Study Desk

"You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.

"You shall diligently keep [foremost in your thoughts and actively do] the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you.

"When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and judgments (precepts) which the LORD our God has commanded you?'

"So the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear [and worship] the LORD our God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] for our good always and so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today.

"It will be [considered] righteousness for us [that is, right standing with God] if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God—just as He has commanded us.

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cleared away many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant (treaty) with them nor show mercy and compassion to them.

"For you are a holy people [set apart] to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].

"Therefore know [without any doubt] and understand that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who is keeping His covenant and His [steadfast] lovingkindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

"Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the [steadfast] lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.

"And you shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a [deadly] trap to you.

you shall not be afraid of them; you shall remember [with confidence] what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt—

the great trials which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

"Moreover, the LORD your God will send the hornet (His terror) against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

"You shall not dread them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

"The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, for [if you did] the wild animals would become too numerous for you.

"But the LORD your God will hand them over to you, and will confuse them with a great panic until they are destroyed.

"You shall burn the carved and sculpted images of their gods in the fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, so that you will not be ensnared by it [in a deadly trap], for it is an abomination (repulsive) to the LORD your God.

"And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not.

"Therefore, know in your heart (be fully cognizant) that the LORD your God disciplines and instructs you just as a man disciplines and instructs his son.