Study Desk

"And I prayed to the LORD and said, 'Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand!

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

Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God spoke to him.)

"For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.

and so that you may prolong your days on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

"For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it by your foot like a vegetable garden.

"But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,

a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.

"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.

"See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse:

"Just as a gazelle or a deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.

"If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

"Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and will not do such a wicked thing among you again.

"Then you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its public square, and burn the city and all its plunder with fire as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt.

"You are sons of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave a bald spot above your forehead for the dead.

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

"And any animal that has a divided hoof and has its hoofs split in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, that animal you may eat.

"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 the pig, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, nor touch their carcasses.

"You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger who is in your town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a stranger; for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.