You must not take it or it will become a trap to you, for it is detestable to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
26 Do not bring any detestable objects into your home, for then you will be destroyed, just like them. You must utterly detest such things, for they are set apart for destruction.
These detestable things are easter eggs, Christmas trees, and other graven images from paganism! They are not to be in our homes.
Deuteronomy 8 “words” 8
1 Be careful to obey all the commandments I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the LORD(Jesus) swore to give your ancestors.
2 Remember how the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.
3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD(Jesus).
Matt 4:4 and Luke 4:4
4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell.
See chapter in Joe Kovacs book: “Shocked by the Bible” on this very point. Miraculously, God made it that none of the people's garments ever wore out – in 40 years!
5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) disciplines you for your own good.
God disciplines us for our own good, as we should do with our children.
6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) by walking in His ways and fearing Him.
7 For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills.
8 It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey;
honey--The word "honey" is used often in a loose, indeterminate sense, very frequently to signify a syrup of dates or of grapes, which under the name of dibs is much used by all classes, wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment to their food. It resembles thin molasses, but is more pleasant to the taste [ROBINSON].
This is esteemed a great delicacy in the East, and it was produced abundantly in Palestine.
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, when you have eaten your fill, be sure to thank the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) for the good land He has given you.
11 Be careful not to forget the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) by not obeying His commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
13 and increased your herds, flocks, silver, gold and everything else you own,
14 do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
15 Do not forget that He led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
18 Do not forget the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) 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 forget the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) follow other gods(Elohim/Theos) and serve and worship them, I am warning you in advance today that you will certainly perish.
20 Just as the LORD(Jesus) has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
Deuteronomy 9 “words” 9
1 Hear, O Israel!You are to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, great cities fortified up to the sky;
2 a people great and tall, the 'Anakim, whom you know about and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of 'Anak?'
3 Therefore realize today that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is the one who will cross over ahead of you like a devouring fire to destroy them. He will subdue them so that you will quickly conquer them and drive them out, just as the LORD(Jesus) has promised.
4 Don't think to yourself, after your God(Elohim/Theos) has pushed them out ahead of you, 'It is to reward my righteousness that the LORD(Jesus) has brought me in to take possession of this land.' No, it is because these nations have been so wicked that the LORD(Jesus) is driving them out ahead of you.
5 It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
It is important to see that it isn't for these peoples benefit, or the love of these people God is doing all of this. It is because of His friendship with Abraham and Jacob!
6 You must recognize that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.
7 Remember and never forget how angry you made the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against Him.
8 Even at Mount Sinai[Horeb] you made the LORD(Jesus) so angry he was ready to destroy you.
9 This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the LORD(Jesus) had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.
A total fast is NO WATER or Food.
10 The LORD(Jesus) gave me the two tablets on which God(Elohim/Theos) had written with his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain.
11 At the end of the forty days and nights, the LORD(Jesus) handed me the two stone tablets inscribed with the words of the covenant.
12 Then the LORD(Jesus) said to me, 'Get up, and hurry down from here, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have become corrupt. So quickly have they turned aside from the way I ordered them to follow! They have made themselves a metal image!'
The people become “your people when they do wrong, and God's people when they are obeying. Just a funny, humorous observation!!!
13 “The LORD(Jesus) also said to me, 'I have seen this people, and what a stubborn people they are!
14 Leave me alone so I may destroy them and erase their name from under heaven. Then I will make a mighty nation of your descendants, a nation larger and more powerful than they are.’
See numbers 14:12 for the entire story how Moses changed God's mind!
15 So while the mountain was blazing with fire I turned and came down, holding in my hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant.
16 I looked, and there, you had sinned against the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos)! You had made yourselves a metal calf, you had turned aside quickly from the way the LORD(Jesus) had ordered you to follow.
17 So I took the stone tablets and threw them to the ground, smashing them before your eyes.
18 Then, as before, I threw myself down before the LORD(Jesus) for forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water because of the great sin you had committed by doing what the LORD(Jesus) hated, provoking him to anger.
All in all, this was an incredible 80 day fast! No water, no food for 80 days!!!!
19 I feared that the furious anger of the LORD(Jesus), which turned him against you, would drive him to destroy you. But again He listened to me.
20 The LORD(Jesus) was so angry with Aaron that he wanted to destroy him, too. But I prayed for Aaron, and the LORD(Jesus) spared him.
21 I took your sin—the calf you had made—and I melted it down in the fire and ground it into fine dust. Then I threw the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.
22 You also made the LORD(Jesus) angry at Taberah,[“place of burning.” ] Massah,[place of testing] and Kibroth-hattaavah.[graves of craving]
23 Also, at Kadesh-barnea the LORD(Jesus) sent you out with this command: ‘Go up and take over the land I have given you.’ But you rebelled against the command of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and refused to put your trust in him or obey Him.
24 You have been rebelling against the LORD(Jesus) from the day I first knew you!
25 So I fell down before the LORD(Jesus) for forty days and nights—for the LORD(Jesus) said he would destroy you.
26 I prayed to the LORD(Jesus) and said, ‘O Sovereign LORD(Jesus), do not destroy them. They are your own people. They are your special possession, whom you redeemed from Egypt by your mighty power and your strong hand.
27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
28 I fear that if you destroy these people, the Egyptians will say, “The Israelites died because the LORD(Jesus) wasn’t able to bring them to the land He had promised to give them.” Or they might say, “He destroyed them because He hated them; He deliberately took them into the wilderness to slaughter them.”
29 But they are your people and your special possession, whom You brought out of Egypt by Your great strength and powerful arm.’
Deuteronomy 10 “words” 10
NEW COMMANDMENTS OF STONE:
1 At that time the LORD(Jesus) said to me: Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. Also make a wooden Ark—a sacred chest to store them in. Come up to me on the mountain,
2 and I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the ones you smashed. Then place the tablets in the Ark.
3 So I made an Ark of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first two. Then I went up the mountain with the tablets in my hand.
4 Once again the LORD(Jesus) wrote the Ten Commandments[the Ten Words] on the tablets and gave them to me. They were the same words the LORD(Jesus) had spoken to you from the heart of the fire on the day you were assembled at the foot of the mountain.
The Ten Commadments are in Hebrew “the Ten Words.” Christ is the Word of God. The inner meaning here cannot be overlooked
5 I turned, came down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made; and there they remain; as the LORD(Jesus) commanded me.
6 And the children of Israel traveled from the wells of Beeroth to Mosera: where Aaron died, and was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his place.
7 From there, they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from there to Jotbathah, a land with many brooks and streams.
8 At that time the LORD(Jesus) set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the LORD(Jesus)’s Covenant, and to stand before the LORD(Jesus) as his ministers, and to pronounce blessings in his name. These are their duties to this day.
9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance with his brothers; The LORD(Jesus) himself is their inheritance, as the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) said to them.
10 I stayed on the mountain in the LORD(Jesus)’s presence for forty days and nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the LORD(Jesus) listened to my pleas and agreed not to destroy you.
11 Then the LORD(Jesus) said to me, 'Get up, and go on your way at the head of the people, so that they can enter and take possession of the land I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.'
12 And now, Israel, what does the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and live in a way that pleases Him, and love Him and serve Him with all your heart and soul.
13 And you must always obey the LORD(Jesus)’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.
14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the the LORD's(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos), and everything there is.
Heaven and heaven of heavens. As we stated in Genesis, there are three heavens. The first two are the sky (air) and the universe. The heaven of heavens, is the third heaven, where God lives.
15 Only the LORD(Jesus) took enough pleasure in your ancestors to love them and choose their descendants after them -yourselves -above all peoples, as he still does today.
16 Therefore, change your hearts[circumcise your hearts] and stop being stubborn.
Here Moses teaches the people the true and spiritual meaning of that rite, as was afterwards more strongly urged by Paul (Romans 2:25,29), and should be applied by us to our baptism, which is "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God" [1 Peter 3:21].
17 For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is the God(Elohim/Theos) of gods(elohim/theos) and Lord(adown) of lords(adown). He is the great God(Elohim/Theos), the mighty and awesome God(Elohim/Theos), who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.
Here Lord is not Yahweh, but a word for master. God is the master of masters. The “it of its!”
18 He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.
19 Therefore you are to love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
20 You must revere the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and worship Him and cling to Him. Your oaths must be in his name alone.
21 He alone is your God(Elohim/Theos), the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.
22 Your ancestors went down into Egypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky!
Deuteronomy 11 “words” 11
1 You must love the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and obey all his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands.
2 Today it is you I am addressing -not your children, who haven't known or experienced the discipline of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), His greatness, his strong hand, His outstretched arm,
3 His signs and his actions which he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to his entire country.
4 They didn't experience what he did to Egypt's army, horses and chariots -how the LORD(Jesus) overwhelmed them with the water of the Sea of Suf[Red Sea in KJV] as they were pursuing you, so that they remain destroyed to this day.
5 They didn't experience what He kept doing for you in the desert until you arrived at this place;
6 or what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the descendant of Reuben -how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, tents and every living thing in their company, there in front of all Israel.
7 But you have seen with your own eyes all these great deeds of the LORD(Jesus).
Blessings of Obedience:
8 Therefore you shall keep all the commandments which I command you today, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land,
9 and so that you will live long in the land the LORD(Jesus) swore to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10 For the land you are entering in order to take possession of it isn't like the land of Egypt. There you would sow your seed and had to use your feet to operate its irrigation system, as in a vegetable garden.
11 Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain;
12 A land which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) cares for: the eyes of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.
13 So if you listen carefully to my commandments which I am giving you today, to love the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and serve him with all your heart and soul,
14 then He will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil.
15 He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
16 But be careful not to let yourselves be seduced, so that you turn aside, serving other gods(elohim/theos) and worshipping them.
17 If you do, the LORD(Jesus)’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD(Jesus) is giving you.
18 So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.
19 Teach them carefully to your children, and talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21 so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD(Jesus) swore to give your ancestors.
22 For if you make sure to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) by walking in his ways and holding tightly to Him.
23 Then the LORD(Jesus) will expel all these nations ahead of you; and you will dispossess nations bigger and stronger than you are.
24 Wherever the sole of your foot steps will be yours; your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.[western sea].
25 No one will be able to stand against you, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse -
As you can see, God sets up a choice here for all f us to follow or not. It is up to us.
27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) that I am giving you today.
28 But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.
29 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal.
30 Both are west of the Jordan, in the direction of the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites, living in the area, across from Gilgal, near the pistachio trees of Moreh.
31 For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it,
32 And you are to take care to follow all the laws and rulings I am setting before you today.
Deuteronomy 12 “words” 12
1 Here are the laws and rulings you are to observe and obey in the land that the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of your ancestors, is giving you. You must obey them as long as you live.
2 You must destroy all the places where the nations you are defeating served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under an evergreen.
I.e: Christmas tree!
3 Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods(elohim/theos). Exterminate their name from that place.
4 Do not worship the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods.
We are not to copy the way pagans worship their gods in any way. We are not to take pagan holidays, laws, or rituals and put God's name on them to make the Christian! This is abhorrent to God! This is what many Christians have done that substituted Sunday for the Saturday Sabbath, or adopted Christmas or Easter. We are not to learn the way of pagan peoples and copy what they do, even if it is for our God! Also, see verse 30 below.
