The Daily Audio Bible

2 “Then we turned and began traveling into the desert along the road to the Sea of Suf, as Adonai had said to me; and we skirted Mount Se‘ir for a long time. (v) ² Finally Adonai said to me, ³ ‘You have been going around this mountain long enough! Head north, ⁴ and give this order to the people: “You are to pass through the territory of your kinsmen the descendants of ‘Esav who live in Se‘ir. They will be afraid of you, so be very cautious, ⁵ and don’t get into disputes with them; for I am not going to give you any of their land, no, not even enough for one foot to stand on; inasmuch as I have given Mount Se‘ir to ‘Esav as his possession. ⁶ Pay them money for the food you eat, and pay them money for the water you drink. ⁷ For Adonai your God has blessed you in everything your hands have produced. He knows that you have been traveling through this vast desert; these forty years Adonai your God has been with you; and you have lacked nothing.’

⁸ “So we went on past our kinsmen the descendants of ‘Esav living in Se‘ir, left the road through the ‘Aravah from Eilat and ‘Etzyon-Gever, and turned to pass along the road through the desert of Mo’av. ⁹ Adonai said to me, ‘Don’t be hostile toward Mo’av or fight with them, because I will not give you any of their land to possess, since I have already given ‘Ar to the descendants of Lot as their territory.’” ¹⁰ (The Emim used to live there, a great and numerous people as tall as the ‘Anakim. ¹¹ They are also considered Refa’im, as are the ‘Anakim, but the Mo’avim call them Emim. ¹² In Se‘ir the Horim used to live, but the descendants of ‘Esav dispossessed and destroyed them, settling in their place. Isra’el did similarly in the land it came to possess, which Adonai gave to them.) ¹³ “‘Now get going, and cross Vadi Zered!’

“So we crossed Vadi Zered. ¹⁴ The time between our leaving Kadesh-Barnea and our crossing Vadi Zered was thirty-eight years — until the whole generation of men capable of bearing arms had been eliminated from the camp, as Adonai had sworn they would be. ¹⁵ Moreover, Adonai’s hand was against them to root them out of the camp until the last of them was gone. ¹⁶ When all the men who were able to bear arms had died and were no longer part of the people, ¹⁷ Adonai said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to cross the border of Mo’av at ‘Ar. ¹⁹ When you approach the descendants of ‘Amon, don’t bother them or fight with them, for I will not give you any of the territory of the people of ‘Amon to possess, since I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their territory.’”

²⁰ (This too is considered a land of the Refa’im: Refa’im, whom the Emori call Zamzumim, used to live there. ²¹ They were a large, numerous people, as tall as the ‘Anakim; but Adonai destroyed them as the people of ‘Amon advanced and settled in their place — ²² just as he destroyed the Horim as descendants of ‘Esav advanced into Se‘ir and settled in their place, where they live to this day. ²³ It was the same with the ‘Avim, who lived in villages as far away as ‘Azah — the Kaftorim, coming from Kaftor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)

²⁴ “‘Get up, get moving, and cross the Arnon Valley! Here, I have put in your hands Sichon the Emori, king of Heshbon, and his land; commence the conquest, begin the battle! ²⁵ Today I will start putting the fear and dread of you into all the peoples under heaven, so that the mere mention of your name will make them quake and tremble before you.’

²⁶ “I sent envoys from the K’demot Desert to Sichon king of Heshbon with a peaceable message, ²⁷ ‘Let me pass through your land. I will keep to the road, turning neither right nor left. ²⁸ You will sell me food to eat for money and give me water to drink for money. I only want to pass through. ²⁹ Do as the people of ‘Esav living in Se‘ir and the Mo’avim living in ‘Ar did with me, until I cross the Yarden into the land Adonai our God is giving us.’

³⁰ “But Sichon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through his territory, because Adonai your God had hardened his spirit and made him stubborn, so that he could hand him over to you, as is the case today. (vi) ³¹ Adonai said to me, ‘See, I have begun handing over Sichon and his territory before you; start taking possession of his land.’ ³² Then Sichon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Yahatz; ³³ and Adonai our God handed him over to us, so that we defeated him, his sons and all his people. ³⁴ At that time we captured all his cities and completely destroyed every city — men, women, little ones — we left none of them. ³⁵ As booty for ourselves we took only the cattle, along with the spoil from the cities we had captured. ³⁶ From ‘Aro‘er, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and from the city in the valley, all the way to Gil‘ad, there was not one city too well fortified for us to capture — Adonai our God gave all of them to us. ³⁷ The only land you didn’t approach was that of the descendants of ‘Amon — the region around the Yabok River, the cities in the hills and wherever else Adonai our God forbade us to go.

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.

¹² It was around that time that Yeshua went out to the hill country to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. ¹³ When day came, he called his talmidim and chose from among them twelve to be known as emissaries:

¹⁴ Shim‘on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya‘akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai;

¹⁵ Mattityahu; T’oma; Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai;

¹⁶ Shim‘on, the one called the Zealot; Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov; and Y’hudah from K’riot, who turned traitor.

¹⁷ Then he came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his talmidim was there with great numbers of people from all Y’hudah, Yerushalayim and the coast around Tzor and Tzidon; they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases. ¹⁸ Those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being healed; ¹⁹ and the whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power kept going out from him, healing everyone. ²⁰ He looked at his talmidim and said:

²² “How blessed you are whenever people hate you and ostracize you and insult you and denounce you as a criminal on account of the Son of Man. ²³ Be glad when that happens; yes, dance for joy! because in heaven your reward is great. For that is just how their fathers treated the prophets.

²⁶ “Woe to you when people speak well of you, for that is just how their fathers treated the false prophets!

²⁷ Nevertheless, to you who are listening, what I say is this:

³¹ “Treat other people as you would like them to treat you. ³² What credit is it to you if you love only those who love you? Why, even sinners love those who love them. ³³ What credit is it to you if you do good only to those who do good to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ What credit is it to you if you lend only to those who you expect will pay you back? Even sinners lend to each other, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing back! Your reward will be great, and you will be children of Ha‘Elyon; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶ Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.

the full measure, compacted, shaken together and overflowing, will be put right in your lap. For the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure back to you!”