Deuteronomy 30–32
1 When all these things happen to you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you remember them among all the nations, where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 then you must return to the Lord your God and obey His voice according to all that I am commanding you today, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul. 3 Then the Lord your God will overturn your captivity and have compassion on you and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the outmost parts of heaven, from there will the Lord your God gather you, and from there He will get you. 5 The Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on them who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 You will return and obey the voice of the Lord, and obey all His commandments which I am commanding you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you prosper in every work of your hand, in the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your land, for good. For the Lord will once again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, by keeping His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you return to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
11 This commandment which I am commanding you today is not hidden from you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?” 13 It is not beyond the sea, so that you should say, “Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?” 14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, so that you may do it.
15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, and death and disaster. 16 What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, so that you may live and multiply. Then the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away, so that you do not obey, but are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 then I declare to you today that you will surely perish and that you will not prolong your days in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to go in and possess.
19 I call heaven and earth to witnesses against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.
Chapter 31
1 Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. 2 He said to them, “I am a hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer come and go. Also, the Lord has said to me, ‘You may not cross over the Jordan.’ 3 The Lord your God will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, you will possess them, and Joshua will cross over before you, just as the Lord has said. 4 The Lord will do to them as He did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, which He destroyed. 5 The Lord will give them up before you, so that you may do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. 6 Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, it is He who goes with you. He will not fail you, nor forsake you.”
7 Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the Lord has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you will enable them to inherit it. 8 The Lord, He goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Do not fear, nor be dismayed.”
9 Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of every seven years, at the time of the year of the cancellation of debts, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel has come to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He will choose, you must read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people together, men, women, children, and your foreigner who is within your towns, so that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law. 13 Their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”
14 The Lord said to Moses, “Indeed, your days draw near when you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.
15 The Lord appeared in the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tent. 16 The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will rise up and begin to prostitute themselves after the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they are going to be among them, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger will burn against them on that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they will be devoured, and many disasters and troubles will befall them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evil things which they shall have done, in that they turned to other gods.
19 “Now therefore write yourself this song and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it on their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. 20 For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten, and filled themselves, and become fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and provoke Me, and break My covenant. 21 Then when many disasters and troubles have fallen on them, this song will testify against them as a witness, for it must not be forgotten from the mouths of their descendants. For I know their intention which they are developing even now, before I have brought them into the land which I promised.” 22 Therefore, Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
23 He gave Joshua, the son of Nun, an exhortation, and said, “Be strong and of a good courage, for you will bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, until they were completed, 25 then Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, 26 “Take this Book of the Law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, so that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Even now, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death? 28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, so that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and disaster will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.”
30 Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel:
Chapter 32
1 Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My teaching will drop like the rain,
my sayings will distill as the dew,
as the droplets on the grass,
and as the showers on the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord:
Ascribe greatness to our God!
4 He is the Rock; His work is perfect;
for all His ways are just.
He is a God of faithfulness and without injustice;
righteous and upright is He.
5 They have acted corruptly to Him;
they are not His children, but blemished;
they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your father, who has bought you?
Has He not made you, and established you?
7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years of previous generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you:
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when He separated the sons of man,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the Lord’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land
and in the howling waste of a wilderness;
He led him about, He instructed him,
He protected him like the pupil of His eye.
11 Like an eagle stirs up her nest,
that flutters over her young,
He spread out his wings and took him;
He lifted him on His pinions;
12 the Lord alone guided him,
and there was no foreign god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
and he ate of the produce of the fields;
He made him suck honey out of the rock
and oil out of the flinty rock,
14 butter from the herd,
and milk from the flock,
along with the fat of lambs,
and rams of the breed from Bashan,
and goats,
with the best of the kernels of wheat;
you drank the pure blood of the grape.
15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
you grew fat, you grew thick;
you are covered with fat.
Then he forsook God who made him,
and devalued the Rock of his salvation.
16 They made Him jealous with strange gods;
with abominations they provoked Him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
to gods whom they knew not,
to new gods that recently came along,
whom your fathers did not fear.
18 You have forgotten the Rock who begot you;
you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who gave you birth.
