Study Desk

these are the testimonies (legal provisions) and the statutes and the judgments which Moses spoke to the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

beyond the Jordan in the Valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel defeated when they came out from Egypt.

They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who reigned across the Jordan to the east,

"The LORD heard your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken.

'Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear [and worship Me with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] and keep all My commandments always, so that it may go well with them and with their children forever!

'But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, so that they may obey them in the land which I give them to possess.'

"And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (forearm), and they shall be used as bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead.

for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled and burn against you and He will quickly destroy you.

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

"Furthermore, the LORD said to me, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, they are stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) people.

'Let Me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

'Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.'

"Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and they are there, just as the LORD commanded me."

From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

"Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.'

and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how the LORD completely destroyed them;

"Therefore, you shall impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead.

beware that you are not lured (ensnared) into following them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods, so that I too may do likewise?'

"You shall not behave this way toward the LORD your God, for they have done for their gods every repulsive thing which the LORD hates; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [as sacrifices] to their gods.

"However, you are not to eat any of these [animals] among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel, the hare and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not split the hoof; they are unclean for you.