Weekly Bible Reading
Parashat Ekev | Deut. 7:12-11:25
Adonai Desires to Bless
12“Then it will happen, as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them, that Adonai your God will keep with you the covenant kindness that He swore to your fathers.
13He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
14From all peoples, you will be blessed—there will not be male or female barren among you or your livestock.
15Adonai will remove all sickness from you, and He will not inflict on you any of the terrible diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will inflict them on all who hate you.
16“You will devour all the peoples Adonai your God gives over to you. Your eye is not to pity them. You are not to serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.
17Suppose you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I—how can I drive them out?’
18You are not to be afraid of them. You are to be sure to remember what Adonai your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which Adonai your God brought you out. So will Adonai your God do to all the peoples you fear.
20“Moreover, Adonai your God will send the hornet against them, until the survivors and those in hiding perish before you.
21You should not be terrified of them, since Adonai your God is in your midst—a great and awesome God.
22Adonai your God will drive away those nations before you little by little—you will not be able to put an end to them all at once, or else the beasts of the field will multiply on you.
23But Adonai your God will give them over to you, and He will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
24He will hand over their kings to you, and you will blot out their name from under the heavens. No man will stand up to you, until you have destroyed them all.
25“The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You are not to covet the silver or gold on them or take it for yourself—or you could be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Adonai your God.
26You are not to bring an abomination into your house—for you, like it, will be a banned thing. You must utterly detest and utterly abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.
Chapter 8
Not By Bread Alone
1“You are to take care to do the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers.
2You are to remember all the way that Adonai your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness—in order to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvot or not.
3He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna —which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai.
4Neither did your clothing wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years.
5Now you know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Adonai your God disciplines you.
6So you are to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God—to walk in His ways and to fear Him.
7For Adonai your God is bringing you into a good land—a land of wadis with water, of springs and fountains flowing out in the valleys and hills,
8a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey,
9a land where you will eat bread with no poverty, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.
10So you will eat and be full, and you will bless Adonai your God for the good land He has given you.
11“Take care that you do not forget Adonai your God by not keeping His mitzvot, ordinances and statutes that I am commanding you today.
12Otherwise, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and lived in them,
13and when your herds and flocks multiply, and silver and gold multiplies for you and all that is yours multiplies,
14then your heart will be haughty and you will forget Adonaiyour God. He brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
15He led you through the great and terrible wilderness—fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought forth water for you from the flinty rock.
16He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, in order to afflict you and test you, to do you good in the end.
17You may say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand has made me this wealth.’
18Rather you are to remember Adonai your God, for it is He who gives you power to make wealth, in order to establish His covenant that He swore to your fathers—as it is this day.
19“Now if you do forget Adonai your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you will certainly perish.
20Like the nations Adonai makes perish before you, so you will perish, since you would not listen to the voice of Adonai your God.
Chapter 9
Who Brings Down Giants?
1“Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself—cities great and fortified up to the heavens.
2The people are great and tall, sons of the Anakim. You know them, and you yourselves have heard, “Who can stand before the sons of Anak?”
3But you will know today that Adonai your God is the One who is crossing over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before you, so that you may drive them out and make them perish quickly, as Adonai has promised you.
4“After Adonai your God has driven them out from before you, do not say in your heart, ‘It is because of my righteousness that Adonai has brought me in to possess this land.’ It is because of the wickedness of these nations that Adonai is driving them out from before you.
5It is not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations, Adonai your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to keep the word Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
6So you should understand that it is not because of your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess—for you are a stiff-necked people.
What Happened to the Tablets?
7“Remember, never forget, how you provoked Adonai your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Adonai.
8At Horeb you provoked Adonai to wrath, and Adonai was angry with you—enough to destroy you.
9When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that Adonai cut with you, I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights; I did not eat bread or drink water.
10Adonai gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God. Moreover, on them were all the words that Adonai had spoken with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
11“Now at the end of 40 days and 40 nights, Adonai gave me the two tablets of stone—the tablets of the covenant.
12Adonai said to me, ‘Get up! Go quickly down from here, for your people whom you brought out from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’
13Furthermore Adonai spoke to me saying, ‘I have seen this people, and it is indeed a stiff-necked people.
14Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they.’
15“So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. Now the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
16When I looked, you had indeed sinned against Adonai your God—you had made yourselves a metal calf. So quickly you had turned aside from the way Adonai had commanded you!
17So I took hold of the two tablets, threw them out of my two hands, and smashed them before your eyes.
18“Then I fell down before Adonai like the first time, for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water—because of all your sin that you committed, doing evil in Adonai’s sight, provoking Him to anger.
