the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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December 17 - Different Topics
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Deuteronomy 28-31
Chapter 28
Blessings for Obedience
1 "Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.(a) 2 All these blessings will come and overtake you, because you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city
and blessed in the country.
4 Your descendants[a] will be blessed,
and your land's produce,
and the offspring of your livestock,
including the young of your herds
and the newborn of your flocks.(b)
5 Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in
and blessed when you go out.
7 "The Lord will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you from one direction but flee from you in seven directions. 8 The Lord will grant you a blessing on your storehouses and on everything you do;[b] He will bless you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as His holy people,(c) as He swore to you, if you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yahweh's name, and they will stand in awe of you. 11 The Lord will make you prosper abundantly with children,[c] the offspring of your livestock, and your land's produce in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you His abundant storehouse, the sky, to give your land rain in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.(d) You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward if you listen to the Lord your God's commands I am giving you today and are careful to follow them. 14 Do not turn aside to the right or the left from all the things I am commanding you today, and do not go after other gods to worship them.
Curses for Disobedience
15 "But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:(e)
16 You will be cursed in the city
and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.
18 Your descendants[d] will be cursed,
and your land's produce,
the young of your herds,
and the newborn of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in
and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send against you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you do[e] until you are destroyed and quickly perish, because of the wickedness of your actions in abandoning Me. 21 The Lord will make pestilence cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will afflict you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, burning heat, drought,[f] blight, and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. 23 The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your land into falling[g] dust; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. 25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.(f)
27 "The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, tumors, a festering rash, and scabies, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and mental confusion, 29 so that at noon you will grope as a blind man gropes in the dark.(g) You will not be successful in anything you do. You will only be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will help you. 30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will help you. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes grow weary looking for them every day. But you will be powerless to do anything.[h] 33 A people you don't know will eat your land's produce and everything you have labored for. You will only be oppressed and crushed continually. 34 You will be driven mad by what you see. 35 The Lord will afflict you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and thighs—from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.(h)
36 "The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone. 37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.(i)
38 "You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because locusts will devour it. 39 You will plant and cultivate vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but not anoint yourself with oil, because your olives will drop off. 41 You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner. 42 Whirring insects will take possession of all your trees and your land's produce. 43 The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
45 "All these curses will come, pursue, and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and statutes He gave you. 46 These curses will be a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you didn't serve the Lord your God with joy and a cheerful heart, even though you had an abundance of everything, 48 you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you, in famine, thirst, nakedness, and a lack of everything. He will place an iron yoke(j) on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you don't understand, 50 a ruthless nation,[i] showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young. 51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land's produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish. 52 They will besiege you within all your gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.
53 "You will eat your children,[j] the flesh of your sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you(k) during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you. 54 The most sensitive and refined man among you will look grudgingly[k] at his brother, the wife he embraces,[l] and the rest of his children, 55 refusing to share with any of them his children's flesh that he will eat because he has nothing left during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you in all your towns. 56 The most sensitive and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her refinement and sensitivity, will begrudge the husband she embraces, her son, and her daughter, 57 the afterbirth that comes out from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else during the siege and hardship your enemy imposes on you within your gates.
58 "If you are not careful to obey all the words of this law, which are written in this scroll, by fearing this glorious and awesome name—Yahweh, your God— 59 He will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. 60 He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The Lord will also afflict you with every sickness and plague not recorded in the book of this law, until you are destroyed. 62 Though you were as numerous as the stars of the sky, you will be left with only a few people, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 Just as the Lord was glad to cause you to prosper and to multiply you, so He will also be glad to cause you to perish and to destroy you. You will be deported from the land you are entering to possess. 64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 65 You will find no peace among those nations, and there will be no resting place(l) for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despondent spirit. 66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be in dread night and day, never certain of survival. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!' and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!'—because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see. 68 The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again.(m) There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."
Chapter 29
Renewing the Covenant
1 [a]These are the words of the covenant(a) the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb. 2 [b]Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, "You have seen with your own eyes everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. 3 You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders.(b) 4 Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.(c) 5 I led you 40 years in the wilderness; your clothes and the sandals on your feet did not wear out; 6 you did not eat bread or drink wine or beer—so that you might know that I am Yahweh your God. 7 When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.(d) 9 Therefore, observe the words of this covenant(e) and follow them, so that you will succeed in everything you do.
