The Daily Audio Bible

9 “Listen, Isra’el! You are to cross the Yarden today, to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, great cities fortified up to the sky; ² a people great and tall, the ‘Anakim, whom you know about and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of ‘Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that Adonai your God will himself cross ahead of you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them and bring them down before you. Thus will you drive them out and cause them to perish quickly, as Adonai has said to you.

(iii) ⁴ “Don’t think to yourself, after your God has pushed them out ahead of you, ‘It is to reward my righteousness that Adonai has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ No, it is because these nations have been so wicked that Adonai is driving them out ahead of you. ⁵ It is not because of your righteousness, or because your heart is so upright, that you go in to take possession of their land; but to punish the wickedness of these nations that Adonai your God is driving them out ahead of you, and also to confirm the word which Adonai swore to your ancestors, Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov. ⁶ Therefore, understand that it is not for your righteousness that Adonai your God is giving you this good land to possess.

“For you are a stiffnecked people! ⁷ Remember, don’t forget, how you made Adonai your God angry in the desert. From the day you left the land of Egypt till you arrived at this place, you have been rebelling against Adonai. ⁸ Also in Horev you made Adonai angry — Adonai was angry enough with you to destroy you! ⁹ I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets on which was written the covenant Adonai had made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights without eating food or drinking water. ¹⁰ Then Adonai gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God; and on them was written every word Adonai had said to you from the fire on the mountain the day of the assembly. ¹¹ Yes, after forty days and nights Adonai gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then Adonai said to me, ‘Get up, and hurry down from here, because your people, whom you led out of Egypt, have become corrupt. So quickly have they turned aside from the way I ordered them to follow! They have made themselves a metal image!’ ¹³ Moreover, Adonai said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and what a stiffnecked people they are! ¹⁴ Let me alone, so that I can put an end to them and blot out their name from under heaven! I will make out of you a nation bigger and stronger than they.’ ¹⁵ I came down from the mountain. The mountain was blazing fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ I looked, and there, you had sinned against Adonai your God! You had made yourselves a metal calf, you had turned aside quickly from the way Adonai had ordered you to follow. ¹⁷ I seized the two tablets, threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I fell down before Adonai, as I had the first time, for forty days and nights, during which time I neither ate food nor drank water, all because of the sin you committed by doing what was evil in the sight of Adonai and thus provoking him. ¹⁹ I was terrified that because of how angry Adonai was at you, of how heatedly displeased he was, that he would destroy you. But Adonai listened to me that time too. ²⁰ In addition, Adonai was very angry with Aharon and would have destroyed him; but I prayed for Aharon also at the same time. ²¹ I took your sin, the calf you had made, and burned it up in the fire, beat it to pieces, and ground it up still smaller, until it was as fine as dust; then I threw its dust into the stream coming down from the mountain.

²² “Again at Tav‘erah, Massah and Kivrot-HaTa’avah you made Adonai angry; ²³ and when Adonai sent you off from Kadesh-Barnea by saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land I have given you,’ you rebelled against the order of Adonai your God — you neither trusted him nor heeded what he said. ²⁴ You have been rebelling against Adonai from the day I first knew you!

²⁵ “So I fell down before Adonai for those forty days and nights; and I lay there; because Adonai had said he would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to Adonai ; I said, ‘Adonai Elohim! Don’t destroy your people, your inheritance! You redeemed them through your greatness, you brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand! ²⁷ Remember your servants Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov! Don’t focus on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or on their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise, the land you brought us out of will say, “It is because Adonai wasn’t able to bring them into the land he promised them and because he hated them that he has brought them out to kill them in the desert.” ²⁹ But in fact they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.’

10 (iv) “At that time Adonai said to me, ‘Cut yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, come up to me on the mountain, and make yourself an ark of wood. ² I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark of acacia-wood and cut two stone tablets like the first, then climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ He inscribed the tablets with the same inscription as before, the Ten Words which Adonai proclaimed to you from the fire on the mountain the day of the assembly; and Adonai gave them to me. ⁵ I turned, came down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made; and there they remain; as Adonai ordered me.

⁶ “The people of Isra’el traveled from the wells of B’nei-Ya‘akan to Moserah, where Aharon died and was buried; and El‘azar his son took his place, serving in the office of cohen. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgod, and from Gudgod to Yotvatah, a region with running streams. ⁸ At that time Adonai set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark for the covenant of Adonai and to stand before Adonai to serve him and to bless in his name, as they still do today. ⁹ This is why Levi has no share or inheritance with his brothers; Adonai is his inheritance, as Adonai your God had said to him.

¹⁰ “I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights, as previously; and Adonai listened to me that time too — Adonai would not destroy you. ¹¹ Then Adonai said to me, ‘Get up, and go on your way at the head of the people, so that they can enter and take possession of the land I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.’

(v) ¹² “So now, Isra’el, all that Adonai your God asks from you is to fear Adonai your God, follow all his ways, love him and serve Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being; ¹³ to obey, for your own good, the mitzvot and regulations of Adonai which I am giving you today. ¹⁴ See, the sky, the heaven beyond the sky, the earth and everything on it all belong to Adonai your God. ¹⁵ Only Adonai took enough pleasure in your ancestors to love them and choose their descendants after them — yourselves — above all peoples, as he still does today. ¹⁶ Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart; and don’t be stiffnecked any longer! ¹⁷ For Adonai your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty and awesome God, who has no favorites and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; he loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore you are to love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You are to fear Adonai your God, serve him, cling to him and swear by his name. ²¹ He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which you have seen with your own eyes. ²² Your ancestors went down into Egypt with only seventy people, but now Adonai your God has made your numbers as many as the stars in the sky!

⁴ After a large crowd had gathered from the people who kept coming to him from town after town, Yeshua told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path and was stepped on, and the birds flying around ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rock; and after it sprouted, it dried up from lack of moisture. ⁷ Some fell in the midst of thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸ But some fell into rich soil, and grew, and produced a hundred times as much as had been sown.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”

⁹ His talmidim asked him what this parable might mean, ¹⁰ and he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but the rest are taught in parables, so that they may look but not see, and listen but not understand.^[a]

¹¹ “The parable is this: the seed is God’s message. ¹² The ones along the path are those who hear, but then the Adversary comes and takes the message out of their hearts, in order to keep them from being saved by trusting it. ¹³ The ones on rock are those who, when they hear the word, accept it with joy; but these have no root — they go on trusting for awhile; but when a time of testing comes, they apostatize. ¹⁴ As for what fell in the midst of thorns these are the ones who hear; but as they go along, worries and wealth and life’s gratifications crowd in and choke them, so that their fruit never matures. ¹⁵ But what fell in rich soil — these are the ones who, when they hear the message, hold onto it with a good, receptive heart; and by persevering, they bring forth a harvest.

¹⁶ “No one who has lit a lamp covers it with a bowl or puts it under a bed; no, he puts it on a stand; so that those coming in may see the light. ¹⁷ For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nothing is covered up that will not be known and come out into the open. ¹⁸ Pay attention, then, to how you hear! For anyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he seems to have will be taken away.”

¹⁹ Then Yeshua’s mother and brothers came to see him, but they couldn’t get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ It was reported to him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and want to see you.” ²¹ But he gave them this answer: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s message and act on it!”