Deuteronomy Bible Nuggets

Deuteronomy

 

·       Chapter 1, Moses rehearses to the people the events that took place from Horeb to Kadesh, forty years later. He reminded them of how God had blessed  and multiplied them  as the stars of heaven for multitude, so much so that it was necessary to appoint the chief s of their tribes to assist him. He told them: “The LORD our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess it”. He told them of their refusal to go in and take the land because of the evil reports from 10 of the 12 spies, which resulted in the older ones being rejected by God.

·       Chapter 2 ,Moses continues his discourse of the past events. He tells them:  Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.  And the LORD spake unto me, saying,  Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.   And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from among the host, until they were consumed. 

·       Chapter 3, Moses continues his discourse.  Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, and the LORD delivered him into our hands. We smote him until none was left to him remaining, as he did unto Sihon king of the Amorites..  I besought the LORD at that time, saying,   I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan.  But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.   Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and  behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

·       Chapter 4, Moses continues to plead with the children of Israel.   Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.  Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons.  Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you.  For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.   I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

·       Chapters 5 and 6,  Moses continues to speak to the children of Israel saying, hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.  The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

·       Chapter 7, Moses continues to address the people.  When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee. thou shall utterly destroy them, and shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.  For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

·       Chapter 8, Moses continues to warn the people.  “Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day”   Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;  And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;  Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God.  And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.   But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.  And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods,  I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

·       Chapter 9,   Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself.  Understand therefore that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face:  Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee, that he may perform the word which he sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

·       Chapter 10, Moses continues to remind the children of Israel of thr rewriting of the Ten Commandments and the making of the Ark of Testimony. He says;  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, ¹³  To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?  For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

·       Chapter 11, Moses Continues:  Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, always.   And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm.
 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.  Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;  A blessing, if ye obey, and a curse, if ye will not obey.

·       Chapter 12, Again Moses reminds the children of Israel of the statutes and judgments to be observed in the land.   But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;   Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD:  Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.   What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

·       Chapter 13, Moses instructs the people concerning anyone who attempts to take them away from serving God. He tells them that if there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. The same applies to a family member or anyone who tries to turn them towards other gods.

·       Chapter 14, Moses tells the people;  Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself. Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. He instructs them as to what can, and what cannot be eaten.   Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year, and eat it before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name. that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. Thou shalt not forsake the Levite that is within thy gates; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee.  At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:   And the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow,  shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

·       Chapter 15, Moses tells the people that at the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release after this manner: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD'S release.  He tells them.  If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.  For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

·       Chapter 16, Moses continues to remind the people to;  Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.  Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty.  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

·       Chapter 17, the children of Israel are forbidden to sacrifice unto the LORD any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness, for that is an abomination.  If there be found among you, a man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD in transgressing his covenant,  At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, he shall be put to death.  Moses tells them that when they come unto the land which the LORD has given them, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. 

·       Chapter 18, The children of Israel are reminded that the priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, as their inheritance. Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.  He tells them that the LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.  And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?   When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

·       Chapter 19, Moses reminds the children of Israel of the command to separate cities of refudge for one who accidently commits murder. Rules to deal with intentional killings are also given.
Thine eye shall not pity him; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. 

·       Chapter 20, rules for war are given. Moses tells them,  When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee. When ye are come nigh unto the battle,  the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,  And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them;  For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. The cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breathe. Thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:   That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

·       Chapter 21, laws concerning the putting away the guilt of innocent blood are given as well as the procedure concerning a woman taken captive in war. The law of rebellious children are given also. It says:   If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;   And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. 

·       Chapter 22, covers the law of humanity towards brethren:  Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother. Sex is to be distinguished by apparel:  The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. Punishment for one who slanders his wife:   If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,   And give occasions of speech against her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid.  Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: ⁸  And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him.  But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel,   Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die, because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house. so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

·       Chapter 23, covers who may, or may not enter into the congregation:  He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off,  A bastard,  An Ammonite or Moabite  shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.  Uncleanness is to be kept out from amoung the host:  For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

·       Chapter 24, the law of divorcement is covered. Provisions are made for the poor  But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.

·       Chapter 25,   If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.
And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed.  If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.

·       Chapter 26, the children of Israel are commanded to bring the “first Fruits” of the harvest and present it to the priest, and in the 3^rd year, the increase of the tithing for the Levites.

·       Chapter 27,  Moses commanded the people, saying on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister:  And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law. Therefore when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones,  in mount Ebal,   And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God. And Moses charged the people the same day, saying,
These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:   And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.  And the Levites shall speak,  unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice.

·       Chapter 28, Moses presents the opportunity to be bless or cursed:  And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.   Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.  Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.   And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:    
Chapter 28 continued, But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.  Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.  Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.  Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.  The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.  

·       Chapter 29,   These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;  Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.  Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God.   That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:  That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 

·       Chapter 30, Moses continues to warn the people: And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee. If ye return unto the Lord and obey his voice,  GOD, will restore everything you lost.  For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.  It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?  Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.  I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

·       Chapter 31, Moses approaches the end:  And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.   And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.   Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?  Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.  Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

·       Chapter 32,   And Moses came and spake all the words of the song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.   And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:   And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.  For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.   And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,   Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:   And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people:   Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel.   Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

·       Chapter 33, Moses blesses the twelve tribes of Israel before his death.  Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.  Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

·       Chapter 34, Moses dies:  And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land.  And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.  And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.   And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,  In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land.