Study Desk

"You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

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

"But the LORD your God will turn them over to you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.

'Leave Me alone, 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 brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.'

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

From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

"Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, proceed 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 them.'

and what He did to Egypt's army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the LORD completely eliminated them;

"You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from your presence, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?'

"You shall not behave this way toward the LORD your God, because every abominable act which the LORD hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods.

"However, you are not to eat these among the ones that chew the cud, or among those that have the hoof divided in two: the camel, the rabbit, and the rock hyrax, for though they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are unclean to you.

"And all the swarming insects with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten.

"For the LORD your God will have blessed you just as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

"Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths; and they are not to appear before the LORD empty-handed.

"You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

"So you shall come to the Levitical priests or the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict.

"Then you shall act in accordance with the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from that place which the LORD chooses; and you shall be careful to act in accordance with everything that they instruct you to do.

"In accordance with the terms of the law about which they instruct you, and in accordance with the verdict which they tell you, you shall act; you shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you, to the right or the left.