Obey God and Prosper

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may do them in the land where you are going over to take possession of it, ² so that you, your son, and your grandson will ^(A)fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, ^(B)all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Now Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do them, so that ^(C)it may go well for you and that you may increase greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has ^[a]promised you, in ^(D)a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “^(E)Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the ^(F)Lord is one! ⁵ And ^(G)you shall love the Lord your God ^(H)with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ^6 (I)These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. ⁷ And ^(J)you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. ^8 (K)You shall also tie them as a ^[b]sign to your ^[c]hand, and they shall be as ^[d]frontlets ^[e]on your forehead. ^9 (L)You shall also write them on the ^[f]doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you, ^(M)great and splendid cities which you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and carved cisterns which you did not carve out, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and ^(N)you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be ^[g]careful that ^(O)you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[h]slavery. ^13 (P)You shall ^[i]fear only the Lord your God; and you shall ^[j]worship Him and ^(Q)swear by His name. ^14 (R)You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you, ¹⁵ for the Lord your God who is in the midst of you is a ^(S)jealous God; so follow Him, or else the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will ^[k]wipe you off the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “^(T)You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, ^(U)as you tested Him at Massah. ^17 (V)You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His provisions and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that ^(W)it may go well for you and that you may go in and take possession of the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, ¹⁹ by driving out all your enemies from you, as the Lord has spoken.

²⁰ “^(X)When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the provisions and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Moreover, the Lord provided great and terrible signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household; ²³ He brought us out of there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ ²⁴ So the Lord commanded us to ^[l]follow all these statutes, ^(Y)to fear the Lord our God for our own good always and ^(Z)for our survival, as it is today. ²⁵ And ^(AA)it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to ^[m]follow all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.

The Blessings at Mount Gerizim

28 “^(A)Now it shall be, if you diligently ^[a]obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, that the Lord your God ^(B)will put you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings will come to you and ^(C)reach you if you ^[b]obey the Lord your God:

³ “Blessed will you be in the city, and blessed will you be ^(D)in the ^[c]country.

⁴ “Blessed will be the ^[d]children of your womb, the ^[e]produce of your ground, and the ^[f]offspring of your animals: the newborn of your herd and the young of your flock.

⁵ “Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl.

⁶ “Blessed will you be ^(E)when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.

⁷ “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be ^[g]defeated by you; they will go out against you one way and will flee at your presence seven ways. ⁸ The Lord will command the blessing for you in your ^[h]barns and in ^(F)everything that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. ^9 (G)The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ So all the peoples of the earth will see that ^[i](H)you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. ^11 (I)And the Lord will give you more than enough prosperity, in the ^[j]children of your womb, in the ^[k]offspring of your livestock, and in the ^[l]produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless every work of your hand; and ^(J)you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. ^13 (K)And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only be above, and not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, to ^[m]follow them carefully,

Martha and Mary

³⁸ Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named ^(A)Martha welcomed Him into her home. ³⁹ And she had a sister called ^(B)Mary, who was also ^(C)seated at the Lord’s feet, and was listening to His word. ⁴⁰ But ^(D)Martha was distracted with ^[a]all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do the serving ^[b]by myself? Then tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered and said to her, “^(E)Martha, Martha, you are ^(F)worried and distracted by many things; ^42 (G)but only one thing is necessary; for ^(H)Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Instruction about Prayer

11 It happened that while ^[c]Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” ² And He said to them, “^(I)When you pray, say:

⁵ And He said to them, “^[h]Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶ because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’; ⁷ and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children ^[i]and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet ^(L)because of his ^[j]shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹ “So I say to you, ^[k](M)ask, and it will be given to you; ^[l]seek, and you will find; ^[m]knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. ¹¹ Now ^[n]which one of you fathers will his son ask for a ^[o]fish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake? ¹² Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion? ¹³ So ^(N)if you, despite being ^[p]evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will ^[q]your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Parable of the Sower and Soils

4 Again ^(A)He began to teach ^(B)by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that ^(C)He got into a boat on the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. ² And He was teaching them many things in ^(D)parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ³ “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; ⁴ as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” ⁹ And He was saying, “^(E)He who has ears to hear, ^[a]let him hear.”

¹⁰ As soon as He was alone, ^[b]His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables. ¹¹ And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for ^(F)those who are outside, everything comes ^(G)in parables, ¹² so that ^(H)while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand, otherwise they might return and it would be forgiven them.”

Explanation of the Parable

^13 (I)And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The sower sows the word. ¹⁵ These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately ^(J)Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. ¹⁶ And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ¹⁷ and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they ^[c]fall away. ¹⁸ And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of ^(K)the ^[d]world, and the ^(L)deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it ^[e]becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and ^(M)bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”