5 Rather, you must seek the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at the place of worship He Himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where His name will be honored.
6 There you will bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, your offerings to fulfill a vow, your voluntary offerings, and your offerings of the firstborn animals of your herds and flocks.
7 There you and your families will feast in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and you will rejoice in all you have accomplished because the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has blessed you.
8 You will not do things the way we do them here today, where everyone does whatever in his own opinion seems right;
9 because you haven't yet arrived at the rest and inheritance which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
10 But when you soon cross the Jordan River and live in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you. When He gives you rest from all your enemies and you’re living safely in the land,
11 you must bring everything I command you—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and your offerings to fulfill a vow—to the designated place of worship, the place the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses for His name to be honored.
12 You must celebrate there in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) with your sons and daughters and all your servants. And remember to include the Levites who live in your towns, for they will receive no allotment of land among you.
13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you like.
14 You may do so only at the place the LORD(Jesus) will choose within one of your tribal territories. There you must offer your burnt offerings and do everything I command you.
15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat wherever you live and whenever you want, in keeping with the degree to which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) blesses you. The unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer.
Unclean here means not allowed for an offering! Wild animals are not be offered to God, but if they are clean, they can be eaten. Compare this to Paul and you will see he is talking about the same thing when he is talking about common meats.
16 But don't eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.
17 You are not to eat on your own property the tenth[tithe] of your grain, new wine or olive oil [that you set aside for an offering], or the firstborn of your cattle or sheep, or any offering you have vowed, or your voluntary offering, or the offering from your hand.
18 You must eat these in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at the place he will choose. Eat them there with your children, your servants, and the Levites who live in your towns, celebrating in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) in all you do.
19 As long as you are living on your property, take care not to abandon the Levite.
20 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) expands your territory as he has promised, and you have the urge to eat meat, you may eat meat, as much as you want.
21 It the place that is designated as the place of worship—the place the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses for his name to be honored—is a long way from your home. If so, you may butcher any of the cattle, sheep, or goats the LORD(Jesus) has given you, and you may freely eat the meat in your hometown, as I have commanded you.
22 Eat it as you would gazelle or deer; the unclean and clean alike may eat it.
23 Make sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you are not to eat the life with the meat.
24 Instead, pour out the blood on the ground like water.
25 Do not eat the blood, so that all may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what pleases the LORD(Jesus).
26 Only the things set aside for God which you have, and the vows you have vowed to make, you must take and go to the place which the LORD(Jesus) chooses.
27 There you will offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). The blood of your sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and you will eat the meat.
28 Obey and pay attention to everything I am ordering you to do, so that all will go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and pleasing to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
29 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) goes ahead of you and destroys the nations and you drive them out and live in their land,
30 do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’
see note verse 4
31 You must not worship the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the LORD(Jesus) hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods.
32 [Verse 12:32 is numbered 13:1 in Hebrew text.]So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them.
Do not add or subtract from the Bible
"So What? What Difference Does It Make?" By Garner Ted Armstrong:
God thunders at His people, "LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN!" (Jeremiah 10:2). When God called His people out of Egypt, which is a type of Sin; Pharaoh being a type of Satan, He said, "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
"Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits [demons], or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who claims to communicate with the dead].
"For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
"Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God" (Deuteronomy 18:9-13).
Millions are completely IGNORANT of just WHO it was who issued this command.
Believe it or not, it was the member of the divine Godhead, called "Elohim" in Genesis who became Jesus Christ of your New Testament!
Notice the proof! "In the beginning was the Word [Greek: Logos, meaning Spokesman"], and the Word was with God [Theos, the Greek equivalent of Elohim, meaning more than One] and the Word was God.
"The same was in the beginning with God.
"All things were made by him [He was the CREATOR of Genesis!]; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
"The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
"He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
"He came unto his own [the Jews], and his own received him not.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
There is no possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpreting these verses of your Bible! Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT! He said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58).
Most churches will not accept this truth, and therefore stand condemned of God! Why? Because they know it leaves in a shambles their commonly assumed doctrines that God's laws are "done away"! Faced with the incontrovertible truth that the One who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger is Jesus Christ of the New Testament; that the One who called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the One who said "Let there be light" is Jesus Christ, they quickly hide behind their traditions, and refuse to admit the truth.
The same Person of Elohim says, "Let US make man in OUR image, and after OUR likeness" (Genesis 1:26).
He says, "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). Your Bible says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).
Now, knowing that it was the Divine Member of Elohim, JESUS CHRIST, who spoke to the fathers, notice! "When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
"Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise [God's people are NOT TO FOLLOW PAGAN CUSTOMS!].
"Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
"What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).
Any person deciding to delve into the "black arts" and become a "witch" was to be put to death in ancient Israel, ruled by the Member of Elohim Who became Christ: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18).
YOU DECIDE!
Are you a part of this present society; conforming, going along with its ways? As stated earlier, if there is no God, then none of this makes any difference. But since GOD DOES EXIST, and since Jesus Christ is soon coming to JUDGE this world, and rule it with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 20:4), it behooves each person to CHOOSE!
God (the One who became Christ) said, "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
"In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
"But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;
"I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy 30: 15-19).
Our God thunders at us, "LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN!"
He leaves the choice with us. Which way will you choose?
Deuteronomy 13 “words” 13
IDOLATRY
1 [Verses 13:1-18 are numbered 13:2-19 in Hebrew text.]
If a prophet or someone who gets messages while dreaming arises among you and he gives you a sign or wonder,
2 and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’—gods you have not known before,
3 do not listen to them. The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is testing you to see if you truly love him with all your heart and soul.
4 Serve only the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.
5 The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must be put to death, for they encourage rebellion against the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who redeemed you from slavery and brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since they try to lead you astray from the way the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) commanded you to live, you must put them to death. In this way you will purge the evil from among you.
6 If your brother the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife whom you love, or your friend who means as much to you as yourself, secretly tries to entice you to go and serve other gods(elohim/theos), which you haven't known, neither you nor your ancestors -
7 gods(elohim/theos) of the peoples surrounding you, whether near or far away from you, anywhere in the world,
8 you are not to consent, and you are not to listen to him; and you must not pity him or spare him; and you may not conceal him.
9 Rather, you must put them to death! Strike the first blow yourself, and then all the people must join in.
10 Stone the guilty ones to death because they have tried to draw you away from the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery.
11 Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and no one will act so wickedly again.
12 If you hear it told that in one of your cities which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you, you may hear
13 certain scoundrels have sprung up among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city by saying, 'Let's go and serve other gods, which you haven't known,'
14 In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find that the report is true and such a detestable act has been committed among you,
15 you must put the inhabitants of that city to death with the sword, destroying it completely with the sword, everything in it, including its livestock. .
16 Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the open square and burn it. Burn the entire town as a burnt offering to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt.
17 Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD(Jesus) will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a large nation, just as he swore to your ancestors.
18 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will be merciful only if you listen to his voice and keep all his commands that I am giving you today, doing what pleases him.
Deuteronomy 14 “words” 14
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS FOR FOOD: (see note in Leviticus on Clean/Unclean food))
1 You are the people of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), never cut yourselves or shave the hair above your foreheads in mourning for the dead.
2 You have been set apart as holy to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and he has chosen you as a special nation from all the nations of the earth.
3 You must not eat any detestable animals that are unclean.
4 The animals which you may eat are: ox, sheep, goat,
5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, ibex, antelope, oryx and mountain sheep.
6 Any animal that has a separate hoof that is completely divided and also chews the cud, these animals you may eat.
7 But you are not to eat those that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof. For example, the camel, the hare and the coney are unclean for you because they chew the cud but don't have a separate hoof;
8 And you may not eat the pig. It has split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses.
9 Of all the marine animals, you may eat whatever has both fins and scales.
10 You may not, however, eat marine animals that do not have both fins and scales. They are unclean for you.
11 You may eat any clean bird;
12 but these you are not to eat: eagles, vultures, ospreys,
13 the kite, the falcon, buzzards of all kinds,
14 ravens of all kinds,
15 the eagle owl, the short-eared owl, the seagull, hawks of all kinds,
16 the little owl, the great owl, the barn owl,
17 the desert owl, the Egyptian vulture, the cormorant,
18 the stork, herons of all kinds, the hoopoe, and the bat.
19 All winged insects that walk along the ground are unclean for you and may not be eaten.
20 but all clean flying creatures you may eat.
21 You must not eat anything that has died a natural death. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, or you may sell it to a stranger. But do not eat it yourselves, for you are set apart as holy to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
This does not mean that you can not eat milk with meat, as the Jews maintain in their Kosher laws, after all Abraham served God himself, milk and meat right before they went down to destroy Sodom. This simply means that a baby should not be boiled in its own mother's milk. That is detestable because of the cruelness of it! To use a portion of a mother's body (milk) to cook her child is unconscionable
TITHES:
22 You must set aside a tithe[a tenth] of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year.
TITHE: Old English word meaning a tenth... or 10%
23 and eat it in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). In the place where he chooses to have his name live you will eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, so that you will learn to fear the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) always.
24 But if the distance is too great for you, so that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the LORD(Jesus) chooses to put his name is too far away from you; then, when the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) prospers you,
25 you are to convert it into money, take the money with you, go to the place which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has chosen.
26 and exchange the money for anything you want - cattle, sheep, wine, other intoxicating liquor, or anything you please - and you are to eat there in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and celebrate with your household.
27 And do not neglect the Levites in your town, for they will receive no allotment of land among you.
28 At the end of every three years you are to take all the tenths of your produce from that year and store it in your towns.
29 Give it to the Levites, who will receive no allotment of land among you, as well as to the foreigners living among you, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, so they can eat and be satisfied. Then the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you in all your work.
Deuteronomy 15 “words” 15
WHEN DEBTS ARE ERASED
1 At the end of every seventh year you must cancel the debts of everyone who owes you money.
2 This is how it must be done. Everyone must cancel the loans they have made to their fellow Israelites. They must not demand payment from their neighbors or relatives, for the LORD(Jesus)’s time of release has arrived.
3 You may demand that a foreigner repay his debt, but you are to release your claim on whatever your brother owes you.
4 There should be no poor among you, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will greatly bless you in the land he is giving you as a special possession.
5 You will receive this blessing if you are careful to obey all the commands of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) that I am giving you today.
6 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you as he has promised. You will lend money to many nations but will never need to borrow. You will rule many nations, but they will not rule over you.
7 But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.
8 Instead, be generous and lend them whatever they need.
9 Do not be mean and refuse someone a loan because the year for canceling debts is close at hand. If you refuse to make the loan and the needy person cries out to the LORD(Jesus), you will be considered guilty of sin.
10 Rather, you must give to him; and you are not to be grudging when you give to him. If you do this, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you in everything you do.
11 for there will always be poor people in the land. That is why I am giving you this order, 'You must open your hand to your poor and needy brother in your land.'
(Romans 12:8, 2 Corinthians 9:7).
Release of Slaves
12 If your brother, a Hebrew man or woman, is sold to you, he is to serve you for six years; but in the seventh year, you are to set him free.
