Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, February 27 [Press play below]

11.1 “You must love Jehovah your God and always keep your obligation to him and his statutes, his judicial decisions, and his commandments.
11.2 You know that today I am addressing you, not your sons who have not known or seen the discipline of Jehovah your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm.
11.3 They did not see his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land;
11.4 or what he did to the armies of Egypt, to Pharaoh’s horses and war chariots, which were overwhelmed by the waters of the Red Sea when they were chasing after you, and Jehovah destroyed them once and for all.
11.5 They did not see what he has done for you in the wilderness until your coming to this place,
11.6 or what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the son of Reuben, when the earth opened and swallowed them up, along with their households and their tents and every living thing that followed them, before the eyes of all Israel.
11.7 Your own eyes have seen all the great deeds that Jehovah did.
11.8 “You must keep the whole commandment that I am giving you today, so that you may grow strong and cross over into the land to take possession of it,
11.9 and so that you may live long in the land that Jehovah swore to give to your forefathers and their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
11.10 “The land you are going to take possession of is not like the land of Egypt, out of which you came, where you used to sow your seed and irrigate it with your foot, like a garden of vegetables.
11.11 But the land you are about to cross into and possess is a land of mountains and valley plains. It drinks the water that rains from the heavens;
11.12 it is a land that Jehovah your God is caring for. The eyes of Jehovah your God are constantly upon it, from the beginning of the year to the close of the year.
11.13 “And if you will diligently obey my commandments that I am commanding you today and love Jehovah your God and serve him with all your heart and all your soul,
11.14 I will also give rain for your land at its appointed time, autumn rain and spring rain, and you will gather your grain and your new wine and your oil.
11.15 And I will provide vegetation in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
11.16 Be careful not to let your heart be enticed to go astray and worship other gods and bow down to them.
11.17 Otherwise, Jehovah’s anger will blaze against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will not give its produce and you will quickly perish from the good land that Jehovah is giving you.
11.18 “You must impress these words of mine on your heart and your soul and bind them as a reminder on your hand, and they should be like a headband on your forehead.
11.19 Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.
11.20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
11.21 so that you and your sons may live long in the land that Jehovah swore to give to your forefathers, for as long as the heavens are over the earth.
11.22 “If you strictly observe this commandment that I am giving you and you carry it out, to love Jehovah your God, to walk in all his ways and to cling to him,
11.23 Jehovah will drive away all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you are.
11.24 Every place you set your foot will become yours. From the wilderness up to Lebanon, from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea, your boundary will become.
11.25 Nobody will stand up to you. Jehovah your God will spread the dread and the fear of you over the whole land on which you walk, just as he promised you.
11.26 “See, I am putting before you today a blessing and a curse:
11.27 the blessing if you obey the commandments of Jehovah your God that I am commanding you today,
11.28 and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of Jehovah your God and you turn aside from the way I am commanding you to follow today and you follow gods that you have not known.
11.29 “When Jehovah your God brings you into the land you are to possess, you must pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
11.30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the big trees of Moreh?
11.31 For you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land that Jehovah your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and live in it,
11.32 you must be careful to carry out all the regulations and the judicial decisions that I am putting before you today.
12.1 “These are the regulations and the judicial decisions that you should be careful to carry out all the days that you are alive in the land that Jehovah the God of your forefathers will give you to possess.
12.2 You should completely destroy all the places where the nations you will dispossess have served their gods, whether on the high mountains or on the hills or under any luxuriant tree.
12.3 You should pull down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn their sacred poles in the fire, and cut down the graven images of their gods, obliterating their very names from that place.
12.4 “You must not worship Jehovah your God in that way.
12.5 Rather, seek Jehovah your God wherever he chooses to establish his name and his place of residence among all your tribes, and go there.
12.6 That is where you are to bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution from your hand, your vow offerings, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and flock.
12.7 You and your households must eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice in all your undertakings, because Jehovah your God has blessed you.
12.8 “You must not do as we are doing here today, with everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,
12.9 because you have not yet come into the resting-place and the inheritance that Jehovah your God is giving you.
12.10 When you do cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you to possess, he will certainly give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will dwell in security.
12.11 You will bring all that I am commanding you to the place that Jehovah your God chooses to have his name reside—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution from your hand, and every vow offering that you vow to Jehovah.
12.12 You will rejoice before Jehovah your God, you and your sons, your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite inside your cities, for he has not been given a share or an inheritance with you.
