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Renewal of the Covenant
29 These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.
2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel, and said to them:
You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants and to all his land— 3 the great temptations which your eyes have seen, those signs and great wonders. 4 Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. 6 You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the Lord your God.
7 When you came to this place, Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and to half of the tribe of Manasseh.
9 Therefore, keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may prosper in all you do. 10 Today all of you stand before the Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and your foreigners who are in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water— 12 so that you should enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today. 13 Today He will establish that you are His people and that He is your God, just as He has said to you and He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant and this oath, 15 but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, and with him who is not here with us today 16 (for you know that we lived in the land of Egypt and how we came through the nations which you passed by, 17 and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them); 18 lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations, and lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit; 19 and it happens that, when he hears the words of this covenant, he blesses himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” thus destroying the watered ground with the dry. 20 The Lord will not spare him; rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will smolder against that man. All the curses that are written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single him out for disaster out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law.
22 The generation to come, your children who will rise up after you and the foreigner who will come from a far land, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it, will say, 23 “The whole land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and wrath.” 24 All nations will say, “Why has the Lord done such to this land? What does the heatedness of this great anger mean?”
25 Then men will say, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods which they did not know and which He had not given to them. 27 The anger of the Lord burned against this land, bringing on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28 The Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation, and threw them into another land, as it is today.”
29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may keep all the words of this law.
The Promise of Restoration
30 When all these things happen to you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you remember them among all the nations, where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 then you must return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul. 3 Then the Lord your God will overturn your captivity and have compassion on you and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and from there He will get you. 5 The Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on them who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 You will return and obey the voice of the Lord, and obey all His commandments which I am commanding you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you prosper in every work of your hand, in the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your land, for good. For the Lord will once again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, by keeping His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
11 This commandment which I am commanding you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?” 13 It is not beyond the sea, so that you should say, “Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?” 14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, so that you may do it.
15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, and death and disaster. 16 What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. Then the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away, so that you do not obey, but are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 then I declare to you today that you will surely perish and that you will not prolong your days in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to go in and possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witnesses against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.
The Denouncing of the Pharisees and Lawyers(A)
37 As He spoke, a Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. 38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.
39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish. But inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give alms from what is within. And then all things are clean to you.
42 “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb and pass over justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
43 “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the prominent seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
44 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unseen graves, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
45 One of the lawyers answered, “Teacher, by saying these things You insult us also.”
46 He said, “Woe to you also, you lawyers! For you load men with burdens difficult to carry, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 So you are witnesses and entirely approve the deeds of your fathers, because they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the beginning of the world, may be required from this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required from this generation.
52 “Woe to you, lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
53 As He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to incite Him vehemently and angrily draw Him out concerning many things, 54 lying in wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.
A Warning Against Hypocrisy
12 Meanwhile, when thousands of the crowd were assembled, so as to trample on one another, He began to say to His disciples first, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore what you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. And what you have whispered in the ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Whom to Fear(B)
4 “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that can do no more. 5 But I will warn you whom you shall fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him. 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies[a]? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows.
Psalm 78
A Contemplative Maskil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter insightful sayings of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but will tell the coming generation
the praises of the Lord,
and His strength, and the wonderful works that He has done.
5 For He established a rule in Jacob,
and appointed a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
that they should make them known to their children,
6 that the generation to come might know them,
even the children who are not yet born,
who will arise and declare them to their children:
7 that they might set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep His commandments,
8 and they might not be as their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not set their heart steadfast,
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The people of Ephraim, being armed with bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to walk in His law;
11 and they forgot His works
and the wonders that He had shown them.
12 In the sight of their ancestors He did marvelous wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,
and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them abundance to drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams out of the rock
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 They sinned yet more against Him
by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food that they craved.
19 They spoke against God by saying,
“Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out
and the streams overflowed.
Can He give bread
or provide meat for His people?”
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against Israel,
22 because they did not believe in God
nor trust in His deliverance.
23 Yet He had commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and He rained down manna upon them to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Man ate the food of mighty angels;
He sent them bread in abundance.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by His power He brought out a south wind.
27 He rained meat on them as dust,
and winged birds as the sand of the sea;
28 and He let them fall in the midst of their camp
all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were satisfied,
for He gave them their own desire;
30 while they were not yet filled up,
and while the meat was still in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them,
and He killed the strongest of them
and struck down the young men of Israel.
19 The truthful lip will be established forever,
but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
20 Deceit is in the heart of those who imagine evil,
but to the counselors of peace is joy.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.