Study Desk

The Egyptians made it hard for us. They brought us much trouble and made us work very hard.

"When you have finished paying all the tenth of the food you received in the third year, the year of giving a tenth, then give it to the Levite, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died. So they may eat it in your towns and be filled.

"Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin will stand on Mount Gerizim when you cross the Jordan. They will pray that good will come to the people.

"The Lord will cause you to win the battles against those who fight against you. They will come against you one way, and run away from you seven ways.

Then all the nations of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will be afraid of you.

The Lord will punish you with a wasting disease, a hot sickness, growing pain, heat like fire, the sword, and diseases that destroy your food. They will follow you until you die.

You will have sons and daughters, but you will not keep them, for they will be taken away.

All these curses will come upon you. They will follow you and come upon you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping all the Laws He gave you.

They will be something special to see, and a powerful work upon you and your children forever.

He will bring all the diseases upon you that you were afraid of in Egypt. And they will stay with you.

You have seen their sinful things and their gods of wood, stone, silver and gold, which they had with them.

"The children to come, your sons who grow up after you, and the stranger who comes from a land far away, will see the troubles and diseases the Lord has sent upon the land. And they will say,

They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they had not known and whom He had not given to them.

Gather together the people in your town, the men and the women, the children, and the stranger. So they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God. Be careful to obey all the words of this Law.

And the Lord said to Moses, "See, you will soon die and be with your fathers. Then these people will soon act like a woman who sells the use of her body. They will follow the strange gods of the land where they are going. They will turn away from Me and break My agreement which I have made with them.

Then My anger will burn against them. I will leave them alone and hide My face from them and they will be destroyed. Many hard things and big troubles will come upon them. So they will say in that day, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not with us?'

For when I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised to their fathers, and they eat and are filled and have become rich, they will turn to other gods and serve them. They will turn against Me and break My agreement.

When many hard things and big troubles come upon them, this song will speak for Me against them. It will not be forgotten from the lips of their children and their children's children. I know the plans they are making today, before I have brought them into the land I promised them."

They have acted in sin toward Him, but they are not His children, because the mark of sin is on them. They are a bad and sinful people.

Remember the days long ago. Think of the years of all people. Ask your father and he will show you. Ask your leaders. They will tell you.