10 "All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, 11 your children, your wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water— 12 so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which He is making with you today, so that you may enter into His oath 13 and so that He may establish you today as His people and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, 15 but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not here today.
Abandoning the Covenant
16 "Indeed, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations where you traveled. 17 You saw their detestable images and idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them. 18 Be sure there is no man, woman, clan, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.(f) 19 When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt,[c] thinking, ‘I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.' This will lead to the destruction of the well-watered land as well as the dry land. 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that person, and every curse written in this scroll will descend on him. The Lord will blot out his name under heaven, 21 and single him out for harm from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
22 "Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the Lord has inflicted on it. 23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown, producing nothing, with no plant growing on it, just like the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord demolished in His fierce anger.(g) 24 All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?' 25 Then people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He had made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They began to worship other gods, bowing down to gods they had not known—gods that the Lord had not permitted them to worship.(h) 27 Therefore the Lord 's anger burned against this land, and He brought every curse written in this book on it. 28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.' 29 The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.
Chapter 30
Returning to the Lord
1 "When all these things happen to you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and all your soul by doing[a] everything I am giving you today, 3 then He will restore your fortunes,[b] have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.(a) 4 Even if your exiles are at the ends of the earth,[c] He will gather you and bring you back from there.(b) 5 The Lord your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it.(c) He will cause you to prosper and multiply you more than He did your fathers. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart(d) and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 Then you will again obey Him and follow all His commands I am giving you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you prosper abundantly in all the work of your hands(e) with children,[d] the offspring of your livestock, and your land's produce. Indeed, the Lord will again delight in your prosperity, as He delighted in that of your fathers, 10 when you obey the Lord your God by keeping His commands and statutes that are written in this book of the law and return to Him with all your heart and all your soul.
Choose Life
11 "This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach. 12 It is not in heaven so that you have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?' 13 And it is not across the sea so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?' 14 But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it.(f) 15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.(g) 16 For[e] I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live[f] and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not live long in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life(h) so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey Him, and remain faithful[g] to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the Lord swore to give to your fathers(i) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
Chapter 31
Joshua Takes Moses' Place
1 Then Moses continued to speak these[a] words to all Israel, 2 saying, "I am now 120 years old; I can no longer act as your leader.[b] The Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross this Jordan.'(a) 3 The Lord your God is the One who will cross ahead of you.(b) He will destroy these nations before you, and you will drive them out. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, as the Lord has said.(c) 4 The Lord will deal with them as He did Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and their land when He destroyed them.(d) 5 The Lord will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and courageous;(e) don't be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you;(f) He will not leave you or forsake you."(g)
7 Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you will go with[c] this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their fathers.(h) You will enable them to take possession of it. 8 The Lord is the One who will go before you.(i) He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.(j) Do not be afraid or discouraged."
9 Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the Lord 's covenant, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of debt cancellation,(k) during the Festival of Booths,(l) 11 when all Israel assembles[d] in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He chooses, you are to read this law aloud before all Israel.(m) 12 Gather the people—men, women, children, and foreigners living within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear(n) the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law. 13 Then their children(o) who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
14 The Lord said to Moses, "The time of your death is now approaching. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting so that I may commission him." When Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the tent of meeting, 15 the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.(p)
16 The Lord said to Moses, "You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon commit adultery with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break the covenant(q) I have made with them. 17 My anger will burn against them on that day; I will abandon them and hide My face from them so that they will become easy prey.[e] Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say, ‘Haven't these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us?' 18 I will certainly hide My face on that day because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. 19 Therefore write down this song(r) for yourselves and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it,[f] so that this song may be a witness for Me against the Israelites. 20 When I bring them into the land I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey,(s) they will eat their fill(t) and prosper.[g] They will turn to other gods and worship them, despising Me and breaking My covenant.(u) 21 And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because[h] their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do,[i] even before I bring them into the land I swore to give them." 22 So Moses wrote down this song on that day and taught it to the Israelites.
23 The Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun, "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I swore to them, and I will be with you."(v)
Moses Warns the People
24 When Moses had finished writing down on a scroll every single word[j] of this law, 25 he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the Lord 's covenant, 26 "Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God so that it may remain there as a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead! 28 Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.(w) 29 For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. Disaster will come to you in the future, because you will do what is evil in the Lord 's sight, infuriating Him with what your hands have made."(x) 30 Then Moses recited aloud every single word[k] of this song to the entire assembly of Israel:
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