The Covenant in Moab

1These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

2And Moses summoned 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 all his land; 3the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. 4Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. 5I 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. 6You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am the Lord your God. 7When you reached this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we defeated them; 8and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9So keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

10“You stand today, all of you, before the Lord your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, 12that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

14“Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, 15but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here today 16(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; 17moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); 18so that there will not 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 those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. 19It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ 20The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21Then the Lord will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.

22“Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it, will say, 23‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ 24All the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ 25Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. 27Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; 28and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

29“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

Restoration Promised

1“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, 2and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, 3then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. 5The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

6“Moreover 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. 7The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. 9Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; 10if you obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

11“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 13Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ 14But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

Choose Life

15“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; 16in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

Woes upon the Pharisees

37Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. 38When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. 39But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. 40You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

42“But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. 44Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

45One of the lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” 46But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. 48So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. 49For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, 50so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ 52Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

53When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, 54plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say.

God Knows and Cares

1Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 3Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

4“I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! 6Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

PSALM 78

God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.

A Maskil of Asaph.

1Listen, O my people, to my instruction;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings of old,

3Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

4We will not conceal them from their children,

But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,

And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

5For He established a testimony in Jacob

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they should teach them to their children,

6That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,

That they may arise and tell them to their children,

7That they should put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments,

8And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows,

Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

10They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk in His law;

11They forgot His deeds

And His miracles that He had shown them.

12He wrought wonders before their fathers

In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13He divided the sea and caused them to pass through,

And He made the waters stand up like a heap.

14Then He led them with the cloud by day

And all the night with a light of fire.

15He split the rocks in the wilderness

And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.

16He brought forth streams also from the rock

And caused waters to run down like rivers.

17Yet they still continued to sin against Him,

To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

18And in their heart they put God to the test

By asking food according to their desire.

19Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

20Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out,

And streams were overflowing;

Can He give bread also?

Will He provide meat for His people?”

21Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath;

And a fire was kindled against Jacob

And anger also mounted against Israel,

22Because they did not believe in God

And did not trust in His salvation.

23Yet He commanded the clouds above

And opened the doors of heaven;

24He rained down manna upon them to eat

And gave them food from heaven.

25Man did eat the bread of angels;

He sent them food in abundance.

26He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens

And by His power He directed the south wind.

27When He rained meat upon them like the dust,

Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas,

28Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp,

Round about their dwellings.

29So they ate and were well filled,

And their desire He gave to them.

30Before they had satisfied their desire,

While their food was in their mouths,

31The anger of God rose against them

And killed some of their stoutest ones,

And subdued the choice men of Israel.

19Truthful lips will be established forever,

But a lying tongue is only for a moment.

20Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,

But counselors of peace have joy.