Deuteronomy 4-6
1 Now therefore, listen, O Israel, to the statutes and to the judgments which I am teaching you to do, so that you may live; and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 2 You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor shall you take anything from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. 4 But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to this day, every one of you.
5 See, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 Therefore, keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes, and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 For what nation is there so great, who has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is in all things whenever we call on Him? 8 And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I am setting before you today?
9 Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but teach them to your sons, and your grandsons. 10 Especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Gather the people together to Me, so that I will let them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they shall live on the earth, and so that they may teach their children.” 11 Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire up to the midst of heaven, with darkness, a cloud, a thick cloud. 12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words but saw no form—only a voice was heard. 13 He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even the Ten Commandments, and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. 14 The Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, so that you might do them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.
15 Give good care to yourselves, for you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire, 16 lest you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. 19 And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven. 20 But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be to Him a people of inheritance, as you are today.
21 Furthermore, the Lord was angry with me because of you and swore that I should not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not go into that good land which the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. 22 So I must die in this land. I shall not cross over the Jordan, but you shall go over and possess that good land. 23 Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which He made with you, and make yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything as the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God.
25 When you produce children and grandchildren and you have remained a long time in the land, and you corrupt yourselves and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely and suddenly perish from off the land that you are going across the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, but shall be completely destroyed. 27 The Lord shall scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations where the Lord shall lead you. 28 There you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress and all these things come upon you, even in the latter days, if you turn to the Lord your God and shall be obedient to His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
32 Indeed, ask about the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heavens to the other, whether there has ever been any such thing as this great thing, or has anything like it ever been heard? 33 Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived? 34 Or has God ever tried to take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
35 To you it was shown so that you might know that the Lord, He is God. There is no one else besides Him. 36 Out of heaven He let you hear His voice so that He might instruct you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. 37 Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them and personally brought you out of Egypt with His mighty power 38 to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you are, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today.
39 Know therefore today, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Therefore, you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you this day, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and so that you may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord your God gives you, forever.
41 Then Moses set apart three cities across the Jordan, toward the east, 42 that the manslayer might flee there, that is, anyone who killed his neighbor unintentionally without hating him in time past could flee to one of these cities and live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness in the plateau of the Reubenites, and Ramoth in Gilead of the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan of the Manassites.
44 This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, after they came out of Egypt, 46 on this side of the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck down, after they had come out of Egypt. 47 They possessed his land, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were across the Jordan toward the east, 48 from Aroer, which is by the edge of the River Arnon, even as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), 49 with all the Arabah across the Jordan to the east, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
Chapter 5
1 Then Moses called all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I am speaking in your hearing today, so that you may learn them, and keep, and do them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, we who are living now and here today. 4 The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. 5 I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and would not go up to the mountain. He said:
6 I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
7 You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 You shall not make yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
11 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who takes His name in vain.
12 Keep the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor the foreigner that is within your gates, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
16 Honor your father and your mother, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
17 You shall not murder.
18 You shall not commit adultery.
19 You shall not steal.
20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor shall you covet your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
22 These are the words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a great voice, and He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.
23 When you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain did burn with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. 24 You said, “See, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet he lives. 25 Now, therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we will die. 26 For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27 Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say. Then speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.”
28 The Lord heard the sound of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, “I have heard the sound of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. 29 O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
30 “Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ 31 But as for you, stand here by Me, so that I may speak to you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the ordinances which you shall teach them, that they may keep them in the land which I am giving them to possess.”
32 Therefore, be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.
Chapter 6
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, so that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 so that you might fear the Lord your God in order to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you—you, and your son, and your grandson—all the days of your life, so that your days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do it, so that it may be well with you and so that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you in the land that flows with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 Then it shall be when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and fine cities, which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are full, 12 then beware lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
13 You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him and shall swear by His name. 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people which surround you 15 (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you). Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be inflamed against you and destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16 You shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted Him in Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. 18 You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers, 19 to drive out all your enemies before you, just as the Lord has spoken.
20 When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21 then you shall say to your son, “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed great and devastating signs and wonders upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. 23 He brought us out from there, so that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore to our fathers. 24 The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us, as He has to this day. 25 It will be our righteousness if we are careful to keep all these commandments before the Lord our God, just as He has commanded us.”
Mark 11:1–18
1 When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, He sent out two of His disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”
4 They went their way and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street. And they untied it. 5 Some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing untying the colt?” 6 They answered just as Jesus had commanded. And they let them go. 7 They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments on it. And He sat upon it. 8 Many spread their garments on the street. And others cut down branches off the trees and scattered them on the street. 9 Those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. When He had looked around at everything, as the hour was now late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12 On the next day when they had returned from Bethany, He was hungry. 13 Seeing from afar a fig tree with leaves, He went to see if perhaps He might find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing except leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 Jesus said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry any vessel through the temple. 17 And He taught them, and said, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
18 The scribes and chief priests heard it and looked for a way to kill Him. For they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.