13 Moreover, when you set him free, don't let him leave empty-handed.
14 Give him a generous farewell gift from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. Share with him some of the bounty with which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has blessed you.
15 Remember that you were once slaves in the land of Egypt and the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) redeemed you! That is why I am giving you this command.
16 But if he says to you, 'I don't want to leave you,' because he loves you and your household, and because his life with you is a good one;
17 then take an awl, and pierce his ear through, right into the door; and he will be your slave forever. Do the same with your female slave.
18 You must not consider it a hardship when you release your servants. Remember that for six years they have given you services worth double the wages of hired workers, and the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you in all you do.
19 You must set aside for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks.
20 Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) each year at the place he chooses.
21 But if this firstborn animal has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or if anything else is wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos);
22 Rather, eat it on your own property; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, like the gazelle or the deer.
23 But you must not eat the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
This year of release typified the grace of the gospel, in which is proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord; and by which we obtain the release of our debts, that is, the pardon of our sins. The law is spiritual, and lays restraints upon the thoughts of the heart. We mistake, if we think thoughts are free from God's knowledge and check. That is a wicked heart indeed, which raises evil thoughts from the good law of God, as theirs did, who, because God had obliged them to the charity of forgiving, denied the charity of giving. Those who would keep from the act of sin, must keep out of their minds the very thought of sin. It is a dreadful thing to have the cry of the poor justly against us. Grudge not a kindness to thy brother; distrust not the providence of God. What thou doest, do freely, for God loves a cheerful giver, 2 Corinthians 9:7.
Here the law concerning Hebrew servants is repeated. There is an addition, requiring the masters to put some small stock into their servants' hands to set up with for themselves, when sent out of their servitude, wherein they had received no wages. We may expect family blessings, the springs of family prosperity, when we make conscience of our duty to our family relations. We are to remember that we are debtors to Divine justice, and have nothing to pay with. That we are slaves, poor, and perishing. But the Lord Jesus Christ, by becoming poor, and by shedding his blood, has made a full and free provision for the payment of our debts, the ransom of our souls, and the supply of all our wants. When the gospel is clearly preached, the acceptable year of the Lord is proclaimed; the year of release of our debts, of the deliverance of our souls, and of obtaining rest in him. And as faith in Christ and love to him prevail, they will triumph over the selfishness of the heart, and over the unkindness of the world, doing away the excuses that rise from unbelief, distrust, and covetousness. [Matthew Henry]
Always remember this point when reading the Old Testament, every symbol ever mentioned is about Jesus Christ! Each time one reads about redemption, sacrifice, and atonement, we are really reading about the foreshadow of Christ to come!
Deuteronomy 16 “words” 16
Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread
1 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), for in the month of Abib the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 Your are to sacrifice the Passover to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) of your flocks at the designated place of worship—the place the LORD(Jesus) chooses for His name to be honored. This is the night of April
3 You are not to eat anything with yeast [hametz]; for seven days you are to eat with it matzoh, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. Thus you will remember the day you left the land of Egypt as long as you live.
4 No yeast is to be seen with you anywhere in your territory for seven days. None of the meat from your sacrifice on the first day in the evening is to remain all night until morning.
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of the towns that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
6 You must offer it only at the designated place of worship—the place the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses for his name to be honored. Sacrifice it there in the evening as the sun goes down on the anniversary of your exodus from Egypt.
7 You are to roast the lamb and eat it in the place the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses. Then you may go back to your tents the next morning.
8 For six days you are to eat matzoh; On the seventh day proclaim another holy day in honor of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and no work may be done on that day.
The Festival of Harvest (Pentecost)
9 You are to count seven weeks; you are to begin counting seven weeks from the time you first put your sickle to the standing grain.
10 Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest[Pentecost] to honor the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him. This is May 29th-30th
11 You are to rejoice in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos); you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levite living in your towns, and the foreigners, orphans and widows living among you - in the place where the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will choose to have his name live.
12 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt; then you will keep and obey these laws.
The Feast of Tabernacles or Shelters or Tents
The Word was made flesh and dwelt--literally, "tabernacled"--among us (John 1:14), Christ being actually born at that season. Jesus is the tabernacles in the feast!
13 You must observe the Feast of Tabernacles[Succoth] for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed.
This starts September 29th..
14 This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns.
15 For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honor the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all.
16 Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the LORD(Jesus) without a tithe[empty handed] for him.
This is like three weeks built in vacation time!
17 But everyone is to give what they can, according to the blessings given to them by the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
18 You are to also appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes in all the towns the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you. They must judge the people fairly and honestly.
19 You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the righteous.
20 Justice, only justice, you must pursue; so that you will live and inherit the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
21 You are not to plant any sort of tree as a sacred Asherah[Easter] pole beside the altar you build for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
No Christmas trees, or Easter poles in church!
22 And never set up a standing-stone, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) hates them.
The Feast of tabernacles contains many symbols. Jesus, of course, who physically “dwelt” or “tabernacled” with us, as well as our mortal bodies are also a symbol of our temporary bodies that are for now “tabernacling” in the wilderness of sin, waiting our death and resurrection to immortality! Can you understand why following Christ's holidays are so important? They allow us to see a picture of His plans for all of our salvation!
Deuteronomy 17 “words” 17
1 You are not to sacrifice to LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) a cow or sheep that has a defect or anything wrong with it; that would be an abomination to LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
2 If there is found among you, within any of your gates [in any city] that LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) gives you, a man or woman who does what LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) sees as wicked, transgressing his covenant
3 For instance, they might serve other gods(elohim/theos) or worship the sun, the moon, or any of the stars—the forces of heaven—which I have strictly forbidden.
4 When you hear about it, then you are to investigate the matter diligently. If it is true, if it is confirmed that such detestable things are being done in Israel;
5 then you are to bring the man or woman who has done this wicked thing to your city gates, and stone that man or woman to death.
6 The death sentence is to be carried out only if there was testimony from two or three witnesses; he may not be sentenced to death on the testimony of only one witness.
7 The witnesses must throw the first stones, and then all the people may join in. In this way, you will purge the evil from among you.
8 If a case comes before you at your city gate which is too difficult for you to judge, concerning bloodshed, civil suit, personal injury or any other controversial issue; you are to get up, go to the place which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will choose,
9 and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict.
10 You must carry out the verdict they announce and the sentence they prescribe at the place the LORD(Jesus) chooses. You must do exactly what they say.
11 In accordance with the Law [Torah] that they teach you, you are to carry out the judgment they render, not turning aside to the right or the left from the verdict they declare to you.
12 Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) must die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel.
13 Then all the people will hear about it and be afraid to continue acting presumptuously.
14 When you enter the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you and take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’
15 If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.
A natural born king! Like America.
16 However, he is not to acquire many horses for himself or have the people return to Egypt to obtain more horses, inasmuch as the LORD(Jesus) told you never to go back that way again.
17 The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD(Jesus). And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.
18 When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself the Law[Torah] on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
19 He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD(Jesus) his God(Elohim/Theos) and keep all the words of this Torah and these laws and obey them;
20 so that he will not think he is better than his kinsmen; and so that he will not turn aside either to the right or to the left from the Commandments. In this way he will prolong his own reign and that of his children in Israel.
he shall write him a copy of this law in a book--The original scroll of the ancient Scriptures was deposited in the sanctuary under the strict custody of the priests Each monarch, on his accession, was to be furnished with a true and faithful copy, which he was to keep constantly beside him, and daily peruse it, that his character and sentiments being cast into its sanctifying mould, he might discharge his royal functions in the spirit of faith and piety, of humility and a love or righteousness. (Jamieson)
Deuteronomy 18 “words” 18
Levites:
1 Remember that the Levitical priests—that is, the whole of the tribe of Levi—will receive no allotment of land among the other tribes in Israel. Instead, the priests and Levites will eat from the special gifts given to the LORD(Jesus), for that is their share.
2 They will have no land of their own among the Israelites. The LORD(Jesus) himself is their special possession, just as he promised them.
3 These are the parts the priests may claim as their share from the cattle, sheep, and goats that the people bring as offerings: the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach.
4 You will also give him the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep.
5 For LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has chosen him from all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of LORD(Jesus), him and his sons forever.
6 If a Levite from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living comes, highly motivated, to the place which LORD(Jesus) will choose,
7 then he will serve there in the name of LORD(Jesus) his God(Elohim/Theos), just like his kinsmen the Levites who stand and serve in the presence of LORD(Jesus).
8 He may eat his share of the sacrifices and offerings, even if he also receives support from his family.
Holy Living
9 When you enter the land LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you, you are not to learn how to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
We are not to copy the pagans, their customs, laws or holy days!
10 There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, an enchanter, a witch,
11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.
12 For whoever does these things is detestable to LORD(Jesus), and because of these abominations LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is driving them out ahead of you.
13 You must be right with LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
14 For the nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune-tellers, but the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) forbids you to do such things.
The coming of CHRIST
15 LORD(Jesus) will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yourselves, from your own kinsmen. You are to pay attention to him,
This is Christ
16 For this is what you yourselves requested of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) when you were assembled at Mount Sinai.[Horeb] You said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) anymore or see this blazing fire, for we will die.’
17 Then the LORD(Jesus) said to me: What they have said is right.
18 I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.
John 1:45, Acts 3:22-23, Is 49:2
19 I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.
20 But any prophet who falsely claims to speak in my name or who speaks in the name of another God(Elohim/Theos) must die.
21 But you may wonder, ‘How will we know whether or not a prophecy is from the LORD(Jesus)?’
22 If the prophet speaks in the LORD(Jesus)’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the LORD(Jesus) did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.
Deuteronomy 18:15-19. CHRIST THE PROPHET IS TO BE HEARD.
15-19. The LORD(Jesus) thy God(Elohim/Theos) will raise up unto thee a prophet--The insertion of this promise, in connection with the preceding prohibition, might warrant the application (which some make of it) to that order of true prophets whom God(Elohim/Theos) commissioned in unbroken succession to instruct, to direct, and warn His people; and in this view the purport of it is, "There is no need to consult with diviners and soothsayers, as I shall afford you the benefit of divinely appointed prophets, for judging of whose credentials a sure criterion is given" (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). But the prophet here promised was pre-eminently the Messiah, for He alone was "like unto Moses" "in His mediatorial character; in the peculiar excellence of His ministry; in the number, variety, and magnitude of His miracles; in His close and familiar communion with God(Elohim/Theos); and in His being the author of a new dispensation of religion." This prediction was fulfilled fifteen hundred years afterwards and was expressly applied to Jesus Christ by Peter (Acts 3:22,23), and by Stephen (Acts 7:37). whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him--The direful consequences of unbelief in Christ, and disregard of His mission, the Jewish people have been experiencing during eighteen hundred years. (Jamieson)
Deuteronomy 19 “words” 19
Cities of Refuge: God(Elohim/Theos)'s prisons:
1 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) destroys the nations whose land he is giving you, you will take over their land and settle in their towns and homes.
2 Then you must set apart three cities of refuge in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
3 Keep the roads in good repair. Divide the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you into three districts, with one of these cities in each district. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of the cities of refuge for safety.
