Study Desk

Moses said to Israel: As you walk along the road, you might see a bird's nest in a tree or on the ground. If the mother bird is in the nest with either her eggs or her baby birds, you are allowed to take the baby birds or the eggs, but not the mother bird. Let her go free, and the Lord will bless you with a long and successful life.

But the Lord your God loves you, so he refused to listen to Balaam and turned Balaam's curse into a blessing.

Instead, give it back before sunset, so the owner can keep warm and sleep and ask the Lord to bless you. Then the Lord your God will notice that you have done the right thing.

Our Lord , look down from your temple in heaven and bless your people Israel. You promised our ancestors that you would give us this land rich with milk and honey, and you have kept your promise.

Next, offer sacrifices to ask the Lord 's blessing, and serve the meat at a sacred meal where you will celebrate in honor of the Lord .

After you cross the Jordan River, you will go to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin will go up on Mount Gerizim, where they will bless the people of Israel. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali will go up on Mount Ebal where they will agree to the curses.

Moses said to Israel: Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.

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.

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 he will bless you with many children, large herds and flocks, and abundant crops. The Lord will be happy to do good things for you, just as he did for your ancestors.

Moses was a prophet, and before he died, he blessed the tribes of Israel by saying:

I pray that the Lord will bless everything you do, and make you strong enough to crush your enemies.

Descendants of Joseph, the Lord will bless you with precious water from deep wells and with dew from the sky.

Tribe of Gad, the Lord will bless you with more land. So shout his praises! Your tribe is like a lion ripping up its victim.

The Lord is pleased with you, people of Naphtali. He will bless you and give you the land to the west and the south.

The Lord 's greatest blessing is for you, tribe of Asher. You will be the favorite of all the other tribes. You will be rich with olive oil

The Lord has rescued you and given you more blessings than any other nation. He protects you like a shield and is your majestic sword. Your enemies will bow in fear, and you will trample on their backs.

One day, Joshua led the people of Israel to Mount Ebal, where he told some of his men, "Build an altar for offering sacrifices to the Lord . And use stones that have never been cut with iron tools, because that is what Moses taught in The Book of the Law." Joshua offered sacrifices to please the Lord and to ask his blessing. Then with the Israelites still watching, he copied parts of The Book of the Law of Moses onto stones.

Moses had said that everyone in Israel was to go to the valley between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, where they were to be blessed. So everyone went there, including the foreigners, the leaders, officials, and judges. Half of the people stood on one side of the valley, and half on the other side, with the priests from the Levi tribe standing in the middle with the sacred chest. Then in a loud voice, Joshua read the blessings and curses from The Book of the Law of Moses.

and we ask the Lord to punish us if we are lying. We didn't build it so we could turn our backs on the Lord . We didn't even build it so we could offer animal or grain sacrifices to please the Lord or ask his blessing.