Weekly Torah Readings: Eikev
(from One New Man Bible translated by William Morford)
Eikev
7:12. “Therefore it will be because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them that the LORD* your God will keep the covenant and the loving kindness for you which He swore to your fathers, 13. and He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land, your grain and your wine, and your oil, the increase of your cows, and the multiplication of your sheep, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. 14. You will be blessed above all people: there will not be male or female barren among your cattle. 15. And the LORD* will take away from you all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, upon you, but will lay them upon all who hate you.
7:16. “And you will consume all the peoples that the LORD* your God will deliver to you. Your eye will have no pity upon them, neither will you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. 17. If you will say in your heart, ‘These nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them?’ 18. You will not be afraid of them, but will well remember what the LORD* your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt;
19. the great temptations which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm whereby the LORD* your God brought you out: so will the LORD* your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20. Moreover the LORD* your God will send the hornet (Exod. 7:20, Josh. 24:12) among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21. You will not be afraid of them, for the LORD* your God is among you, a mighty and awesome God. 22. And the LORD* your God will put out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon you. 23. But the LORD* your God will deliver them to you and will destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they are destroyed. 24. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their names from under heaven: no man will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 25. You will burn the graven images of their gods with fire. You will not desire the silver or gold on them, or take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by them, for it is an abomination to the LORD* your God. 26. Neither will you bring an abomination into your house, lest you become a cursed thing like it, but you will utterly detest it and you will utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing.”
Do All the Commandments
8.1. “You will observe all the commandments which I command you this day to do them, so you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD* swore to your fathers. 2. And you will remember all the Way which the LORD* your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. 3. And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you had not known, neither did your fathers know, so He could make you know that man does not live by bread alone, (Luke 4:4) but man lives by everything that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD*. (Matt. 4:4) 4. Your clothes did not wear out upon you; neither did your foot swell these forty years. 5. You will also consider in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD* your God disciplines you. 6. Therefore you will keep the commandments of the LORD* your God, to walk in His Ways and to revere Him. 7. For the LORD* your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8. a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9. a land in which you will eat bread without scarceness. You will not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig bronze. 10. When you have eaten and are full, then you will bless the LORD* your God for the good land which He has given you. 11. Beware for yourself that you do not forget the LORD* your God, by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you this day 12. lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and lived in them; 13. and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14. then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the LORD* your God, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, 15. Who led you through that great and awesome wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water, Who brought forth water for you out of the rock of flint; 16. Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, so He could humble you, and so He could prove you, to do you good at your latter end, 17. and you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth. 18. But you will remember the LORD* your God, for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth, so He can establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
8:19. “And it will be, if you do at all forget the LORD* your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you will surely perish. 20. Like the nations that the LORD* destroys before your face, so you will perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD* your God.”
Cross the Jordan Today!
9.1. “Listen! Obey, O Israel! You are to cross the Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, 2. a people great and tall, the children of the giants, whom you know and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak? 3. Understand therefore this day that the LORD* your God is He Who Goes Over Before You. He will destroy them like a consuming fire, (Heb. 12:29) and He will bring them down before your face so you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD* has said to you. 4. Do not say in your heart, after the LORD* your God has cast them out from before you saying, ‘The LORD* has brought me in to possess this land because of my acts of loving kindness,’ and the LORD* drives them out from before you because of the wickedness of these nations. 5. It is not for your acts of loving kindness, or for the uprightness of your heart, that you go to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations. The LORD* your God drives them out from before you, and so He can perform the word which the LORD* swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6. Understand therefore, that the LORD* your God does not give you this good land to possess it because of your acts of loving kindness, for you are a stiff-necked people. 7. Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD* your God to anger! In the wilderness from the day that you left the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD*. 8. Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD* to anger, so that the LORD* was so angry with you as to have destroyed you. 9. When I was up on the mountain to take the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD* made with you, and I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, I neither ate bread nor drank water 10. and the LORD* delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them was written according to all the words which the LORD* spoke with you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly 11. and it was at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD* gave me two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
9:12. “And the LORD* said to me, ‘Rise! Come down quickly from here for your people that you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the Way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ 13. Furthermore the LORD* spoke to. me saying, ‘I have seen this people and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: 14. let Me alone, so I can destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven and I shall make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
9:15. “So I turned and came down from the mountain and the mountain burned with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16. And I looked and, behold, you had sinned against the LORD* your God, making a molten calf for yourselves: you had turned aside quickly from the Way which the LORD* had commanded you. 17. And I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18. Then I fell down before the LORD*, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sins which you sinned in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD*, to provoke Him to anger. 19. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD* was angry against you to destroy you. But the LORD* hearkened to me at that time also. 20. And the LORD* was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him, and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. 21. And I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as small as dust, and I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain. 22. And at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibrot Hattaavah, you provoked the LORD* to anger. 23. Likewise when the LORD* sent you from Kadesh Barnea saying, ‘Go up! Possess the land which I have given you!’ Then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD* your God and you did not believe Him, or heed His voice. 24. You have been rebellious against the LORD* from the day that I knew you. 25. Thus I fell down before the LORD* forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first, because the LORD* had said He would destroy you. 26. I prayed therefore to the LORD* and said, LORD* God, do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, which You have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! Do not look to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or to their sin! 28. Lest the land from which you brought us says, ‘Because the LORD* was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.’ 29. Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance that You brought out by Your mighty power and by your outstretched arm.”
