3 “Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and ‘Og the king of Bashan came out against us with all his people to fight at Edre‘i. ² Adonai said to me, ‘Don’t be afraid of him; for I have handed him, all his people and his territory over to you; you will do to him as you did to Sichon king of the Emori, who lived at Heshbon.’ ³ So Adonai our God also handed over to us ‘Og the king of Bashan with all his people, and we defeated him until he had no one left. 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 Argov, the kingdom of ‘Og in Bashan; ⁵ all of them fortified cities with high walls, gates and bars — in addition to a great number of unwalled towns. ⁶ We completely destroyed them, as we did with Sichon king of Heshbon, annihilating every city —men, women and little ones. ⁷ But we took all the livestock, along with the spoil from the cities, as booty for ourselves.

⁸ “At that time we captured the territory of the two kings of the Emori east of the Yarden between the Arnon Valley and Mount Hermon,” ⁹ the Hermon which the Tzidonim call Siryon and the Emori call S’nir, ¹⁰ “all the cities of the plain, all Gil‘ad and all Bashan, as far as Salkhah and Edre‘i, cities of the kingdom of ‘Og in Bashan.” ¹¹ ‘Og king of Bashan was the last survivor of the Refa’im. His bed was made of iron; it is still in Rabbah with the people of ‘Amon. It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, using the normal cubit [thirteen-and-a-half by six feet].

¹² “Of this land that we took possession of then, I assigned to the Re’uveni and the Gadi the territory extending from ‘Aro‘er along the Arnon Valley together with half the hill-country of Gil‘ad, including its cities. ¹³ The rest of Gil‘ad and all Bashan, the kingdom of ‘Og, I gave to the half-tribe of M’nasheh.”

The whole region of Argov together with all of Bashan form what is called the land of Refa’im. ¹⁴ Ya’ir the son of M’nasheh took all the region of Argov, as far as the border with the G’shuri and the Ma‘akhati; he named this whole area, including Bashan, after himself — it remains Havot-Ya’ir to this day.

(vii) ¹⁵ “I gave Gil‘ad to Machir; ¹⁶ and to the Re’uveni and the Gadi I gave the territory from Gil‘ad to the Arnon Valley, with the middle of the valley as the border, as far as the Yabok River, which is the border with the people of ‘Amon; ¹⁷ the ‘Aravah too, the Yarden being its border, from Kinneret to the Sea of the ‘Aravah, the Dead Sea, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah to the east.

¹⁸ “At that time I gave you this order: ‘Adonai your God 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 Isra’el. ¹⁹ Your wives, your little ones and your livestock — I know you have much livestock — will stay in your cities which I have given you, (Maftir) ²⁰ until Adonai allows your brothers to rest, as he has allowed you; and they too take possession of the land Adonai your God is giving them on the west side of the Yarden. At that point you will return, each man to his own possession which I have given you.’

²¹ “Also at that time I gave this order to Y’hoshua: ‘Your eyes have seen everything that Adonai your God has done to these two kings. Adonai will do the same to all the kingdoms you encounter when you cross over. ²² Don’t be afraid of them, because Adonai your God will fight on your behalf.’

Haftarah D’varim: Yesha‘yahu (Isaiah) 1:1–27

B’rit Hadashah suggested readings for Parashah D’varim: Yochanan (John) 15:1–11; Messianic Jews (Hebrews) 3:7–4:11

Parashah 45: Va’etchanan (I pleaded) 3:23–7:11

²³ “Then I pleaded with Adonai, ²⁴ ‘Adonai Elohim, you have begun to reveal your greatness to your servant, and your strong hand — for what other god is there in heaven or on earth that can do the works and mighty deeds that you do? ²⁵ Please! Let me go across and see the good land on the other side of the Yarden, that wonderful hill-country and the L’vanon!’ ²⁶ But Adonai was angry with me on account of you, and he didn’t listen to me. Adonai said to me, ‘Enough from you! Don’t say another word to me about this matter! ²⁷ Climb up to the top of Pisgah and look out to the west, north, south and east. Look with your eyes — but you will not go across this Yarden. ²⁸ However, commission Y’hoshua, encourage him and strengthen him; for he will lead this people across and enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’ ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley across from Beit-P‘or.