12.13 Be careful not to offer up your burnt offerings in any other place you may see.
12.14 You should offer your burnt offerings only in the place that Jehovah chooses in one of your tribal territories, and there you should do everything I am commanding you.
12.15 “But whenever you desire it, you may slaughter and eat meat, according to the blessing that Jehovah your God has given you in all your cities. The unclean person and the clean person may eat it, as you would eat a gazelle or a deer.
12.16 But you must not eat the blood; you should pour it out on the ground like water.
12.17 You will not be allowed to eat within your cities the tenth part of your grain, your new wine, your oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, any of your vow offerings that you vow, your voluntary offerings, or the contribution from your hand.
12.18 These you are to eat before Jehovah your God in the place Jehovah your God will choose—you and your son, your daughter, your male and female servant, and the Levite inside your cities; and you will rejoice before Jehovah your God in all your undertakings.
12.19 Be careful not to neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
12.20 “When Jehovah your God enlarges your territory, just as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat,’ because you desire to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire it.
12.21 If the place that Jehovah your God chooses to put his name is far away from you, you should then slaughter some of your herd or some of your flock that Jehovah has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you should eat inside your cities whenever you desire it.
12.22 You may eat it as you would eat the gazelle and the deer; both the unclean person and the clean person may eat it.
12.23 Just be firmly resolved not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the flesh.
12.24 You must not eat it. You should pour it out on the ground like water.
12.25 You must not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you are doing what is right in Jehovah’s eyes.
12.26 You should take only the holy things that are yours and your vow offerings when you come to the place that Jehovah will choose.
12.27 There you will offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Jehovah your God, and the blood of your sacrifices should be poured out against the altar of Jehovah your God, but the flesh you may eat.
12.28 “Be careful to obey all these words that I am commanding you, so that it may always go well with you and your sons after you, because you are doing what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah your God.
12.29 “When Jehovah your God annihilates the nations that you are to dispossess, and you are living in their land,
12.30 be careful not to be entrapped after they have been annihilated from before you. Do not ask about their gods, saying, ‘How were these nations accustomed to serve their gods? I too will do the same.’
12.31 You must not do this to Jehovah your God, because they do for their gods every detestable thing that Jehovah hates, even burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
12.32 Every word that I am commanding you is what you should be careful to do. You must not add to it nor take away from it.
13.1 “In case a prophet or one who foretells by dreams arises in your midst and gives you a sign or a portent,
13.2 and the sign or the portent about which he spoke to you comes true while he is saying, ‘Let us walk after other gods,’ gods that you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’
13.3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer, for Jehovah your God is testing you to know whether you love Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul.
13.4 After Jehovah your God you should walk, him you should fear, his commandments you should keep, to his voice you should listen; he is the one you should serve, and to him you should hold fast.
13.5 But that prophet or that dreamer should be put to death, because he encouraged rebellion against Jehovah your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you from the way in which Jehovah your God has commanded you to walk. And you must remove what is evil from your midst.
13.6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or your cherished wife or your closest companion should try to entice you in secrecy, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ gods that neither you nor your forefathers have known,
13.7 from the gods of the peoples all around you, whether near you or those far away from you, from one end of the land to the other end of the land,
13.8 you must not give in to him or listen to him, nor should you show pity or feel compassion or protect him;
13.9 instead, you should kill him without fail. Your hand should be the first to come upon him to put him to death, and the hand of all the people afterward.
13.10 And you must stone him to death, because he has sought to turn you away from Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
13.11 Then all Israel will hear and become afraid, and they will never again do anything bad like this among you.
13.12 “In case you hear it said in one of your cities that Jehovah your God is giving you to occupy,
13.13 ‘Good-for-nothing men have gone out among you to turn away the inhabitants of their city, saying: “Let us go and serve other gods,” gods that you have not known,’
13.14 you should look into the matter, making a thorough investigation and inquiry; and if it is confirmed to be true that this detestable thing has been done among you,
13.15 you should without fail strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Devote it and everything that is in it, including its livestock, to destruction by the sword.
13.16 You should then collect all its spoil into the middle of its public square and burn the city with fire, and its spoil will serve as a whole offering to Jehovah your God. It will become a permanent heap of ruins. It should never be rebuilt.
13.17 Your hand should take nothing that was set apart for destruction, so that Jehovah may turn away from his burning anger and show you mercy and compassion and multiply you, just as he has sworn to your forefathers.
13.18 For you should obey Jehovah your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, thus doing what is right in the eyes of Jehovah your God.