Study Desk

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

for the LORD your God who is in the midst of you is a jealous God; so follow Him, or else the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

and when the LORD your God turns them over to you and you defeat them, you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them nor be gracious to them.

"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

"Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments;

"You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will turn over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

"You are not to be terrified of them, because the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

"So you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

"For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills;

a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand against the sons of Anak?'

"So be aware today that it is the LORD your God who is crossing over ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you.

"Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.

"Then the LORD said to me, 'Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.'

"The LORD also said to me, 'I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people.

'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.'

"And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the LORD had commanded you.