Shema, O Isra'el... But Are We Really Listening?

²³And I besought Yehovah at that time, saying, ²⁴O Lord Yehovah, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness, and thy strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy mighty acts? ²⁵Let me go over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is beyond the Yarden, that goodly mountain, and L’vanon. ²⁶But Yehovah was wroth with me for your sakes, and hearkened not unto me; and Yehovah said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. ²⁷Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. ²⁸But charge Y’hoshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see. ²⁹So we abode in the valley over against Beit-P’or.

4 And now, O Isra’el, hearken unto the statutes and unto the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which Yehovah, the God of your fathers, giveth you. ²Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you. ³Your eyes have seen what Yehovah did because of Baal-peor; for all the men that followed Ba’al-P’or, Yehovah thy God hath destroyed them from the midst of thee. ⁴But ye that did cleave unto Yehovah your God are alive every one of you this day. ⁵Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yehovah my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the midst of the land whither ye go in to possess it. ⁶Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. ⁷For what great nation is there, that hath a god so nigh unto them, as Yehovah our God is whensoever we call upon him? ⁸And what great nation is there, that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

⁹Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but make them known unto thy children and thy children’s children; ¹⁰the day that thou stoodest before Jehovah thy God in Horeb, when Yehovah said unto me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. ¹¹And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the heart of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ¹²And Yehovah spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form; only ye heard a voice. ¹³And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. ¹⁴And Yehovah commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

¹⁵Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of form on the day that Yehovah spake unto you in Horev out of the midst of the fire; ¹⁶lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flieth in the heavens, ¹⁸the likeness of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; ¹⁹and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yehovah thy God hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰But Yehovah hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as at this day. ²¹Furthermore Yehovah was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over the Yarden, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which Yehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance: ²²but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Yarden; but ye shall go over, and possess that good land. ²³Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of Yehovah your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image in the form of anything which Yehovah thy God hath forbidden thee. ²⁴For Yehovah thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

²⁵When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children, and ye shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yehovah thy God, to provoke him to anger; ²⁶I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over the Yarden to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. ²⁷And Yehovah will scatter you among the peoples, and ye shall be left few in number among the nations, whither Yehovah shall lead you away. ²⁸And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ²⁹But from thence ye shall seek Yehovah thy God, and thou shalt find him, when thou searchest after him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. ³⁰When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days thou shalt return to Yehovah thy God, and hearken unto his voice: ³¹for Yehovah thy God is a merciful God; he will not fail thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

³²For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? ³³Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? ³⁴Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yehovah your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that Yehovah he is God; there is none else besides him. ³⁶Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he made thee to see his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; ³⁸to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as at this day. ³⁹Know therefore this day, and lay it to thy heart, that Yehovah he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. ⁴⁰And thou shalt keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days in the land, which Yehovah thy God giveth thee, for ever.

⁴¹Then Moshe set apart three cities beyond the Yarden toward the sunrising; ⁴²that the manslayer might flee thither, that slayeth his neighbor unawares, and hated him not in time past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live: ⁴³namely, Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Re’uveni; and Ramot in Gil’ad, for the Gadi; and Golan in Bashan, for the M’nashi.

⁴⁴And this is the Torah which Moshe set before the children of Isra’el: ⁴⁵these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moshe spake unto the children of Isra’el, when they came forth out of Egypt, ⁴⁶beyond the Yarden, in the valley over against Beit-P’or, in the land of Sichon king of the Emori, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moshe and the children of Isra’el smote, when they came forth out of Egypt. ⁴⁷And they took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Emori, who were beyond the Yarden toward the sunrising; ⁴⁸from ‘Aro’er, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even unto mount Si’on (the same is Hermon), ⁴⁹and all the ‘Aravah beyond the Yarden eastward, even unto the sea of the ‘Aravah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

5 And Moshe called unto all Isra’el, and said unto them, Hear, O Isra’el, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and observe to do them. ²Yehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horev. ³Yehovah made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. ⁴Yehovah spake with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, ⁵(I stood between Yehovah and you at that time, to show you the word of Yehovah: for ye were afraid because of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,

א

⁶I am Yehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

ב

⁷Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

⁸Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: ⁹thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I, Yehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me; ¹⁰and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my mitzvot.

ג

¹¹Thou shalt not take the name of Yehovah thy God in vain: for Yehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

ד

¹²Observe the Shabbat day, to keep it holy, as Yehovah thy God commanded thee. ¹³Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; ¹⁴but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. ¹⁵And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the Shabbat day.

ה

¹⁶Honor thy father and thy mother, as Jehovah thy God commanded thee; that thy days may be long, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which Yehovah thy God giveth thee.

ו

¹⁷Thou shalt not murder.

ז

¹⁸Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

ח

¹⁹Neither shalt thou steal.

ט

²⁰Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.

י

²¹Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s wife; neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor’s house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor’s.

²²These words Yehovah spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them unto me. ²³And it came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; ²⁴and ye said, Behold, Yehovah our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth speak with man, and he liveth. ²⁵Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of Yehovah our God any more, then we shall die. ²⁶For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷Go thou near, and hear all that Yehovah our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that Jehovah our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.

²⁸And Yehovah heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and Yehovah said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. ²⁹Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my mitzvot always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever! ³⁰Go say to them, Return ye to your tents. ³¹But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the mitzvot, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. ³²Ye shall observe to do therefore as Yehovah your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³Ye shall walk in all the way which Yehovah your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.

6 Now this is the mitzvah, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yehovah your God ordered to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it; ²that thou mightest fear Yehovah thy God, to keep all his statutes and his mitzvot, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. ³Hear therefore, O Isra’el, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as Yehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath promised unto thee, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴Sh’ma, O Isra’el: Yehovah our God is one Yehovah: ⁵and thou shalt love Yehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. ⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; ⁷and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.

¹⁰And it shall be, when Yehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Avraham, to Yitz’chak, and to Ya’akov, to give thee, great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, ¹¹and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and cisterns hewn out, which thou hewedst not, vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt eat and be full; ¹²then beware lest thou forget Yehovah, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ¹³Thou shalt fear Yehovah thy God; and him shalt thou serve, and shalt swear by his name. ¹⁴Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; ¹⁵for Yehovah thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yehovah thy God be kindled against thee, and he destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

¹⁶Ye shall not tempt Yehovah your God, as ye tempted him in Massah. ¹⁷Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of Yehovah your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee. ¹⁸And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of Yehovah; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which Yehovah sware unto thy fathers, ¹⁹to thrust out all thine enemies from before thee, as Yehovah hath spoken.

²⁰When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yehovah our God hath commanded you? ²¹then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt: and Yehovah brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; ²²and Yehovah showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his house, before our eyes; ²³and he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. ²⁴And Yehovah commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yehovah our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. ²⁵And it shall be righteousness unto us, if we observe to do all this mitzvot before Yehovah our God, as he hath commanded us.

7 When Yehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before thee, the Hitti, and the Girgashi, and the Emori, and the Kena’ani, and the P’rizi, and the Hivi, and the Y’vusi, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; ²and when Yehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them; ³neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. ⁴For he will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Yehovah be kindled against you, and he will destroy thee quickly. ⁵But thus shall ye deal with them: ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.

⁶For thou art a holy people unto Yehovah thy God: Yehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth. ⁷Yehovah did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all peoples: ⁸but because Yehovah loveth you, and because he would keep the oath which he sware unto your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know therefore that Yehovah thy God, he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his mitzvot to a thousand generations, ¹⁰and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. ¹¹Thou shalt therefore keep the mitzvot, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command thee this day, to do them.