4 If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, the slayer may flee to any of these cities to live in safety.
5 An example would be if a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood and takes a stroke with the axe to fell a tree, but the head of the axe flies off the handle, hits his neighbor and kills him. Then he is to flee to one of these cities and live there.
6 Otherwise the next-of-kin avenger, in the heat of his anger, may pursue the killer, overtake him because the distance [to the city of refuge] is long, and strike him dead - even though he didn't deserve to die, inasmuch as he hadn't hated him in the past.
7 That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge.
8 And if the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) expands your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised them,
9 you must keep and observe the Law[Torah] I am giving you today, loving LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and always following his ways - then you are to add three more cities for yourselves, besides these three;
10 so that innocent blood will not be shed in the land LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as an inheritance, and thus blood guilt be on you.
11 However, if someone hates his fellow member of the community, lies in wait for him, attacks him, strikes him a death blow, and then flees into one of these cities;
12 then the leaders of his own town are to send and bring him back from there and hand him over to the next-of-kin avenger, to be put to death.
13You are not to pity him. Rather, you must put an end to the shedding of innocent blood in Israel. Then things will go well with you.
14 You are not to move your neighbor's boundary marker from the place where people put it long ago, in the inheritance soon to be yours in the land LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you to possess.
This has special significance to my family, where my uncles relatives did exactly this to my father
15 You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
16 If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime,
17 then both the accuser and accused must appear before the LORD(Jesus) by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time.
18 The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite,
19 you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you.
20 Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.
21 You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy 20 “words” 20
LAWS ABOUT WAR
1 When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you!
2 When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops.
3 He will tell them, ‘Listen O Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them.
4 For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and He will give you victory!’
5 Then the officers will speak to the soldiers. They are to say, 'Is there a man here who has built a new house, but hasn't dedicated it yet? He should go back home now; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will dedicate it.
6 Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit.
7 Is there a man here who is engaged to a woman, but hasn't married her yet? He should go back home; otherwise he may die fighting, and another man will marry her.'
8 Then the officers will then add to what they have said to the soldiers: 'Is there a man here who is afraid and fainthearted? He should go back home; otherwise his fear may demoralize his comrades as well.'
9 When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will select the unit commanders.
10 When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it terms for peace.
11 If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor.
12 But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town.
13 When the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town.
14 But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has given you.
15 This is what you are to do to all the towns which are at a great distance from you, which are not the towns of these nations.
16 As for the towns of these peoples, which LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as your inheritance, you are not to allow anything that breathes to live.
17 You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded you.
Destroy: The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the LORD(Jesus), either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.
18 This will prevent the people of the land from teaching their abominable practices to you, which they do for their gods, thus causing you to sin against LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
19 When, in making war against a town in order to capture it, you lay siege to it for a long time, you are not to destroy its trees, cutting them down with an axe. You can eat their fruit, so don't cut them down. After all, are the trees in the field human beings, so that you have to besiege them too?
20 However, if you know that certain trees provide no food, you may destroy them and cut them down, in order to build siege-works against the town making war with you, until it falls.
Deuteronomy 21 “words” 21
1 When you are in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.
2 In such a case, your elders and judges must measure the distance from the site of the crime to the nearby towns.
3 When the nearest town has been determined, that town’s elders must select from the herd a young cow that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.
4 They must lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and that has a stream running through it. There in the valley they must break the young cow’s neck.
5 And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near them; for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has chosen them to minister unto Him, and to bless them in the name of the LORD(Jesus); and by their word they will decide the outcome of every dispute and matter involving violence.
6 The leaders of the town must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken.
7 Then they are to speak up and say, 'This blood was not shed by our hands, nor have we seen who did it.
8 O LORD(Jesus), forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.’ Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person’s blood.
9 Thus you will banish the shedding of innocent blood from among you, by doing what LORD(Jesus) sees as right.
Marriage to a Captive Woman
10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) hands them over to you, and you take prisoners,
11 and you see among the prisoners a woman who looks good to you, and you feel attracted to her and want her as your wife;
12 you are to bring her home to your house, where she will shave her head, cut her fingernails
13 and remove her prison clothing. She will stay there in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month; after which you may go in to have sexual relations with her and be her husband, and she will be your wife.
14 In the event that you lose interest in her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes; but you may not sell her for money or treat her like a slave, because you humiliated her.
Rights if plural wives:
15 If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and unloved wives have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife;
Here again we see the law allows polygamy and recognizes the rights of the unloved wife.
16 then, when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons, he may not give the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved one, who is in fact the firstborn.
17 He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns, for he is the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his.
Rebellious children
18 If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey what his father or mother says, and even after they discipline him he still refuses to pay attention to them;
19 then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the leaders of his town, at the gate of that place,
20 and say to the leaders of his town, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he doesn't pay attention to us, lives wildly, gets drunk.'
21 Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
22 If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree,
Jesus, was hung from a pole, tree or stake, and is one of the reasons that the Jews thought him deserving of his death.
23 the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for everyone who is hung on a tree, is cursed in the sight of God(Elohim/Theos). In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as your special possession.
Gal 3:13. Again, why Jesus was thought to be cursed by God(Elohim/Theos).
Deuteronomy 22 “words” 22
Various laws on clothing, sex and marriage
1 You are not to watch your brother's ox or sheep straying and behave as if you hadn't seen it; you must bring them back to the owner.
2 If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it.
3 Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility.
4 If you see your brother's donkey or ox collapsed on the road, you may not behave as if you hadn't seen it; you must help him get them up on their feet again.
5 A woman must wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
6 If, as you are walking along, you happen to see a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground with chicks or eggs, and the mother bird is sitting on the chicks or the eggs, you are not to take the mother with the chicks.
7 You may take the young, but let the mother go, so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life.
8 When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.
9 “You must not plant two kinds of seed between your rows of vines; if you do, both the two harvested crops and the yield from the vines must be forfeited.
10 You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.
Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together--Whether this association, like the mixture of seeds, had been dictated by superstitious motives and the prohibition was symbolical, designed to teach a moral lesson (2 Corinthians 6:14), may or may not have been the case. But the prohibition prevented a great inhumanity still occasionally practised by the poorer sort in Oriental countries. An ox and ass, being of different species and of very different characters, cannot associate comfortably, nor unite cheerfully in drawing a plough or a wagon. The ass being much smaller and his step shorter, there would be an unequal and irregular draft. Besides, the ass, from feeding on coarse and poisonous weeds, has a fetid breath, which its yoke fellow seeks to avoid, not only as poisonous and offensive, but producing leanness, or, if long continued, death; and hence, it has been observed always to hold away its head from the ass and to pull only with one shoulder.(Jamieson)
11 You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.
The essence of the crime (Zephaniah 1:8) consisted, not in wearing a woollen and a linen robe, but in the two stuffs being woven together, according to a favorite superstition of ancient idolaters
12 You are to make for yourself twisted cords on the four corners of the garment you wrap around yourself.
You are to make for yourself twisted cords--or, according to some eminent biblical interpreters, tassels on the coverlet of the bed. The precept is not the same as Numbers 15:38.
13 If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her and then, having come to dislike her,
14 and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘When I married this woman, I discovered she was not a virgin,’
15 then the girl's father and mother are to take the evidence of the girl's virginity to the leaders of the town at the gate.
16 The girl's father will say to the leaders, 'I let my daughter marry this man, but now he has turned against her,
17 so he has brought false charges that he didn't find evidence of her virginity; yet here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity'
18 and they will lay the cloth before the town leaders.
19 The leaders of that town are to take the man, punish him, and also fine him 2.5 pounds of silver which he must pay to the woman’s father because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct. The woman will then remain the man’s wife, and he may never divorce her.
20 But if the charge is substantiated, and he can show that she was not a virgin.
21 The woman must be taken to the door of her father’s home, and the men of her town will stone her to death, because she has committed in Isra'el the disgraceful act of being a prostitute while still in her father's house. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with a woman who has a husband, both of them must die -the man who went to bed with the woman and the woman too. In this way you will expel such wickedness from Israel.
23 If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man comes upon her in the town and has sexual relations with her;
24 you are to bring them both out to the gate of the city and stone them to death - the girl because she didn't cry out for help, there in the city, and the man because he has humiliated his neighbor's wife. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.
25 But if the man comes upon the engaged girl out in the countryside, and the man grabs her and has sexual relations with her, then only the man who had intercourse with her is to die.
26 Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim.
27 Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.
28 Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered,
29 he must pay her father 1.25 pounds pounds of silver. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
This would settle infiedlity, divorces and all the maladies of today's world. If a man seduces a virgin, he must marry her and never divorce her, even if he is already married! This is one of two instances where a man must be polygamous! The other example is marrying a brother's widow who did not have a son.
30 A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.
Verse 22:30 is numbered 23:1 in Hebrew text.
THE SEX TO BE DISTINGUISHED BY APPAREL.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment--Though disguises were assumed at certain times in heathen temples, it is probable that a reference was made to unbecoming levities practised in common life. They were properly forbidden; for the adoption of the habiliments of the one sex by the other is an outrage on decency, obliterates the distinctions of nature by fostering softness and effeminacy in the man, impudence and boldness in the woman as well as levity and hypocrisy in both; and, in short, it opens the door to an influx of so many evils that all who wear the dress of another sex are pronounced "an abomination unto the LORD(Jesus)."(Jamieson)
Deuteronomy 23 “words” 23
Various Sex Laws
1 If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the LORD(Jesus).
Verses 23:1-25 are numbered 23:2-26 in Hebrew text.
2 If a person is illegitimate by birth can not enter into the church of the LORD(Jesus), neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the church of the LORD(Jesus).
3 No Ammonite or Moabite may enter into the church of the LORD(Jesus); nor any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the church of the LORD(Jesus).
4 Because these nations did not welcome you with food and water when you came out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you.
5 But the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) loves you.
6 As long as you live, you must never promote the welfare and prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites.
7 But you are not to detest the Edomites or the Egyptians, because the Edomites are your relatives and you lived as foreigners among the Egyptians.
8 The third generation of Edomites and Egyptians may enter the church of the LORD(Jesus).
9 “When you go to war against your enemies and in your camp, be sure to stay away from anything that is impure.
10 If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp; he is not to enter the camp.
Most likely semen
11 When evening arrives he is to bathe himself in water, and after sunset he may enter the camp.
12 Also you are to have an area outside the camp to use as a latrine[outhouse].
13 Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement.
God is imposing strict sanitary laws, long before man knew anything about disease caused by poor sanitation and sewage. Yet another proof of God's reality, knowledge and accuracy.
14 The camp must be holy, for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) moves around in your camp to protect you and to defeat your enemies. He must not see any shameful thing among you, or he will turn away from you.
15 If a slave should escape from his master and take refuge with you, you are not to hand him back to his master.
16 Allow him to stay with you, in whichever place suits him best among your settlements; do not mistreat him.
17 No woman of Israel is to engage in ritual prostitution, and no man of Israel is to engage in ritual homosexual acts.
18 Nothing earned through heterosexual or homosexual prostitution is to be brought into the house of LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) in fulfillment of any vow, for both of these are abhorrent to LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
19 You are not to lend at interest to your brother, no matter whether the loan is of money, food or anything else that can earn interest.
