The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(A)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (B)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(C)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[a]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(D)multiply greatly ^(E)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(F)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (G)“Hear, O Israel: ^[b]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (H)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(I)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(J)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (K)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (L)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (M)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[c]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(N)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(O)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(P)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(Q)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(R)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(S)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(T)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(U)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (V)“You shall not ^[d]tempt the Lord your God ^(W)as you ^[e]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(X)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(Y)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (Z)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (AA)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(AB)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[f]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[g]observe all these ^[h]statutes, ^(AC)to fear the Lord our God, ^(AD)for our good always, that ^(AE)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[i]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(AF)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(AG)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(AH)possess, and has cast out many ^(AI)nations before you, ^(AJ)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(AK)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(AL)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (AM)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(AN)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(AO)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[j]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[k]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(AP)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(AQ)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(AR)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(AS)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(AT)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(AU)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[l]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(AV)the faithful God ^(AW)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[m]be ^(AX)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(AY)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(AZ)love you and bless you and ^[n]multiply you; ^(BA)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[o]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(BB)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(BC)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[p]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(BD)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(BE)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (BF)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^20 (BG)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(BH)little by little; you will be unable to ^[q]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(BI)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(BJ)no one shall be able to stand ^[r]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(BK)covet^[s] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(BL)for it is an ^[t]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(BM)you must ^[u]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(BN)multiply,^[v] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[w]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(BO)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(BP)test you, ^(BQ)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(BR)allowed you to hunger, and ^(BS)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(BT)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (BU)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (BV)You should ^[x]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(BW)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(BX)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (BY)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (BZ)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[y]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[z]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (CA)when your heart ^[aa]is lifted up, and you ^(CB)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(CC)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(CD)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(CE)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(CF)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(CG)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(CH)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(CI)that He may ^[ab]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(CJ)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(CK)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(CL)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(CM)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(CN)goes over before you as a ^(CO)consuming fire. ^(CP)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(CQ)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (CR)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(CS)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (CT)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[ac]fulfill the ^(CU)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(CV)stiff-necked^[ad] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(CW)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(CX)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(CY)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (CZ)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(DA)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (DB)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(DC)in^[ae] the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ^(DD)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have ^(DE)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore ^(DF)the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed ^(DG)they are a ^[af]stiff-necked people. ^14 (DH)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(DI)blot out their name from under heaven; ^(DJ)and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

^15 (DK)“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(DL)the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(DM)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and ^(DN)broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I ^(DO)fell^[ag] down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ^19 (DP)For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. ^(DQ)But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I ^(DR)threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at ^(DS)Taberah and ^(DT)Massah and ^(DU)Kibroth Hattaavah you ^[ah]provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, ^(DV)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ^(DW)you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. ^24 (DX)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (DY)“Thus I ^[ai]prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and ^(DZ)Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant^(A)

7 Now when He concluded all His sayings in the hearing of the people, He ^(B)entered Capernaum. ² And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. ³ So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. ⁴ And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, ⁵ “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

⁶ Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. ⁷ Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But ^(C)say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁸ For I also am a man placed under ^(D)authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

⁹ When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” ¹⁰ And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well ^[a]who had been sick.

Jesus Raises the Son of the Widow of Nain

¹¹ Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd. ¹² And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, He had ^(E)compassion on her and said to her, ^(F)“Do not weep.” ¹⁴ Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, ^(G)arise.” ¹⁵ So he who was dead ^(H)sat up and began to speak. And He ^(I)presented him to his mother.

^16 (J)Then fear ^[b]came upon all, and they ^(K)glorified God, saying, ^(L)“A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, ^(M)“God has visited His people.” ¹⁷ And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.

John the Baptist Sends Messengers to Jesus^(N)

^18 (O)Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things. ¹⁹ And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to ^[c]Jesus, saying, “Are You ^(P)the Coming One, or ^[d]do we look for another?”

²⁰ When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” ²¹ And that very hour He cured many of ^[e]infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight.

^22 (Q)Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: ^(R)that the blind ^(S)see, the lame ^(T)walk, the lepers are ^(U)cleansed, the deaf ^(V)hear, the dead are raised, ^(W)the poor have the gospel preached to them. ²³ And blessed is he who is not ^[f]offended because of Me.”

^24 (X)When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ²⁵ But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. ²⁶ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. ²⁷ This is he of whom it is written:

²⁸ For I say to you, among those born of women there is ^[g]not a ^(Z)greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

²⁹ And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors ^[h]justified God, ^(AA)having been baptized with the baptism of John. ³⁰ But the Pharisees and ^[i]lawyers rejected ^(AB)the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

^31 [j]And the Lord said, ^(AC)“To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:

³³ For ^(AD)John the Baptist came ^(AE)neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man has come ^(AF)eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a ^[k]winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ^35 (AG)But wisdom is justified by all her children.”

A Sinful Woman Forgiven

^36 (AH)Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. ³⁷ And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, ³⁸ and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ^(AI)“This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰ And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

⁴¹ “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred ^(AJ)denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” ⁴⁴ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no ^(AK)water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no ^(AL)kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. ^46 (AM)You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. ^47 (AN)Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then He said to her, ^(AO)“Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ^(AP)“Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Then He said to the woman, ^(AQ)“Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”