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29 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Adonai did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land— 2 the great trials that your eyes saw, those great signs and wonders. 3 But to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. [a] 4 I led you 40 years in the wilderness—your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. 5 Bread you have not eaten and wine and strong drink you have not drunk—in order that you may know that I am Adonai your God.
6 “When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of the Bashan came out against us to battle, but we struck them down. 7 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 8 So keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all that you do.
Parashat Nitzavim
You Are Standing Before the Lord
9 “You are standing today, all of you, before Adonai your God—the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officials, all the men of Israel, 10 your children, your wives, and the outsider within your camp (from your woodchopper to your water carrier). 11 Each of you is to cross over into the covenant of Adonai your God that He is cutting with you today, and into His oath.
12 “This is in order to confirm you today as His people. So He will be your God, just as He promised you and just as He swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. 13 Not with you alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath, 14 but with whomever is standing here with us today before Adonai our God and with whomever is not here with us today.
15 “Indeed you know how we dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we crossed through the nations that we passed through. 16 You saw their detestable things and their idols[b]—wood and stone, silver and gold—that were with them. 17 Beware in case there is among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from Adonai our God to go serve the gods of those nations. Beware in case there is among you a root producing poison and bitter fruit.[c]
18 “Now when someone hears the words of this oath and in his heart considers himself blessed, thinking, ‘Shalom will be mine, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’—thus sweeping away the moist with the dry— [d] 19 Adonai will be unwilling to forgive him. For then the anger of Adonai and His jealousy will smoke against that person. So all the oath that is written in this scroll will settle on him, and Adonai will blot out his name from under the heavens. 20 Adonai will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, according to all the oaths of the covenant written in this scroll of the Torah.
21 “The following generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a distant land will say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses Adonai afflicted on it: 22 ‘Sulfur and salt, the whole land burnt! It cannot be planted, it cannot sprout, no grass can grow up on it—like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Adonai overturned in His anger and in His wrath!’
23 “All the nations will say, ‘Why has Adonai done this to this land? Why this great burning anger?’
24 “Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Adonai, the God of their fathers, which He cut with them when He brought them out from the land of Egypt. 25 They went and served other gods and bowed down to them—gods they never knew, that He had not allotted to them. 26 So Adonai’s anger burned against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this scroll. 27 Adonai has uprooted them from their soil, in anger and wrath and great fury, and hurled them into another land, as is the case this day.’
28 “The secret things belong to Adonai our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever—in order to do all the words of this Torah.
30 “Now when all these things come upon you—the blessing and the curse that I have set before you—and you take them to heart in all the nations where Adonai your God has banished you, 2 and you return to Adonai your God and listen to His voice according to all that I am commanding you today—you and your children—with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then Adonai your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you, and He will return and gather you from all the peoples where Adonai your God has scattered you. 4 Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the heavens, from there Adonai your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Adonai your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, and you will possess it; and He will do you good and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 Also Adonai your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants—to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.
7 “Adonai your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 Then you—you will return and listen to the voice of Adonai and do all His mitzvot that I am commanding you today. 9 Adonai your God will make you prosper in all the work of your hand—in the fruit of your womb, and the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil—for good. For Adonai will again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your fathers— 10 when you listen to the voice of Adonai your God, to keep His mitzvot and His statutes that are written in this scroll of the Torah, when you turn to Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 “For this mitzvah that I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in the heavens, that you should say, ‘Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ 13 Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us, and have us hear it so we may do it?’ 14 No, the word is very near to you—in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.[e]
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. 16 What I am commanding you today is to love Adonai your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His mitzvot, statutes and ordinances. Then you will live and multiply, and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are going in to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away and bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish! You will not prolong your days on the land, where you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess.
19 “I call the heavens and the earth to witness about you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving Adonai your God, listening to His voice, and clinging to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell on the land that Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob—to give them.
Dinner with a Pharisee
37 As He spoke, a Pharisee asked Yeshua to eat with him, so He entered and sat down. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he saw that Yeshua did not do the ritual handwashing before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 Fools! Didn’t He who created the outside also create the inside? 41 But give as tzedakah those things that are within, and indeed everything is pure to you.
42 “But woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint, rue, and every garden herb,[a] yet bypass justice and the love of God. It is necessary to do these things without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you, for you are like unmarked tombs, and people walk over them without knowing.”
45 But answering, one of the Torah lawyers says to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.”
46 Then Yeshua said, “Woe to you Torah lawyers as well, for you weigh the people down with burdens hard to carry, yet you yourselves will not touch the burdens with even a finger.
47 “Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your own fathers killed! 48 So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers, for indeed they killed them and you are building their tombs.
49 “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and emissaries, and some of them they will kill and persecute, 50 so that the blood of the prophets shed since the foundation of the world might be required from this generation— 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the one who perished between the altar and the house of God.[b] Yes, I tell you, it will be required from this generation.’
52 “Woe to you, Torah lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and you stood in the way of those entering.”
53 When Yeshua left there, the Torah scholars and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to interrogate Him on many issues, 54 plotting against Him to catch Him in His words.
An Aside with the Disciples
12 Meanwhile, when thousands of people had gathered, so many that they were trampling one another, Yeshua began speaking first to His disciples, “Be on guard yourselves against the hametz of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. 3 Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.
4 “I say to you, My friends, you should not be afraid of those who kill the body, since after this they have nothing more they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear the One who, after the killing, has authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear this One!
6 “Aren’t five sparrows being sold for two pennies?[c] Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Indeed, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Israel from Moses to David
Psalm 78
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Listen, my people, to my teaching.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable.
I will utter perplexing sayings from of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the next generation the praises of Adonai
and His strength and the wonders He has done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob
and ordained Torah in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation might know,
even the children yet to be born:
they will arise and tell their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God,
not forgetting the works of God,
but keeping His mitzvot.
8 So they will not be like their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not prepare its heart,
whose spirit was not loyal to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim were archers armed with bows,
yet they turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk in His Torah.
11 They forgot His deeds
and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He did miracles in front of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and led them through,
and He made the water stand like a wall.
14 By day He led them with a cloud
and all night with a light of fire.
15 He split apart rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
16 So He brought streams out of a rock,
and made waters flow down like rivers.[a]
17 Yet they added more sinning against Him,
rebelling against Elyon in the desert.
18 They put God to the test in their heart
by demanding food for their craving.
19 Then they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20 See, He struck the rock,
waters gushed out, streams overflowed.
But can He give bread?
Will He provide meat for His people?”
21 When Adonai heard, He was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
and fury also rose against Israel.
22 For they did not believe in God
or trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and rained down manna upon them to eat,
and gave them grain of heaven.[b]
25 Man did eat the bread of angels.
He sent them abundant provision.
26 He loosed the east wind in the skies,
and by His power He drove the south wind.
27 He rained meat upon them like dust,
and winged fowl like sand of the seas.
28 And He let it fall amidst their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very full—
for He gave them their desire.
30 No longer a stranger from their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them
and slew the stoutest of them,
and struck down young men of Israel.
19 Truthful lips endure forever,
but a lying tongue for only a moment.
20 Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil,
but those promoting shalom have joy.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.