20 You may charge interest to foreigners, but you may not charge interest to Israelites, so that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) may bless you in everything you do in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
21 When you make a vow to LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos), you are not to delay in fulfilling it, for LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) will certainly demand it of you, and your failure to do so will be your sin.
22 If you choose not to make a vow at all, it isn't a sin.
23 But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
24 When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not carry any away in a basket.
25 And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.
Deuteronomy 24 “words” 24
Marriage Laws:
1 Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes her a letter of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house.
2 When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man.
3 But if the second husband also turns against her and divorces her, or if he dies,
4 the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the LORD(Jesus). You must not bring guilt upon the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as a special possession.
-It appears that the practice of divorces was at this early period very prevalent amongst the Israelites, who had in all probability become familiar with it in Egypt [LANE]. The usage, being too deep- rooted to be soon or easily abolished, was tolerated by Moses (Matthew 19:8). But it was accompanied under the law with two conditions, which were calculated greatly to prevent the evils incident to the permitted system; namely: (1) The act of divorcement was to be certified on a written document, the preparation of which, with legal formality, would afford time for reflection and repentance; and (2) In the event of the divorced wife being married to another husband, she could not, on the termination of that second marriage, be restored to her first husband, however desirous he might be to receive her. (Jamieson)
5 If a man has recently married his wife, he is not to be subject to military service; he is to be free of external obligations and left at home for one year to make his new wife happy.
6 No one may take a mill or even an upper millstone as collateral for a loan, because that would be taking as collateral the debtor's very means of sustenance.
7 If a man kidnaps any of his brothers, fellow members of the community of Israel, and makes him his slave or sells him, that kidnapper must die; in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.
8 When there is an outbreak of leprosy [skin diseases of any sort] be careful to follow the instructions of the Levitical priests; obey all the commands I have given them.
9 Remember what the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) did to Miriam as you were coming from Egypt.
10 When you make any kind of loan to your neighbor, you are not to enter his house to take his collateral.
11 You must wait outside while he goes in and brings it out to you.
12 If your neighbor is poor and gives you his cloak as security for a loan, do not keep the cloak overnight.
13 Return the cloak to its owner by sunset so he can stay warm through the night and bless you, and the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will count you as righteous.
14 You are not to exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether one of your brothers or a foreigner living in your land in your town.
15 You must pay them their wages each day before sunset because they are poor and are counting on it. If you don’t, they might cry out to the LORD(Jesus) against you, and it would be counted against you as sin.
16 Fathers[parents] are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin.
17 You are not to deprive the foreigner or the orphan of the justice which is his due, and you are not to take a widow's clothing as collateral for a loan.
18 Always remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) redeemed you from your slavery. That is why I have given you this command.
19 When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you in all you do.
20 When you beat your olive tree, you are not to go back over the branches again; the olives that are left will be for the foreigner, the orphan and the widow.
21 When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows.
22 Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.
Deuteronomy 25 “words” 25
Various laws:
1 If people have a dispute, seek its resolution in court, and the judges render a decision in favor of the righteous one and condemning the wrong one;
2 then, if the wrong one deserves to be flogged, the judge is to have him lie down and be flogged in his presence. The number of strokes is to be proportionate to his offense;
3 but the maximum number is forty. He is not to exceed this; if he goes over this limit and beats him more than this, your brother will be humiliated before your eyes.
4 You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.
You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain: in Judea, as in modern Syria and Egypt, the larger grains were beaten out by the feet of oxen, which, yoked together, day after day trod round the wide open spaces which form the threshing-floors. The animals were allowed freely to pick up a mouthful, when they chose to do so: a wise as well as humane regulation, introduced by the law of Moses (compare 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1 Timothy 5:17,18).
5 If brothers live together, and one of them dies childless, his widow is not to marry someone unrelated to him; her husband's brother is to go to her and perform the duty of a brother-in-law by marrying her.
6 The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.
7 If the man does not wish to marry his brother's widow, then his brother's widow is to go up to the gate, to the leaders, and say, 'My brother-in-law refuses to raise up for his brother a name in Isra'el; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother for me.'
8 The elders of the town will then summon him and talk with him. If he still refuses and says, ‘I don’t want to marry her,’
9 then his brother's widow is to approach him in the presence of the leaders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face and say, 'This is what is done to the man who refuses to build up his brother's family.'
10 From that time on, his family is to be known in Israel as 'the family of the man who had his sandal pulled off.'
Levirate Marriage: This usage existed before the age of Moses (Genesis 38:8). But the Mosaic law rendered the mandatory (Matthew 22:25) on younger brothers, or the nearest kinsman, to marry the widow (Ruth 4:4), by associating the natural desire of perpetuating a brother's name with the preservation of property in the Hebrew families and tribes. If the younger brother declined to comply with the law, the widow brought her claim before the authorities of the place at a public assembly (the gate of the city); and he having declared his refusal, she was ordered to loose the thong of his shoe--a sign of degradation--following up that act by spitting on the ground-- the strongest expression of ignominy and contempt among Eastern people. The shoe was kept by the magistrate as an evidence of the transaction, and the parties separated. This law applied even to married brothers, so in fact made polygamy in some cases mandatory!
11 If men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one comes up to help her husband get away from the man attacking him by grabbing the attacker's private parts with her hand,
12 you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
13 You must use accurate scales when you weigh out merchandise,
14 and you must use full and honest measures.
15 You are to have a correct and fair weight, and you are to have a correct and fair measure, so that you will prolong your days in the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
16 All who cheat with dishonest weights and measures are detestable to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
17 Remember what the Amalekites did to you as you came from Egypt.
18 How they met you by the road, attacked those in the rear, those who were exhausted and straggling behind when you were tired and weary. They did not fear God(Elohim/Theos).
19 Therefore, when the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has given you rest from all your enemies in the land he is giving you as a special possession, you must destroy the Amalekites and erase their memory from under heaven. Don't forget this!
This cold-blooded and dastardly atrocity is not narrated in the previous history (Exodus 17:14). It was an unprovoked outrage on the laws of nature and humanity, as well as a daring defiance of that God who had so signally shown His favor towards Israel. (Jamieson)
Deuteronomy 26 “words” 26
Offerings and Tithes
Offerings and Tithes
1 When you have come to the land the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there;
2 put some of the first produce from each crop you harvest into a basket and bring it to the designated place of worship—the place the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) chooses for his name to be honored.
3 Go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, ‘With this gift I acknowledge to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) that I have entered the land he swore to our ancestors he would give us.’
4 The priest will then take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos).
5 Then, in the presence ofthe LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), you are to say, ‘My ancestor Jacob was a wandering Aramean who went to live as a foreigner in Egypt. His family arrived few in number, but in Egypt they became a large and mighty nation.
6 When the Egyptians oppressed and humiliated us by making us their slaves,
7 we cried out to the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of our ancestors. He heard our cries and saw our hardship, toil, and oppression.
8 So the LORD(Jesus) brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and powerful arm, with overwhelming terror, and with miraculous signs and wonders.
9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey!
10 Therefore, O LORD(Jesus), I have now brought you the first portion of the harvest you have given me from the ground.’ Then place the produce before the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), and bow to the ground in worship before him.
11 Afterward you may go and celebrate because of all the good things the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has given to you and your household. Remember to include the Levites and the foreigners living among you in the celebration.
12 After you have separated a tenth of the crops yielded in the third year, the year of separating a tenth, and have given it to the Levi, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, so that they can have enough food to satisfy them while staying with you;
13 you are to say, in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), 'I have rid my house of the things set aside for God(Elohim/Theos) and given them to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, in keeping with every one of the commandments you gave me. I haven't disobeyed any of your commandments or forgotten them.
14 I haven't eaten any of this food when mourning, I haven't put any of it aside when unclean, nor have I given any of it for the dead. I have listened to what the LORD(Jesus) my God(Elohim/Theos) has said, and I have done everything you ordered me to do.
15 Look out from your holy dwelling-place, from heaven; and bless your people Isra'el and the land you gave us, as you swore to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.'
16 Today the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has commanded you to obey all these Commandments and laws. Therefore, you are to observe and obey them with all your heart and all your being.
17 You have declared today that the LORD(Jesus) is your God(Elohim/Theos). And you have promised to walk in his ways, and to obey his decrees, commands, and regulations, and to do everything he tells you.
18 In turn, the LORD(Jesus) is agreeing today that you are his own unique treasure, as he promised you; that you are to observe all his commandments.
19 And that he will raise you high above all the nations he has made, n praise, reputation and glory; and that, as he said, you will be a holy people for the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) as He has promised!
Moses here enforces the precepts. They are God's laws, therefore thou shalt do them, to that end were they given thee; do them, and dispute them not; do them, and draw not back; do them, not carelessly and hypocritically, but with thy heart and soul, thy whole heart and thy whole soul. We forswear ourselves, and break the most sacred engagement, if, when we have taken the Lord to be our God, we do not make conscience of obeying his commands. We are elected to obedience, 1Pe 1:2; chosen that we should be holy, Eph 1:4; purified a peculiar people, that we might not only do good works, but be zealous in them, Tit 2:14. Holiness is true honour, and the only way to everlasting honour. (Matthew Henry)
Deuteronomy 27 “words” 27
1 Then Moses and the leaders of Israel gave ordersto the people: “Observe all these commandments that I am giving you today.
2 When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster,
3 Write this whole body of instruction on them when you cross the river to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you—a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones at Mount Ebal and coat them with plaster, as I am ordering you today.
5 There you are to erect an altar to ADONAI your God, an altar made of stones. You are not to use any iron tool on them,
6 but are to build the altar of ADONAI your God of uncut stones; and you are to offer burnt offerings on it to ADONAI your God.
7 Also sacrifice peace offerings on it, and celebrate by feasting there before the Lord your God.
8 You are to write on the stones all the words of this Torah very clearly."
9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests addressed all Israel as follows: “O Israel, be quiet and listen! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.
10 Therefore you must obey the Lord your God by keeping all these commands and decrees that I am giving you today.”
Curses
11 That same day Moses also gave these orders to the people:
12 These are the ones to stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you come over [the river] Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:
13 And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Mount Ebal to proclaim a curse.
14 Then the Levites will shout to all the people of Israel:
15 “Cursed is anyone who carves or casts an idol and secretly sets it up. These idols, the work of craftsmen, are detestable to the Lord.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors father or mother.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
17 “Cursed is anyone who steals property from a neighbor by moving a boundary marker.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
18 "'A curse on anyone who causes a blind person to lose his way on the road.” And All the people are to say, 'Amen!"
19 “Cursed is anyone who denies justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
20 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with one of his father’s wives, for he has violated his father.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with an animal.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
22 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether she is the daughter of his father or his mother.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
23 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
24 “Cursed is anyone who attacks a neighbor in secret.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts payment to kill an innocent person.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
26 “Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.”
