^11 (A)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(B)what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to ^(C)love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today ^(D)for your ^[a]good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the ^(E)Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their ^[b]descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your ^(F)heart, and be ^(G)stiff-necked^[c] no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(H)God of gods and ^(I)Lord of lords, the great God, ^(J)mighty and awesome, who ^(K)shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ^18 (L)He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ^20 (M)You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

One Kingdom, One King

¹⁵ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ¹⁶ “As for you, son of man, ^(A)take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for ^(B)the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ ¹⁷ Then ^(C)join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.

¹⁸ “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ^(D)‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’— ^19 (E)say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take ^(F)the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.” ’ ²⁰ And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand ^(G)before their eyes.

²¹ “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely ^(H)I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; ²² and ^(I)I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ^(J)one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. ^23 (K)They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but ^(L)I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

^24 (M)“David My servant shall be king over them, and ^(N)they shall all have one shepherd; ^(O)they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. ^25 (P)Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, ^(Q)forever; and ^(R)My servant David shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ Moreover I will ^[a]make ^(S)a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and ^(T)multiply them, and I will set My ^(U)sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ^27 (V)My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be ^(W)their God, and they shall be My people. ^28 (X)The nations also will know that I, the Lord, ^(Y)sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” ’ ”

The King of Righteousness^(A)

7 For this ^(B)Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, ² to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” ³ without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.

⁴ Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the ^[a]spoils. ⁵ And indeed ^(C)those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; ⁶ but he whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham ^(D)and blessed ^(E)him who had the promises. ⁷ Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. ⁸ Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, ^(F)of whom it is witnessed that he lives. ⁹ Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, ¹⁰ for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.