4 “Now, Isra’el, listen to the laws and rulings I am teaching you, in order to follow them, so that you will live; then you will go in and take possession of the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ² In order to obey the mitzvot of Adonai your God which I am giving you, do not add to what I am saying, and do not subtract from it. ³ You saw with your own eyes what Adonai did at Ba‘al-P‘or, that Adonai destroyed from among you all the men who followed Ba‘al-P‘or; ⁴ but you who stuck with Adonai your God are still alive today, every one of you. (ii) ⁵ Look, I have taught you laws and rulings, just as Adonai my God ordered me, so that you can behave accordingly in the land where you are going in order to take possession of it. ⁶ Therefore, observe them; and follow them; for then all peoples will see you as having wisdom and understanding. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, ‘This great nation is surely a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has God as close to them as Adonai our God is, 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 the day you stood before Adonai your God at Horev, when Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my very words, so that they will learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on earth, and so that they will teach their children.’ 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 Then Adonai spoke 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 to you, which he ordered you to obey, the Ten Words; and he wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ At that time Adonai ordered me to teach you laws and rulings, so that you would live by them in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it.

¹⁵ “Therefore, watch out for yourselves! Since you did not see a shape of any kind on the day Adonai spoke to you in Horev from the fire, ¹⁶ do not become corrupt and make yourselves a carved image having the shape of any figure — not a representation of a human being, male or female, 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; Adonai your God has allotted these to all the peoples under the entire sky. ²⁰ No, you Adonai has taken and brought out of the smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for him, as you are today.

²¹ “But Adonai was angry with me on account of you and swore that I would not cross the Yarden and go into that good land, which Adonai your God is giving you to inherit. ²² Rather, I must die in this land and not cross the Yarden; but you are to cross and take possession of that good land. ²³ Watch out for yourselves, so that you won’t forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which he made with you, and make yourself a carved image, a representation of anything forbidden to you by Adonai your God. ²⁴ For Adonai your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you have had children and grandchildren, lived a long time in the land, become corrupt and made a carved image, a representation of something, and thus done what is evil in the sight of Adonai your God and provoked him; ²⁶ I call on the sky and the earth to witness against you today that you will quickly disappear from the land that you are crossing the Yarden to possess. You will not prolong your days there but will be completely destroyed. ²⁷ Adonai will scatter you among the peoples; and among the nations to which Adonai will lead you away, you will be left few in number. ²⁸ There you will serve gods which are the product of human hands, made of wood and stone, which can’t see, hear, eat or smell. ²⁹ However, from there you will seek Adonai your God; and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and being. ³⁰ In your distress, when all these things have come upon you, in the acharit-hayamim, you will return to Adonai your God and listen to what he says; ³¹ for Adonai your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your ancestors which he swore to them.

³² “Indeed, inquire about the past, before you were born: since the day God created human beings on the earth, from one end of heaven to the other, has there ever been anything as wonderful as this? Has anyone heard anything like it? ³³ Did any other people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and stay alive? ³⁴ Or has God ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from the very bowels of another nation, by means of ordeals, signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand, an outstretched arm and great terrors — like all that Adonai your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ³⁵ This was shown to you, so that you would know that Adonai is God, and there is no other beside him. ³⁶ From heaven he caused you to hear his voice, in order to instruct you; and on earth he caused you to see his great fire; and you heard his very words coming out from the fire. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them and brought you out of Egypt with his presence and great power, ³⁸ in order to drive out ahead of you nations greater and stronger than you, so that he could bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance, as is the case today; ³⁹ know today, and establish it in your heart, that Adonai is God in heaven above and on earth below — there is no other. ⁴⁰ Therefore, you are to keep his laws and mitzvot which I am giving you today, so that it will go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you will prolong your days in the land Adonai your God is giving you forever.”