And all the people will reply, "Amen"
Ministers should apply to themselves the blessing and curse they preach to others, and by faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe them with the threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse would be upon those who do such things. To each of the curses the people were to say, Amen. It professed their faith, that these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not one jot of which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging the equity of these curses. Those who do such things deserve to fall, and lie under the curse. Lest those who were guilty of other sins, not here mentioned, should think themselves safe from the curse, the last reaches all. Not only those who do the evil which the law forbids, but those also who omit the good which the law requires. Without the atoning blood of Christ, sinners can neither have communion with a holy God, nor do any thing acceptable to him; his righteous law condemns every one who, at any time, or in any thing, transgresses it. Under its awful curse we remain as transgressors, until the redemption of Christ is applied to our hearts. Wherever the grace of God brings salvation, it teaches the believer to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, consenting to, and delighting in the words of God's law, after the inward man. In this holy walk, true peace and solid joy are to be found. (Matthew Henry)
Deuteronomy 28 “words” 28
Blessings for Obedience (compare to Leviticus 26 and see notes there)
1 If you listen closely to what the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) and carefully keep all his commandments that I am giving you today, the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) will set you high above all the nations of the world.
2 You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos):
3 A blessing on you in the city, and a blessing on you in the countryside.
4 A blessing on the fruit of your body, the fruit of your land and the fruit of your livestock - the young of your cattle and flocks.
5 A blessing on your grain-basket and kneading-bowl.
6 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.
7 The LORD(Yahweh) will cause your enemies attacking you to be defeated before you; they will advance on you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 The LORD(Yahweh) will order a blessing to be with you in your barns and in everything you undertake; He will bless you in the land the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) is giving you.
9 The LORD(Yahweh) will establish you as a people separated out for himself, as He has sworn to you - if you will observe the mitzvot of the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) and follow his ways.
10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD(Yahweh), and they will stand in awe of you.
11 The LORD(Yahweh) will give you great abundance of good things - of the fruit of your body, the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land in the land the LORD(Yahweh) swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The LORD(Yahweh) will open for you his good treasure, the sky, to give your land its rain at the right seasons and to bless everything you undertake. You will lend to many nations and not borrow;
This is what the USA was like until we began to disobey God! Now it is the other way around.
13 The LORD(Yahweh) will make you the head and not the tail; and you will be only above, never below - if you will listen to, observe and obey the Commandment of the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos)
14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods(elohim/theos)gods(elohim/theos) and worship them.
Curses for Disobedience(Matthew 24)
15 But if you refuse to listen to the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
16 Cursed will be your towns and your fields.
These are similar to the “woes” that Jesus gave
17 Cursed will be on your grain-basket and kneading-bowl.
18 Cursed will be your children and your crops. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed.
19 A curse on you whenever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed.
20 The LORD(Yahweh) himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
21 The LORD(Yahweh) will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
22 The LORD(Yahweh) will strike you down with wasting diseases, fever, inflammation, fiery heat, drought, blasting winds and mildew; and they will pursue you until you perish.
Health woes
23 The sky over your head will be brass and the earth under you iron.
Weather woes
24 The LORD(Yahweh) will turn the rain your land needs into powder and dust that will fall on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
25 The LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will advance on them one way and flee before them seven. You will become an object of horror to every kingdom on earth.
Lose wars and be defeated like Vietnam
26 Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.
27 The LORD(Yahweh) will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, scurvy, and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.
28 The LORD(Yahweh) will strike you with madness, blindness, and panic.
29 You will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person groping in the darkness, but you will not find your way. You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.
30 You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will have sex with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.
31 Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be taken from you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you.
32 You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them.
33 A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment.
We will see our crops feed other nations, while we starve!
34 You will go crazy from what your eyes have to see.
Increased psychological disorders and insanity. A Prozac nation!
35 The LORD(Yahweh) will strike you down in the knees and legs with painful and incurable boils; they will spread from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
Cancer from the sun
36 The LORD(Yahweh) will bring you and your king whom you have put over yourselves to a nation you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; and there you will serve other gods(elohim/theos) made of wood and stone.
This is the final course in the USA's (Israel) existence. We will go into captivity and we will serve false gods and eventually an Antichrist.
37 You will be so devastated as to become a proverb and a laughingstock among all the peoples to which the LORD(Yahweh) will drive you.
38 You will plant much but harvest little, for locusts will eat your crops.
Crop failure
39 You will plant vineyards and care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the grapes, for worms will destroy the vines.
40 You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before it ripens.
41 You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be led away into captivity.
We are to become slaves.
42 Swarms of insects will destroy your trees and crops.
43 The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker.
Aliens, illegals will rule us, gain the vote and actually be voted in as our leaders! We will see the continued “minority rights” and minority laws oppressing us and eventually enslaving us.
44 They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!
This is what is happening today (2010) as we owe the world more money than is even in print!
45 If you refuse to listen to the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) and to obey the commands and decrees He has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.
46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.
“a sign” The Sabbath is the “sign” Commandment
47 If you do not serve the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
48 then the LORD(Yahweh) will send your enemy against you; and you will serve him when you are hungry, thirsty, poorly clothed and lacking everything; He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he destroys you.
49 Yes, the LORD(Yahweh) will bring against you a nation from far away that will swoop down on you from the end of the earth like a vulture, a nation whose language you don't understand,
50 a fierce and heartless nation that shows no respect for the old and no pity for the young.
51 Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, olive oil, calves, or lambs, and you will starve to death.
52 They will attack your cities until all the fortified walls in your land—the walls you trusted to protect you—are knocked down. They will attack all the towns in the land the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) has given you.
The continental USA is to be attacked, cities in ruins, more powerful than 9-11
53 The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) has given you.
Cannibalism (form the god “Baal”). We will be so hungry, we will eat our children, or is this really another way of talking about ABORTION?
54 The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children.
“the love of many will grow cold” Jesus said in Matthew 24
55 He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because He has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
56 The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter.
We see this today where women care more for their own happiness and abandoning their God given duties. So-called woman's lib, which is really enslavement!
57 She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
ABORTION???? Throwing away their babies in trash heaps???
58 If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos),
59 then the LORD(Yahweh) will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick.
60 He will afflict you with all the diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will have no relief.
61 Not only that, but the LORD(Yahweh) will bring upon you all the sicknesses and plagues that are not written in this book of the Torah - until you are destroyed.
New diseases like flu pandemics and AIDS and even man made bacteria and viruses! Germ warfare. Things unknown to Moses when the Torah was written.
62 You will be left few in number, whereas you were once as numerous as the stars in the sky -because you did not pay attention to the voice of the LORD(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos).
63 Thus it will come about that just as once the LORD(Yahweh) took joy in seeking to do you good and increase your numbers, so now the LORD(Yahweh) will take joy in causing you to perish and be destroyed, and you will be plucked off the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.
64 The LORD(Yahweh) will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods(elohim/theos), made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.
65 There among those nations you will find no peace or place to rest. And the Lord(Yahweh) will cause your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul to despair.
66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be afraid night and day and have no assurance that you will stay alive.
67 In the morning you will say, 'Oh, how I wish it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, 'Oh, how I wish it were morning!'-because of the fear overwhelming your heart and the sights your eyes will see.
68 Finally, the LORD(Yahweh) will bring you back in ships to Egypt, the place of which I said to you, 'You will never ever see it again'; and there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you."
All of this is because we have refused to obey the LAW of God and taught that Jesus did away with them!
Deuteronomy 29 “words” 29
1 These are the words of the covenant the LORD(Jesus) commanded Moses to make with the Israelites while they were in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Mount Sinai.[Horeb]
Verse 29:1 is numbered 28:69 in Hebrew text.
2 Then Moses called all the Israelites and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD(Jesus) did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to his whole country
Verses 29:2-29 are numbered 29:1-28 in Hebrew text.
3 all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs, and the amazing wonders.
4 Nevertheless, to this day the LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear!
5 For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.
6 You didn't eat bread, and you didn't drink wine or other intoxicating liquor; this was so that you would know that 'I am the LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos).'
7 When you came here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against you, but you defeated them.
8 We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh as their grant of land.
9 Therefore, obey the terms of this covenant so that you will prosper in everything you do.
10 Today you are standing, all of you, standing before the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), your heads, your tribes, your leaders and your officers - all the men of Israel,
11 along with your little ones, your wives and your foreigners here with you in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water.
12 The purpose is that you should enter into the covenant of the LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) and into his oath which the LORD(Jesus)(Yahweh) your God(Elohim/Theos) is making with you today,
13 so that he can establish you today for himself as a people, and so that for you he will be God(Elohim/Theos) -as he said to you and as he swore to your ancestors, to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
14 But you are not the only ones with whom I am making this covenant with its curses.
15 I am making this covenant both with you who stand here today in the presence of the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos), and also with the future generations who are not standing here today.
16 You remember how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left.
17 You have seen their detestable practices and their shitty idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold.
Shitty: Terrible word, but the original means dung for idol! You figure it out!
18 I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man, woman, clan, or tribe—will turn away from the LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter or wormwood.
Same wormwood in Revelation! Russian Chernoble maybe a term for radiation!
19 Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!
20 The LORD(Jesus) will never pardon such people. Instead his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will come down on them, and the LORD(Jesus) will erase their names from under heaven.
21 The LORD(Jesus) will separate them from all the tribes of Israel, to pour out on them all the curses of the covenant recorded in this Book of the Torah.
Torah, first five books of the bible by Moses
22 Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD(Jesus) inflicts on it.
23 They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD(Jesus) destroyed in his intense anger.’
24 And all the surrounding nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD(Jesus) done this to this land? Why was he so angry?’
25 And the answer will be, ‘This happened because the people of the land abandoned the covenant that the LORD(Jesus), the God(Elohim/Theos) of their ancestors, made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
26 Instead, they turned away to serve and worship gods they had not known before, gods that were not from the LORD(Jesus). '
27 That is why the LORD(Jesus)’s anger has burned against this land, bringing down on it every curse recorded in this book.
28 In great anger and fury the LORD(Jesus) uprooted his people from their land and banished them to another land, where they still live today!
29 The LORD(Jesus) our God(Elohim/Theos) has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.
The secret things belong unto the LORD(Jesus)--This verse has no apparent connection with the thread of discourse. It is thought to have been said in answer to the looks of astonishment or the words of inquiry as to whether they would be ever so wicked as to deserve such punishments. The recorded history of God(Elohim/Theos)'s providential dealings towards Israel presents a wonderful combination of "goodness and severity." There is much of it involved in mystery too profound for our limited capacities to fathom; but, from the comprehensive wisdom displayed in those parts which have been made known to us, we are prepared to enter into the full spirit of the apostle's exclamation, "How unsearchable are his judgments" (Romans 11:33).
Deuteronomy 30 “words” 30
RETURN TO God(Elohim/Theos)-And we will be forgiven!
1 When in the future, you are there among the nations to which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) has driven you; then, at last, you will start thinking about what has happened to you;
2 and you will return to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and pay attention to what he has said, which will be exactly what I am ordering you to do today - you and your children, with all your heart and all your being.
3 At that point, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will reverse your exile and show you mercy; he will return and gather you from all the peoples to which the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) scattered you.
There is always forgiveness with Christ.
4 If one of yours was scattered to the far end of the sky, the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will gather you even from there; he will go there and get you.
