Study Desk

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

"For the LORD your God is a merciful and compassionate God; He will not fail you, nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

"Or has any [man-made] god ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes?

"So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am commanding you today, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may live long on the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all time."

Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

"I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said,

'You shall not make for yourself an idol [as an object to worship], or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

'You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the LORD will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].

'Honor (respect, obey, care for) your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days [on the earth] may be prolonged and so that it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

'Now then why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer, then we will die.

'For who is there of all flesh (mankind) who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

'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.'

for the LORD your God who is among you is a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]—otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled and burn against you, and He will destroy you from the face of the earth.

"So the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear [and worship] the LORD our God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect] for our good always and so that He might preserve us alive, as it is today.

"It will be [considered] righteousness for us [that is, right standing with God] if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God—just as He has commanded us.

"You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son;

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.

"For you are a holy people [set apart] to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].

"The LORD did not love you and choose you because you were greater in number than any of the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.