Deuteronomy 11; Deuteronomy 12; Proverbs 4

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Deuteronomy 11

Love and Serve the Lord

eYou shall therefore love the Lord your God and fkeep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. And consider today (since I am not speaking to gyour children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline1 of the Lord your God, hhis greatness, ihis mighty hand and his outstretched arm, jhis signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, khow he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, and lwhat he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, and mwhat he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. For your eyes have seen nall the great work of the Lord that he did.

You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may obe strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, and pthat you may live long in the land qthat the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ra land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,2 like a garden of vegetables. 11 sBut the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. tThe eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13 And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, uto love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 vhe3 will give the rain for your land in its season, wthe early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 xAnd he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and yyou shall eat and be full. 16 Take care zlest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and aserve other gods and worship them; 17 then bthe anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he cwill shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and dyou will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

18 eYou shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and fyou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 gYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 hthat your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ias long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if jyou will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and kholding fast to him, 23 then the Lord lwill drive out all these nations before you, and you will mdispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 nEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ofrom the wilderness to4 the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 pNo one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay qthe fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ras he promised you.

26 sSee, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 tthe blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and uthe curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, vto go after other gods that you have not known. 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set wthe blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the xArabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ythe oak5 of Moreh? 31 For you are zto cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful ato do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.


Deuteronomy 12

The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship

bThese are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, call the days that you live on the earth. dYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, eon the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ftheir pillars and burn their gAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and hdestroy their name out of that place. iYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall seek jthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation1 there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. And mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and nyou shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since she has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 tTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at jthe place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15 However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, uaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. vThe unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 wOnly you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns kthe tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but myou shall eat them before the Lord your God in jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 xTake care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 When the Lord your God yenlarges your territory, zas he has promised you, and you say, I will eat meat, because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If athe place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, bthen you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just cas the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. cThe unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 dOnly be sure that you do not eat the blood, efor the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, fthat all may go well with you and with your children after you, gwhen you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the hholy things that are due from you, and iyour vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to athe place that the Lord will choose, 27 and joffer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, fthat it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Warning Against Idolatry

29 When kthe Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care lthat you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?that I also may do the same. 31 mYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every nabominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for othey even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

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32 Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. pYou shall not add to it or take from it.


Proverbs 4

A Father’s Wise Instruction

fHear, O sons, a father’s instruction,

and be attentive, that you may ggain1 insight,

for I give you good hprecepts;

do not forsake my teaching.

When I was a son with my father,

itender, jthe only one in the sight of my mother,

he ktaught me and said to me,

lLet your heart hold fast my words;

mkeep my commandments, and live.

nGet wisdom; get ginsight;

do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;

olove her, and she will guard you.

pThe beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get ginsight.

Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

she will qhonor you rif you embrace her.

She will place on your head sa graceful garland;

she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.

10  fHear, tmy son, and accept my words,

that uthe years of your life may be many.

11  I have vtaught you the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

12  When you walk, wyour step will not be hampered,

and xif you run, you will not stumble.

13  yKeep hold of instruction; do not let go;

guard her, for she is your zlife.

14  aDo not enter the path of the wicked,

and do not walk in the way of the evil.

15  Avoid it; do not go on it;

turn away from it and pass on.

16  For they bcannot sleep unless they have done wrong;

they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

17  For they eat the bread of wickedness

cand drink the wine of violence.

18  But dthe path of the righteous is like ethe light of dawn,

which shines fbrighter and brighter until gfull day.

19  hThe way of the wicked is like deep idarkness;

they do not know over what they jstumble.

20  kMy son, be attentive to my words;

incline your ear to my sayings.

21  lLet them not escape from your sight;

mkeep them within your heart.

22  For they are nlife to those who find them,

and healing to all their2 flesh.

23  Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for ofrom it flow pthe springs of life.

24  Put away from you qcrooked speech,

and put rdevious talk far from you.

25  sLet your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

26  tPonder3 the path of your feet;

uthen all your ways will be sure.

27  vDo not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.