19For I was afraid of the fierce wrath and fury which Adonaibore toward you—to destroy you. But Adonai listened to me that time also.
20Adonai was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.
21I took your sin—the calf you had made—and burned it in the fire. I crushed it, grinding it up so well that it was as fine as dust, and I threw its dust into the wadi flowing down from the mountain.
22“Again at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked Adonai to wrath.
23When Adonai sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of Adonai your God and didn’t believe Him or listen to His voice.
24You have been rebellious against Adonai from the day that I knew you.
25“So I threw myself down before Adonai those 40 days and 40 nights, because Adonai had said He would destroy you.
26I prayed to Adonai and said, ‘O Lord, Adonai, do not destroy Your people—Your inheritance that You have redeemed through Your greatness and brought out from Egypt with a mighty hand.
27Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people or to their wickedness or their sin.
28Otherwise the land from which You brought us out may say, “Because Adonai was not able to bring them into the land that He spoke of to them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.”
29Yet they are Your people—Your inheritance that You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’
Chapter 10
Two New Tablets
1“At that time Adonai said to me, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones and come up to Me on the mountain. Make yourself an ark of wood.
2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you smashed, and you are to put them in the ark.’
3“So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
4Like the first inscription, Adonai wrote on the tablets the Ten Words He had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly, then gave them to me.
5Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made—and there they are, just as Adonaicommanded me.
6“(Bnei-Yisrael traveled from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah—there Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar served as kohen in his place.
7From there they journeyed to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Jotbah—a land of wadis flowing with water.
8At that time Adonai set the tribe of Levi apart to carry the Ark of the Covenant of Adonai, to stand before Adonai to serve Him and to pronounce blessings in His Name—as is the case to this day.
9Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers—Adonai is his inheritance, just as Adonai your God had promised about him.)
10“I stayed on the mountain like the first time—40 days and 40 nights. Adonai listened to me that time also and was not willing to destroy you.
11Adonai said to me, ‘Rise up, go, journey ahead of the people so that they may go in and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.’
12“So now, O Israel, what does Adonai your God require of you, but to fear Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
13to keep the mitzvot of Adonai and His statutes that I am commanding you today, for your own good?
14Behold, to Adonai your God belong the heavens and the highest of heavens, the earth and all that is in it.
15Only on your fathers did Adonai set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them—you—from all the peoples, as is the case this day.
Circumcise Your Hearts
16“Circumcise the foreskin of your heart therefore, and do not be stiff-necked anymore.
17For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords —the great, mighty and awesome God, who does not show partiality or take a bribe.
18He enacts justice for the orphan and widow, and loves the outsider, giving him food and clothing.
19Therefore love the outsider, for you were outsiders in the land of Egypt.
20Adonai your God you will fear—Him will you serve. To Him will you cling, and by His Name will you swear.
21He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your eyes have seen.
22Your fathers went down to Egypt with 70 persons, and now Adonai your God has made you like the stars of the heavens in number.
Chapter 11
Love and Obey with All Your Heart
1“Therefore you are to love Adonai your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances and His mitzvot at all times.
2And you should know this day that it was not your children who knew or saw the discipline of Adonai your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm;
3His signs and the deeds He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land;
4and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Sea of Reeds flow over them as they chased after you, and how Adonai has destroyed them to this day;
5what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place;
6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households and tents and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel—
7Rather, it is your own eyes that have seen every mighty deed that Adonai has done.
8“Therefore you are to keep the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land that you are crossing over to possess,
9and so that you may prolong your days on the land that Adonai swore to give to your fathers and to their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey.
10“For the land you are going in to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you came. There you planted your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden.
11But the land you are crossing over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, drinking from the rain of the heavens it drinks in water.
12It is a land that Adonai your God cares for—the eyes of Adonai your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year up to the end of the year.
13“Now if you listen obediently to My mitzvot that I am commanding you today—to love Adonai your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul—
14then I will give rain for your land in its season—the early rain and the late rain —so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.
15I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
16Watch yourselves, so your heart is not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.
17Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, so He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain and the soil will not yield its produce. Then you will perish quickly from the good land Adonai is giving you.
18“Therefore you are to set these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul. You are to bind them as a sign on your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes.
19You are to teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.
20You are to write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
21so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied on the land Adonai swore to give to your fathers, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
22“For if you will diligently keep all this mitzvah that I am commanding you to do—to love Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and to cling to Him—
23then Adonai will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.
24Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours—from the wilderness to the Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea will be your border.
25No one will be able to stand against you—Adonai your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has promised you.