Deuteronomy 1 - 2

Israel from Seir to Kadesh‑barnea

These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. 3 Now it happened, in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had commanded him to give to them, 4 after he had struck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5 Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying, 6 “Yahweh our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and set out, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the Shephelah and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 See, I have given over the land before you; go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and to their seed after them.’ 9 “And I spoke to you at that time, saying, ‘I am not able to bear the burden of you alone. 10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this day like the stars of heaven in number. 11 May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you! 12 How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? 13 Choose wise and understanding and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ 14 Then you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and gave them as heads over you, leaders of thousands and of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers for your tribes. 16 “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the sojourner who is with him. 17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do. 19 “Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and fearsome wilderness which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as Yahweh our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites which Yahweh our God is about to give us. 21 See, Yahweh your God has given over the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 “Then all of you came near to me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may search out the land for us and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter.’ 23 And the thing was good in my sight, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe. 24 Then they turned and went up into the hill country and came to the valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought word back to us and said, ‘It is a good land which Yahweh our God is about to give us.’ 26 “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God; 27 and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to give us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. 28 Where can we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are bigger and taller than we; the cities are large and fortified to heaven. And moreover, we saw the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread, nor fear them. 30 Yahweh your God, who goes before you, will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness where you saw how Yahweh your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.’ 32 But for all this, you did not believe Yahweh your God, 33 who goes before you on your way, to spy out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go. 34 “Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and swore an oath, saying, 35 ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, 36 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ 37 Yahweh was angry with me also on your account, saying, ‘Not even you shall enter there. 38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; strengthen him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it. 39 Moreover, your little ones who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. 40 But as for you, turn around and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.’ 41 “Then you said to me, ‘We have sinned against Yahweh; we will indeed go up and fight, just as Yahweh our God commanded us.’ And every man of you girded on his weapons of war and regarded it as easy to go up into the hill country. 42 And Yahweh said to me, ‘Say to them, “Do not go up and do not fight—for I am not among you—so that you are not defeated before your enemies.”’ 43 So I spoke to you, but you would not listen. Instead you rebelled against the command of Yahweh and acted presumptuously and went up into the hill country. 44 And the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out to meet you and pursued you as bees do and crushed you from Seir to Hormah. 45 Then you returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh did not listen to your voice nor give ear to you. 46 So you remained in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you remained there.

Wanderings in the Wilderness

“Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me, and circled Mount Seir for many days. 2 And Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 3 ‘You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north, 4 and command the people, saying, “You are going to pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful; 5 do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall buy food from them with money so that you may eat, and you shall also bargain with them for water with money so that you may drink. 7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.”’ 8 “So we passed beyond our brothers the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road, away from Elath and from Ezion-geber. And we turned and passed through by the way of the wilderness of Moab. 9 Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ 10 (The Emim lived there formerly, a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim, they are also regarded as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 Now the Horites formerly lived in Seir, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel would do to the land of their possession which Yahweh gave to them.) 13 ‘Now arise and cross over the brook Zered yourselves.’ So we crossed over the brook Zered. 14 Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war came to an end from within the camp, as Yahweh had sworn to them. 15 Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to bring them into confusion from within the camp until they all came to an end. 16 “So it happened when all the men of war had come to an end in death from among the people, 17 that Yahweh spoke to me, saying, 18 ‘Today you are about to cross over Ar, the border of Moab. 19 And you will come opposite the sons of Ammon. Do not harass them nor provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the sons of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to the sons of Lot as a possession.’ 20 (It is also regarded as the land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim formerly lived in it, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin, 21 a people as great, numerous, and tall as the Anakim, but Yahweh destroyed them before them. And they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 just as He did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, when He destroyed the Horites from before them; they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23 And the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and lived in their place.) 24 ‘Arise, set out, and pass through the valley of Arnon. Look! I have given Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land into your hand; begin to take possession and provoke him to battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ 26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land, I will go only on the highway; I will not turn aside to the right or to the left. 28 You will sell me food for money so that I may eat, and give me water for money so that I may drink; only let me pass through on foot, 29 just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land, for Yahweh your God stiffened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to give him over into your hand, as he is today. 31 And Yahweh said to me, ‘See, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to possess, so that you may fully possess his land.’ 32 “Then Sihon with all his people came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz. 33 But Yahweh our God gave him over to us, and we struck him down with his sons and all his people. 34 So we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction the men, women, and little ones of every city. We left no survivor remaining. 35 We took only the animals as our plunder and the spoil of the cities which we had captured. 36 From Aroer which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a town that was too high for us; Yahweh our God gave all over to us. 37 Only you did not go near to the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God had commanded us.

Romans 14

Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on opinions. 2 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. 3 The one who eats must not view the one who does not eat with contempt, and the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person judges one day above another, another judges every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards the day, regards it for the Lord, and he who eats, eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not eat, for the Lord he does not eat and gives thanks to God. 7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you view your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow,

And every tongue shall confess to God.”

12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather judge this—not to put a stumbling block or offense before a brother. 14 I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled in itself; but to him who considers anything to be defiled, to him it is defiled. 15 For if because of food your brother is grieved, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be slandered; 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who in this way serves Christ is pleasing to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. 20 Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. 21 It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. 22 The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Psalm 106:28 - 106:48

They then joined themselves to Baal‑peor,

And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

Thus they provoked Him to anger with their actions,

And the plague broke out among them.

Then Phinehas stood up and interceded,

And so the plague was checked.

And it was counted to him for righteousness,

From generation to generation forever.

They also provoked Him to wrath at the waters of Meribah,

So that it went badly with Moses on their account;

Because they were rebellious against His Spirit,

He spoke rashly with his lips.

They did not destroy the peoples,

As Yahweh commanded them,

But they mingled with the nations

And learned their works,

And served their idols,

Which became a snare to them.

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,

And they shed innocent blood,

The blood of their sons and their daughters,

Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;

And the land was polluted with the blood.

Thus they became unclean in their works,

And played the harlot in their actions.

So the anger of Yahweh was kindled against His people

And He abhorred His inheritance.

Then He gave them into the hand of the nations,

And those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies oppressed them,

And they were subdued under their hand.

Many times He would deliver them;

But they were rebellious in their counsel,

And so they sank down in their iniquity.

Nevertheless He looked upon their distress

When He heard their cry of lamentation;

And He remembered for them His covenant,

And relented according to the abundance of His lovingkindness.

He also made them objects of compassion

In the presence of all their captors.

Save us, O Yahweh our God,

And gather us from among the nations,

To give thanks to Your holy name

And revel in Your praise.

Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,

From everlasting to everlasting.

And let all the people say, “Amen.”

Praise Yah!