(A: iii) ⁴¹ Then Moshe separated three cities on the east side of the Yarden, toward the sunrise, ⁴² to which a killer might flee, that is, someone who kills by mistake a person whom he did not previously hate, and upon fleeing to one of these cities might live there. ⁴³ The cities were Betzer in the desert, in the flatland, for the Re’uveni; Ramot in Gil‘ad for the Gadi; and Golan in Bashan for the M’nashi.

⁴⁴ This is the Torah which Moshe placed before the people of Isra’el — ⁴⁵ these are the instructions, laws and rulings which Moshe presented to the people of Isra’el after they had come out of Egypt — ⁴⁶ beyond the Yarden River, in the valley across from Beit-P‘or, in the land of Sichon king of the Emori, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moshe and the people of Isra’el defeated when they came out of Egypt; ⁴⁷ and they took possession of his land and the land of ‘Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Emori, who were beyond the Yarden toward the sunrise; ⁴⁸ from ‘Aro‘er on the edge of the Arnon Valley to Mount Si’on,” that is, Mount Hermon, ⁴⁹ “with all the ‘Aravah beyond the Yarden eastward, all the way to the Dead Sea at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.

13 As Yeshua came out of the Temple, one of the talmidim said to him, “Look, Rabbi! What huge stones! What magnificent buildings!” ² “You see all these great buildings?” Yeshua said to him, “They will be totally destroyed — not a single stone will be left standing!”

³ As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, Kefa, Ya‘akov, Yochanan and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what sign will show when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

⁵ Yeshua began speaking to them: “Watch out! Don’t let anyone fool you! ⁶ Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will fool many people. ⁷ When you hear the noise of wars nearby and the news of wars far off, don’t become frightened. Such things must happen, but the end is yet to come. ⁸ For peoples will fight each other, and nations will fight each other, there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the ‘birth pains.’

⁹ “But you, watch yourselves! They will hand you over to the local Sanhedrins, you will be beaten up in synagogues, and on my account you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. ¹⁰ Indeed, the Good News has to be proclaimed first to all the Goyim. ¹¹ Now when they arrest you and bring you to trial, don’t worry beforehand about what to say. Rather, say whatever is given you when the time comes; for it will not be just you speaking, but the Ruach HaKodesh. ¹² Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death; ¹³ and everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out till the end will be delivered.

¹⁴ “Now when you see the abomination that causes devastation^[a] standing where it ought not to be” (let the reader understand the allusion), “that will be the time for those in Y’hudah to escape to the hills. ¹⁵ If someone is on the roof, he must not go down and enter his house to take any of his belongings; ¹⁶ if someone is in the field, he must not turn back to get his coat. ¹⁷ What a terrible time it will be for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ¹⁸ Pray that it may not happen in winter. ¹⁹ For there will be worse trouble at that time than there has ever been from the very beginning, when God created the universe, until now; and there will be nothing like it again.^{[b] 20} Indeed, if God had not limited the duration of the trouble, no one would survive; but for the sake of the elect, those whom he has chosen, he has limited it.

²¹ “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here’s the Messiah!’ or, ‘See, there he is!’ — don’t believe him! ²² There will appear false Messiahs and false prophets performing signs and wonders for the purpose, if possible, of misleading the chosen. ²³ But you, watch out! I have told you everything in advance! ²⁴ In those days, after that trouble,

²⁶ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with tremendous power and glory.^{[d] 27} He will send out his angels and gather together his chosen people from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸ “Now let the fig tree teach you its lesson: when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear, you know that summer is approaching. ²⁹ In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you are to know that the time is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Yes! I tell you that this people will certainly not pass away before all these things happen. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away. ³² However, when that day and hour will come, no one knows — not the angels in heaven, not the Son, just the Father. ³³ Stay alert! Be on your guard! For you do not know when the time will come.

³⁴ “It’s like a man who travels away from home, puts his servants in charge, each with his own task, and tells the doorkeeper to stay alert. ³⁵ So stay alert! for you don’t know when the owner of the house will come, ³⁶ whether it will be evening, midnight, cockcrow or morning — you don’t want him to come suddenly and find you sleeping! ³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to everyone: stay alert!”