5 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bring you back into the land your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you prosper there, and you will become even more numerous than your ancestors.
6 “The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will change[circumcise] your heart and the hearts of your children, so that you will love the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) with all your heart and all your being, and thus you will live.
7 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate and persecute you.
8 Then you will again obey the LORD(Jesus) and keep all his commandments that I am giving you today.
9 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will then make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and he will cause your fields to produce abundant harvests, for the LORD(Jesus) will again delight in being good to you as he was to your ancestors.
10 The LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commandments and decrees written in this Torah, and if you turn to the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) with all your heart and soul.
Choose Life or Death
11 This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach.
12 It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’
13 It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’
14 No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.
15 Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.
We have the choice. God(Elohim/Theos) is all about FREE WILL! We chose or reject!
16 For I command you this day to love the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.
17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods(elohim/theos) and serve them;
18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants,
God(Elohim/Theos) tells us to CHOOSE LIFE! He is begging us to do so!
20 You can make this choice by loving the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. HE is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the LORD(Jesus), you will live long in the land the LORD(Jesus) swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
HE is CHRIST! Our key!
CHAPTER 30 (Jamieson commentary)
Deuteronomy 30:1-10. GREAT MERCIES PROMISED UNTO THE PENITENT.
1-10. when all these things are come upon thee, . . . and [thou] shalt return . . . then the LORD(Jesus) thy God(Elohim/Theos) will turn thy captivity--The hopes of the Hebrew people are ardently directed to this promise, and they confidently expect that God(Elohim/Theos), commiserating their forlorn and fallen condition, will yet rescue them from all the evils of their long dispersion. They do not consider the promise as fulfilled by their restoration from the captivity in Babylon, for Israel was not then scattered in the manner here described--"among all the nations," unto the utmost parts of heaven" (Deuteronomy 30:4). When God(Elohim/Theos) recalled them from that bondage, all the Israelites were not brought back. They were not multiplied above their fathers (Deuteronomy 30:5), nor were their hearts and those of their children circumcised to love the LORD(Jesus) (Deuteronomy 30:6). It is not, therefore, of the Babylonish captivity that Moses was speaking in this passage; it must be of the dispersed state to which they have been doomed for eighteen hundred years. This prediction may have been partially accomplished on the return of the Israelites from Babylon; for, according to the structure and design of Scripture prophecy, it may have pointed to several similar eras in their national history; and this view is sanctioned by the prayer of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:8,9). But undoubtedly it will receive its full and complete accomplishment in the conversion of the Jews to the Gospel of Christ. At the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, that people were changed in many respects for the better. They were completely weaned from idolatry; and this outward reformation was a prelude to the higher attainments they are destined to reach in the age of Messiah, "when the LORD(Jesus) God(Elohim/Theos) will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their seed to love the LORD(Jesus)." The course pointed out seems clearly to be this: that the hearts of the Hebrew people shall be circumcised (Colossians 2:2); in other words, by the combined influences of the Word and spirit of God(Elohim/Theos), their hearts will be touched and purified from all their superstition and unbelief. They will be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ as their Messiah--a spiritual deliverer, and the effect of their conversion will be that they will return and obey the voice (the Gospel, the evangelical law) of the LORD(Jesus). The words may be interpreted either wholly in a spiritual sense (John 11:51,52), or, as many think, in a literal sense also (Romans 11:1-36). They will be recalled from all places of the dispersion to their own land and enjoy the highest prosperity. The mercies and favors of a bountiful Providence will not then be abused as formerly (Deuteronomy 31:20, 32:15). They will be received in a better spirit and employed to nobler purposes. They will be happy, "for the LORD(Jesus) will again rejoice over them for good, as He rejoiced over their fathers."
Deuteronomy 30:11-14. THE COMMANDMENT IS MANIFEST.
11-14. For this commandment . . . is not hidden . . . neither is it far off--That law of loving and obeying God(Elohim/Theos), which was the subject of Moses' discourse, was well known to the Israelites. They could not plead ignorance of its existence and requirements. It was not concealed as an impenetrable mystery in heaven, for it had been revealed; nor was it carefully withheld from the people as a dangerous discovery; for the youngest and humblest of them were instructed in those truths, which were subjects of earnest study and research among the wisest and greatest of other nations. They were not under a necessity of undertaking long journeys or distant voyages, as many ancient sages did in quest of knowledge. They enjoyed the peculiar privilege of a familiar acquaintance with it. It was with them a subject of common conversation, engraven on their memories, and frequently explained and inculcated on their hearts. The apostle Paul (Romans 10:6-8) has applied this passage to the Gospel, for the law of Christ is substantially the same as that of Moses, only exhibited more clearly in its spiritual nature and extensive application; and, accompanied with the advantages of Gospel grace, it is practicable and easy.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20. DEATH AND LIFE ARE SET BEFORE THE ISRAELITES.
15-20. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil--the alternative of a good and happy, or a disobedient and miserable life. Love of God(Elohim/Theos) and compliance with His will are the only ways of securing the blessings and avoiding the evils described. The choice was left to them, and in urging upon them the inducements to a wise choice, Moses warmed as he proceeded into a tone of solemn and impressive earnestness similar to that of Paul to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:26,27).
Deuteronomy 31 “words” 31
Joshua Becomes Israel’s Leader
1 When Moses went and spoke these words to all the people of Israel,
2 "I am 120 years old today. I can't get around any longer; moreover, the LORD(Jesus) has said to me, 'You will not cross the Jordan(River).'
3 But the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will lead you across the river, just as the LORD(Jesus) promised.
4 The LORD(Jesus) will defeat them ahead of you, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.
5 The LORD(Jesus) will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you.
6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
7 Next Moses called for Joshua, in the sight of all Israel, and he said to him, “Be strong and courageous! For you will lead these people into the land that the LORD(Jesus) swore to their ancestors he would give them. You are the one who will divide it among them as their grants of land.
8 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD(Jesus) will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
Public Reading of the Torah
9 So Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the priests, the descendants of Levi who carried the ark with the covenant of the LORD(Jesus) and to all the leaders of Israel.
10 Then Moses gave them this order: “At the end of every seventh year, the Year of Release, during the Feast of Tabernacles,
Every seven years, during the Feast of Tabernacles, all of the people are to hear, read aloud, ALL FIVE BOOKS of MOSES (The Torah). This is the same year that all debts are forgiven, and the land has a special sabbath.
11 you must read this Torah to all the people of Israel when they assemble before the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) at the place he chooses.
12 Call them all together—men, women, children, and the foreigners living in your towns—so they may hear this Torah and learn to fear the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos) and carefully obey all the terms of these instructions.
13 Do this so that your children who have not known these instructions will hear them and will learn to fear the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos). Do this as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.”
Israel’s Future Predicted:
14 Then the LORD(Jesus) said to Moses: The time has come for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tabernacle's Holy Tent, so that I may commission him there.
So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tabernacle.
15 And the LORD(Jesus) appeared to them in a pillar of cloud that stood at the entrance to the sacred tent.
16 The LORD(Jesus) said to Moses: You are about to die and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin to worship foreign gods, the gods of the land where they are going. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I have made with them.
17 Then my anger will blaze forth against them. I will abandon them, hiding my face from them, and they will be devoured. Terrible trouble will come down on them, and on that day they will say, ‘These disasters have come down on us because God(Elohim/Theos) is no longer among us!’
18 At that time I will hide my face from them on account of all the evil they commit by worshiping other gods.
19 So write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Help them learn it, so it may serve as a witness for me against them.
20 For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat. But they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.
21 And when great disasters come down on them, this song will stand as evidence against them, for it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know the intentions of these people, even now before they have entered the land I swore to give them.
22 So that very day Moses wrote down the words of the song and taught it to the Israelites.
23 Then the LORD(Jesus) commissioned Joshua son of Nun with these words: Be strong and courageous, for you must bring the people of Israel into the land I swore to give them. I will be with you.
24 When Moses had finished writing this entire Torah,
25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried the Ark of the LORD(Jesus)’s Covenant:
26 “Take this Torah and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD(Jesus) your God(Elohim/Theos), so it may remain there as a witness against the people of Israel.
Take this book of the law (TORAH), and put it in the side of the ark--The second copy of the law security and reverence in a little chest beside the ark of the covenant, for there was nothing contained within it but the tables of stone (1 Kings 8:9). Others think it was put within the ark, it being certain, from the testimony of Paul (Hebrews 9:4), that there were once other things inside the ark, and that this was the copy found in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8).
27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even now, while I am still alive and am here with you, you have rebelled against the LORD(Jesus). How much more rebellious will you be after my death!
28 “Now summon all the elders and officials of your tribes, so that I can speak to them directly and call heaven and earth to witness against them.
29 I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the LORD(Jesus)’s sight, making him very angry with your actions.”
30 So Moses recited this entire song publicly to the assembly of Israel:
Deuteronomy 32 “words” 32
SONG OF MOSES: (Israel's future)
1 Hear, oh heavens, as I speak! Listen, earth, to the words from my mouth!
2 May my teaching fall like rain. May my speech condense like dew, like light rain on blades of grass, or showers on growing plants.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD(Jesus). Come, declare the greatness of our God(Elohim/Theos)!
4 HE is The Rock! His work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A trustworthy God(Elohim/Theos) who does no wrong, he is righteous and straight.
Christ, the LORD is our rock – NOT PETER!
He is the Rock--a word expressive of power and stability. The application of it in this passage is to declare that God had been true to His covenant with their fathers and them. Nothing that He had promised had failed; so that if their national experience had been painfully checkered by severe and protracted trials, notwithstanding the brightest promises, that result was traceable to their own undutiful and perverse conduct; not to any vacillation or unfaithfulness on the part of God (James 1:17), whose procedure was marked by justice and judgment, whether they had been exalted to prosperity or plunged into the depths of affliction.(Jamieson)
5 HE is not corrupt; the defect is in his children, a crooked and perverted generation.
6 You foolish people, so lacking in wisdom, is this how you repay the LORD(Jesus)? He is your father, who made you his! It was he who formed and prepared you!
7 "Remember how the old days were; think of the years through all the ages. Ask your father -he will tell you; your leaders too -they will inform you.
8 When the Most High ['Elyon] gave each nation its heritage, when he divided the human race, he assigned the boundaries of peoples according to Israel's population;
In the division of the earth, which Noah is believed to have made by divine direction (Genesis 10:5'Deuteronomy 2:5- 9'Acts 17:26,27'), Palestine was reserved by the wisdom and goodness of Heaven for the possession of His peculiar people and the display of the most stupendous wonders. The theater was small, but admirably suited for the convenient observation of the human race--at the junction of the two great continents of Asia and Africa, and almost within sight of Europe. From this spot as from a common center the report of God's wonderful works, the glad tidings of salvation through the obedience and sufferings of His own eternal Son, might be rapidly and easily wafted to every part of the globe.(Jamieson)
he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel--Another rendering, which has received the sanction of eminent scholars, has been proposed as follows: "When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam and set the bounds of every people, the children of Israel were few in numbers, when the Lord chose that people and made Jacob His inheritance" (compare Deuteronomy 30:5, Genesis 34:30, Psalms 105:9-12). (Jamieson)
9 For the people of Israel belong to the LORD(Jesus); Jacob is his special possession.
10 He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as his most precious possession.
11 Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so he spread his wings to take them in and carried them aloft on his pinions.