19 When the Lord saw it, He despised them,
because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.
20 He said: I will hide My face from them;
I will see what their end will be,
for they are a very perverse generation,
children in whom there is no loyalty.
21 They have made Me jealous with that which is not God;
they have provoked Me to anger with their empty things.
And I will make them jealous of those who are not a people;
I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire has been inflamed by My anger,
and it will burn to the lowest part of Sheol,
and shall consume the earth and its produce,
and ignite the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap misfortunes on them;
I will use My arrows on them.
24 They will be starved by famine,
and consumed by plague and bitter destruction;
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them,
with the poison of crawling creatures in the dust.
25 The sword outside and terror within will destroy both the young man and the virgin,
the infant along with the man of gray hair.
26 I said, “I want to cut them into pieces,
I will cause the memory of them to disappear from among men,”
27 however, I feared the wrath of the enemy,
that their adversaries would misunderstand
and say, “Our hand is victorious,
and the Lord has not done all this.”
28 For they are a nation devoid of counsel;
there is no understanding in them.
29 Would that they were wise,
so that they understood this,
so that they would comprehend their future!
30 How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
and the Lord had given them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock;
even our enemies themselves concede this.
32 For their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter.
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons
and the deadly venom of cobras.
34 Is not this laid up in store with Me
and sealed up among My treasures?
35 Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
their foot will slip in due time;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and the things to come hasten upon them.
36 For the Lord will judge His people,
and relent in regard to His servants,
when He sees that their power is gone
and there is no one left, whether restrained or free.
37 He will say: Where are their gods,
their rock in whom they trusted,
38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up and help you
and be your protection.
39 See now that I, even I, am He,
and there is no god besides Me;
I kill, and I make alive;
I wound, and I heal;
there is no one who can deliver out of My hand.
40 For I lift up My hand to heaven,
and say: As I live forever,
41 if I sharpen My flashing sword
and My hand takes hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance on My enemies
and will repay those who hate Me.
42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood,
and My sword shall devour flesh,
with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
from the heads of the leaders of the enemies.
43 Rejoice, O you nations, with His people;
for He will avenge the blood of His servants
and will render vengeance on His adversaries
and will be merciful to His land and people.
44 Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he, with Joshua, the son of Nun. 45 When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe, all the words of this law. 47 For it is no idle word for you, because it is your life, and by this word you will prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”
48 The Lord spoke to Moses that same day, saying, 49 “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho, and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for a possession. 50 Die on the mount where you go up, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron, your brother, died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 Nevertheless, you will see the land before you, but you may not go there, to the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.”
Mark 15:1–25
1 Early in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole Sanhedrin. And they bound Jesus and took Him away and handed Him over to Pilate.
2 Pilate asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
He answered him, “You have said so.”
3 The chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. 4 So Pilate asked Him again, “Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You.”
5 But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate was astonished.
6 Now at the feast he always released to them one prisoner, whomever they requested. 7 There was one named Barabbas, who had committed murder in the insurrection and was bound with the rebels. 8 The crowd began crying aloud, asking Pilate to do as he had always done for them.
9 He answered them, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over out of envy. 11 But the chief priests stirred the people, so that he should instead release Barabbas to them.
12 Pilate answered them again, “What then would you have me do to Him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
13 They again cried out, “Crucify Him!”
14 Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has He done?”
But they cried out even more, “Crucify Him!”
15 So Pilate, resolving to satisfy the people, released Barabbas to them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he handed Him over to be crucified.
16 The soldiers led Him away to Praetorium Hall, and they called together the entire battalion. 17 They clothed Him with a purple robe. And they wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, 18 and began to salute Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 They struck His head with a staff and spit on Him. And bowing their knees, they worshipped Him. 20 When they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off of Him and put His own garments on Him. Then they led Him out to crucify Him.
21 They compelled a man named Simon from Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was passing through from the country, to bear Jesus’ cross. 22 They brought Him to the place called Golgotha, which means, “Place of a Skull.” 23 They gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it. 24 When they had crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them, to decide what each man should take.
25 Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him.