Study Desk

All over the land that the Lord your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down,

A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.

There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the Lord your God, only a few of you will be left.

The Lord is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.

You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return.

Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, "I wish it were night!" But at night you will be terrified and say, "I wish it were day!"

I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the Lord himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.

So Moses finished telling the Israelites what they had to do in order to keep the agreement the Lord was making with them in Moab, which was in addition to the one the Lord had made with them at Mount Sinai. Moses called the nation of Israel together and told them: When you were in Egypt, you saw the Lord perform great miracles that caused trouble for the king, his officials, and everyone else in the country. He has even told you, "For forty years I, the Lord , led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn't wear out, and I gave you special food. I did these things so you would realize that I am your God." But the Lord must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard. When we first camped here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked, but we defeated them. Then we captured their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. Moses said: Israel, the Lord has made an agreement with you, and if you keep your part, you will be successful in everything you do. Today everyone in our nation is standing here in the Lord 's presence, including leaders and officials, parents and children, and even those foreigners who cut wood and carry water for us. We are at this place of worship to promise that we will keep our part of the agreement with the Lord our God. In this agreement, the Lord promised that you would be his people and that he would be your God. He first made this promise to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and today the Lord is making this same promise to you. But it isn't just for you; it is also for your descendants. When we lived in Egypt, you saw the Egyptians worship disgusting idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. Then as we traveled through other nations, you saw those people worship other disgusting idols. So make sure that everyone in your tribe remains faithful to the Lord and never starts worshiping gods of other nations. If even one of you worships idols, you will be like the root of a plant that produces bitter, poisonous fruit. You may be an Israelite and know all about the Lord 's agreement with us, but he won't bless you if you rebel against him. You may think you can get away with it, but you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you. The Lord will be furious, and instead of forgiving you, he will separate you from the other tribes. Then he will destroy you, by piling on you all the curses in The Book of God's Law, and you will be forgotten forever. The Lord will strike your country with diseases and disasters. Your descendants and foreigners from distant countries will see that your land has become a scorching desert of salt and sulfur, where nothing is planted, nothing sprouts, and nothing grows. It will be as lifeless as the land around the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, after the Lord became angry and destroyed them. People from other nations will ask, "Why did the Lord destroy this country? Why was he so furious?" And they will be given this answer: Our ancestors worshiped the Lord , but after he brought them out of Egypt and made an agreement with them, they rejected the agreement and decided to worship gods that had never helped them. The Lord had forbidden Israel to worship these gods, and so he became furious and punished the land with all the curses in The Book of God's Law. Then he pulled up Israel by the roots and tossed them into a foreign country, where they still are today. The Lord our God hasn't explained the present or the future, but he has commanded us to obey the laws he gave to us and our descendants.

He has even told you, "For forty years I, the Lord , led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn't wear out, and I gave you special food. I did these things so you would realize that I am your God." But the Lord must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard.

When we first camped here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked, but we defeated them.

In this agreement, the Lord promised that you would be his people and that he would be your God. He first made this promise to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and today the Lord is making this same promise to you. But it isn't just for you; it is also for your descendants.

You may be an Israelite and know all about the Lord 's agreement with us, but he won't bless you if you rebel against him. You may think you can get away with it, but you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.

And they will be given this answer: Our ancestors worshiped the Lord , but after he brought them out of Egypt and made an agreement with them, they rejected the agreement

The Lord our God hasn't explained the present or the future, but he has commanded us to obey the laws he gave to us and our descendants.

Moses said to Israel: I have told you everything the Lord your God will do for you, and I've also told you the curses he will put on you if you reject him. He will scatter you in faraway countries, but when you realize that he is punishing you,

Then he will stop punishing you and treat you with kindness. He may have scattered you to the farthest countries on earth, but he will bring you back

You and your descendants are stubborn, but the Lord will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life.

But you must decide once and for all to worship him with all your heart and soul and to obey everything in The Book of God's Law.

But he has promised that he and Joshua will lead you across the Jordan to attack the nations that live on the other side. The Lord will destroy those nations just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, those two Amorite kings. Just remember—whenever you capture a place, kill everyone who lives there.

The Lord said: Moses, you will soon die. But Israel is going into a land where other gods are worshiped, and Israel will reject me and start worshiping these gods. The people will break the agreement I made with them,