12 The LORD(Jesus) alone led his people; no alien God(Elohim/Theos) was with him.
13 HE made them ride on the heights of the earth. They ate the produce of the fields. He had them suck honey from the rocks and olive oil from the crags,
14 curds from the cows and milk from the sheep, with lamb fat, rams from Bashan and goats, with the finest wheat flour; and you drank sparkling wine from the blood of grapes.
15 But Israel [Hebrew Jeshurun, a term of endearment for Israel. ] soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.
16 They roused him to jealousy with alien gods, provoked him with abominations.
17 They sacrificed to demons, non-gods(elowahh), gods(elohim/theos) that they had never known, new gods that had come up lately, which your ancestors had not feared.
18 You ignored the Rock who fathered you, you forgot God(Elohim/Theos), who gave you birth.
19 The LORD(Jesus) saw and was filled with scorn at his sons' and daughters' provocation.
20 HE said, 'I will abandon them; I will see to their end! For they are a twisted generation, children without integrity.
21 They aroused my jealousy with a non-God(elowahh) and provoked me with their vanities; I will arouse their jealousy with a non-people and provoke them with a vile nation.
22 For my anger has been fired up. It burns to the depths of grave [Sheol], devouring the earth and its crops, kindling the very roots of the hills.
SHEOL: Rendered grave KJV- HELL
23 I will heap disasters on them and use up all my arrows against them.
24 Fatigued by hunger, they will be consumed by fever and bitter defeat; I will send them the fangs of wild beasts, and the poison of reptiles crawling in the dust.
25 Outside, the sword makes parents childless; inside, there is panic, as young men and girls alike are slain, sucklings and graybeards together.
26 I considered putting an end to them, erasing their memory from the human race;
27 but I feared the insolence of their enemy, feared that their foes would mistakenly think, "We ourselves accomplished this; the LORD(Jesus) had nothing to do with it."
Moses had actually suggested this to God, and God is repeating this here..
28 They(Israel) are a nation without common sense, utterly lacking in discernment.
29 If they were wise they could figure it out and understand their destiny.
30 After all, how can one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to rout, unless their Rock sells them to their enemies, unless the LORD(Jesus) hands them over?
31 For our enemies have no rock like our Rock -even they can see that!
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. Greek version reads our enemies are fools.
32 Their vine grows from the vine of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poison, and their clusters are bitter.
33 their wine is snake poison, the cruel venom of vipers.
34 I am storing up these things, sealing them away within my treasury.
35 Vengeance and payback are mine for the time when their foot slips; for the day of their calamity is coming soon, their doom is rushing upon them.
36 Yes, the LORD(Jesus) will judge his people, taking pity on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone, that no one is left, slave or free.
37 Then He will ask, 'Where are their gods(elohim/theos), the rock in whom they trusted?
38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let him get up and help you, let him protect you!
39 See now that I, yes, I, am he; and there is no God(Elohim/Theos) beside me. I put to death, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; no one saves anyone from my hand!
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, "As surely as I am alive forever,
41 if I sharpen my flashing sword and set my hand to judgment, I will render vengeance to my foes, repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood, my sword will devour flesh the blood of the slain and the captives, flesh from the wild-haired heads of the enemy."'
43 Rejoice with His people, O heavens, and let all the angels of God worship Him for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his enemies and cleanse his land and his people.
44 So Moses came with Joshua [Hosea] son of Nun and recited all the words of this song to the people.
45 When he had finished speaking all these words to all Israel,
46 he said to them, "Take to heart all the words of my testimony against you today, so that you can use them in charging your children to be careful to obey all the words of this Torah.
47 For this is not a trivial matter for you; on the contrary, it is your life! Through it you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
48 That same day the LORD(Jesus) said to Moses:
49 Go to Moab, to the mountains east of the river, and climb Mount Nebo, which is across from Jericho. Look out across the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the people of Israel as their own possession.
50 Then you must die there on the mountain and join your ancestors, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and joined his ancestors.
51 For both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribah at Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. You failed to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel there.
52 So you will see the land from a distance, but you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.
Deuteronomy 33 “words” 33
Moses Blessings:
1 This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God(Elohim/Theos), gave to the people of Israel before his death:
2 The LORD(Jesus) came from Mount Sinai and dawned upon us from Mount Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran and came from Meribah-kadesh with a fiery law for them with his right hand.
3 He truly loves the peoples -all his holy ones are in your hand; sitting at your feet, they receive your instruction,
4 the Torah Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the church of Israel.
5 The LORD(Jesus) became king in Israel, when the leaders of the people assembled, when the tribes of Israel gathered.
6 Let Reuben live and not die out, even though his numbers grow few.
7 Of Judah he said: “Hear, LORD(Jesus), the cry of Judah! Bring him in to his people, let his own hands defend him; but you, help him against his enemies.”
The Jews cries of the holocaust? Maybe another?
8 Of Levi he said: “Let your tumim and urim (sacred lots) be to your faithful servants the Levites. You put them to the test at Massah and contended with them at the waters of Meribah. “
9 Of his father and mother he said: “I don't know them'; he didn't acknowledge his brothers or children. For he observed your word, and he kept your covenant.
10 They will teach Jacob your rulings, Israel your Torah. They will set incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
11 the LORD(Jesus), bless his possessions, accept the work he does; but crush his enemies hip and thigh; may those who hate him rise no more.”
12 Moses said this about the tribe of Benjamin: "The people of Benjamin are loved by the LORD(Jesus) and live in safety beside him. He surrounds them continuously and preserves them from every harm."
13 Moses said this about the tribes of Joseph: "May their land be blessed by the LORD(Jesus) with the choice gift of rain from the heavens, and water from beneath the earth;
The blessinbgs of the tribe of Josepg (The USA and England)
14 with the best of what the sun makes grow, with the best of what comes up each month,
15 with the best from the mountains of old, with the best from the eternal hills,
16 with the best from the earth and all that fills it, and the favor of him who lived in the [burning] bush. May blessing come on the head of Yosef, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
We are the head of all of the sons of Israel.
17 Joseph has the strength and majesty of a young bull; his power is like the horns of a wild ox. He will gore distant nations, driving them to the ends of the earth. This is my blessing for the multitudes of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh."
America is Ephraim, as we are much more numerous than Great Britain.
18 Of Zebulun he said: "Rejoice, Zebulun, as you go forth, and you, Issachar, in your tents.
19 They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer righteous sacrifices; for they will draw from the abundance of the seas and from the hidden treasures of the sand."
The Netherlands and Belgium
20 Of Gad: "Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad's territory! Gad is poised there like a lion to tear off an arm or a head.
Holland
21 The people of Gad took the best land for themselves; a leader's share was assigned to them. When the leaders of the people were assembled, they carried out the LORD(Jesus)'s justice and obeyed his regulations for Israel."
22 Of Dan he said: "Dan is a lion cub leaping forth from Bashan."
Denmark
23 Of Naphtali: "O Naphtali, you are rich in favor and full of the LORD(Jesus)'s blessings; may you possess the west and the south."
24 Of Asher: "May Asher be blessed above other sons; may he be esteemed by his brothers; may he bathe his feet in olive oil.
25 May your bolts be of iron and bronze and your strength last as long as you live.
26 "Israel[Yeshurun], there is no one like God(Elohim/Theos), riding through the heavens to help you, riding on the clouds in his majesty.
27 The God(Elohim/Theos) of old is a dwelling-place, with everlasting arms beneath. He expelled the enemy before you and he said, 'Destroy!'
28 So Israel lives in security; the fountain of Jacob is alone in a land of grain and new wine, where the skies drip with dew.
29 Happy are you, Israel! "Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD(Jesus), your defender helping you and your sword of triumph? Your enemies will cringe before you, but you will trample down their high places."
Deuteronomy 34 “words” 34
This last chapter of the Torah and the Book of Deuteronomy was most likely written by either Joshua or maybe Ezra, who canonized the Old Testament in the times of the captivity in Babylon. I favor a combination of BOTH! Verse 10 is almost certainly a note by Ezra!
Moses Dies
1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab, Mount Nebo; to the summit of Mount Pisgah, across from Jericho. From there the LORD(Jesus) showed him all the land from Gilead to Dan,
2 all of Naphtali and the lands of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the (Mediterranean) Sea beyond,
3 the Negev desert and the whole Valley of Jericho up to Zoar. (Jericho is called the city of palm trees.)
4 Then the LORD(Jesus) said to Moses: This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said to them, 'I will give this land to your descendants.' I have let you look at it, Moses, but you will not cross over there.
5 Then Moses, the servant of the LORD(Jesus), died there in Moab, as the LORD(Jesus) had said.
6 He buried Moses in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but even today no one knows where his grave is.
Jude:9 for more on this. God(Elohim/Theos) Himself buried Moses.
7 Moses was one 120 years old when he died. His eyes were not weak, and he was still strong.
Moses did not die of old age, God(Elohim/Theos) killed him, as He would do to His son Christ!
8 The Israelites cried for Moses for thirty days, staying in the plains of Moab until the time of sadness was over.
9 Joshua son of Nun was then filled with wisdom, because Moses had put his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to Joshua, and they did what the LORD(Jesus) had commanded Moses.
The laying of the hands to gain the Holy Spirit which now Christians get when they are baptized
10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses. The LORD(Jesus) knew Moses face to face
The Prophet: Moses had said that another prophet would come like him, but this verse, probably written by Ezra shows that until that time, such a man did not yet come. Go to John chapter 1 about “That Prophet” and read how Jesus is the one Moses spoke of.
11 and sent him to do signs and miracles in Egypt—to the king, to all his officers, and to the whole land of Egypt.
12 Moses had great power, and he did great and wonderful things for all the Israelites to see.
Moses was unwilling to leave; yet he displayed no unwillingness to die. God declared that he should not enter Canaan. The Lord also promised that Moses should have a view of it, and showed him all that good land. Those may leave this world today with the same cheerfulness, knowing that those who die in the faith of Christ, will, like Moses eventually reach the promised land – Immortal life!
Moses obeyed this command of God as willingly as any other, though it seemed harder. In this he resembled our Lord Jesus Christ. But he died in honor, in peace, and in the most easy manner; the Saviour died upon the disgraceful and torturing cross. Moses died very easily; he died "at the mouth of the Lord," according to the will of God. The servants of the Lord, when they have done all their other work, must die at last, and be willing to go home, whenever their Master sends for them, Acts 21:13. The place of his burial was not known. If the soul be at rest with God, it is of little consequence where the body rests. There was no decay in the strength of his body, nor in the vigor and activity of his mind; his understanding was as clear, and his memory as strong as ever. This was the reward of his services, the effect of his extraordinary meekness. There was solemn mourning for him. Yet how great soever our losses have been, we must not give ourselves up to sorrow. If we hope to go to heaven rejoicing, why should we go to the grave mourning?(Mathew Henry)
END OF THE TORAH
THE LAW OF GOD