Second Set of Statements
10.1. “At that time the LORD* said to me, ‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and come up to Me on the mountain and make an Ark of wood for yourself. 2. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you have broken and you will put them in the Ark.’ 3. And I made an Ark of acacia wood and hewed two stone tablets like the first and went up on the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. 4. And He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten statements, which the LORD* spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly: and the LORD* gave them to me. 5. And I turned myself and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the Ark which I had made, and there they are, as the LORD* commanded me.
10:6. “And the children of Israel journeyed from Beerot of the children of Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried there, and Elazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead. 7. From there they journeyed to Gudgodah and from Gudgodah to Jotbah, a land of rivers of water. 8. At that time the LORD* separated the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD*, to stand before the LORD* to minister to Him and to bless in His name to this day. 9. Therefore Levi has no part or inheritance with his brothers; the LORD* is his inheritance, according as the LORD* your God spoke to him. 10. And I stayed on the mountain, like the first time, forty days and forty nights and the LORD* listened to me at that time also, and the LORD* would not destroy you. 11. And the LORD* said to me, ‘Arise, take your journey before the people, so they can come in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’”
What Does God Require?
10:12. “And now, Israel, what does the LORD* your God ask of you, but to revere the LORD* your God, to walk in all His Ways, to love Him, and to serve the LORD* your God with all your heart and with your entire being, 13. to keep the commandments of the LORD* and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good? (Mic. 6:8) 14. Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens are the LORD’s*; your God, the earth also, with all that is in it. 15. Only the LORD* had a delight in your fathers to love them and He chose their seed after them, above all people, as at this day. 16. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and no longer be stiff necked. 17. For the LORD* your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, (Rev. 19:16) a great, a mighty, and an awesome God, Who does not show favoritism or take a bribe, (Rom. 2:11, Col. 3:25, Rev. 17:14) 18. executing judgment for the fatherless and widow, and loving the stranger, in giving him food and clothing. 19. Therefore you will love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20. You will revere the LORD* your God. You will serve Him and you will cleave to Him and swear by His name. 21. He is your praise and He is your God, Who has done these great and awesome things for you, which your eyes have seen. 22. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy people and now the LORD* your God has made you as the stars of heaven for multitude.”
Love the LORD* Your God
11.1. “Therefore you will always love the LORD* your God and keep His ordinances, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments. 2. And know this day, it is your children who have not known and who have not seen the chastisement of the LORD* your God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm, 3. His miracles and His acts, which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land: 4. and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and to its chariots, how He made the water of the Reed Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you and the LORD* has destroyed them to this day: 5. and what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place: 6. and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up them, their households, their tents, and all the substance at their feet, in the midst of all Israel: 7. but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD* which He did. 8. Therefore you will keep all the commandments which I command you this day, so you can be strong and come in and possess the land which you are crossing to possess: 9. and so you can prolong your days in the land, which the LORD* swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land that flows with milk and honey.”
Promised Land
11:10. “For the land where you are going in to possess it is not like the land of Egypt from where you came out, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, like a garden of herbs, 11. but the land where you are passing through to possess it is a land of hills and valleys and it drinks water with the rain of heaven, 12. aland which the LORD* your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD* your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.”
Sh’ma, Part 2
11:13. “And it will be, if you will listen diligently to My commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD* your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with your entire being, 14. that I shall give you the rain of your land in its due season, the first rain and the latter rain, so you can gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. 15. And I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle so you can eat and be full. 16. Take heed to yourselves, so your heart will not be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.”
11:17. “Then the LORD’s* wrath would be kindled against you and He would shut up the heavens so there would be no rain, and so the land would not yield its fruit, and you would perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD* gives you.
11:18. “Therefore you will lay up these my words in your heart and in your inner being, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, so they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 19. And you will teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20. And you will write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates, 21. so your days and the days of your children will be multiplied in the land which the LORD* swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.”
If You Obey the Sh’ma
11:22. “For if you will diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them; to love the LORD* your God, to walk in all His Ways and to cleave to Him, 23. then the LORD* will drive out all these nations from before you and you will possess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. 24. Every place on which the soles of your feet tread will be yours, from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea will your border be. 25. Therefore no man will be able to stand before you. The LORD* your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you will tread upon, as He has said to you.”
Next week’s Torah readings: R’eh