Study Desk

“When you have finished paying all the tenth of your produce in the third year, the year of the tenth, you are to give it to the Levites, resident aliens, fatherless children and widows, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you bear the Lord’s name, and they will stand in awe of you.

You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will be taken prisoner.

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and your land’s produce until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, fresh oil, young of your herds, or newborn of your flocks until they cause you to perish.

They will besiege you within all your city gates until your high and fortified walls, that you trust in, come down throughout your land. They will besiege you within all your city gates throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

He will afflict you again with all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

The Lord uprooted them from their land in his anger, rage, and intense wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.’

Gather the people—men, women, dependents, and the resident aliens within your city gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law.

The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon me and break the covenant I have made with them.

My anger will burn against them on that day; I will abandon them and hide my face from them so that they will become easy prey. Many troubles and afflictions will come to them. On that day they will say, ‘Haven’t these troubles come to us because our God is no longer with us?’

When I bring them into the land I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. They will turn to other gods and worship them, despising me and breaking my covenant.

And when many troubles and afflictions come to them, this song will testify against them, because their descendants will not have forgotten it. For I know what they are prone to do, even before I bring them into the land I swore to give them.”

His people have acted corruptly toward him;this is their defect—they are not his childrenbut a devious and crooked generation.

Remember the days of old;consider the years of past generations.Ask your father, and he will tell you,your elders, and they will teach you.

They will be weak from hunger,ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;I will unleash on them wild beasts with fangs,as well as venomous snakes that slither in the dust.

For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Indeed he loves the people.All your holy ones are in your hand,and they assemble at your feet.Each receives your words.

He said about his father and mother,“I do not regard them.”He disregarded his brothersand didn’t acknowledge his sons,for they kept your wordand maintained your covenant.

Lord, bless his possessions,and accept the work of his hands.Break the back of his adversaries and enemies,so that they cannot rise again.

until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they too possess the land the Lord your God is giving them. You may then return to the land of your inheritance and take possession of what Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on the east side of the Jordan.”