Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Today's reading is from Deuteronomy chapters 26 to 28.
Chapter 26
And it shall be when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an
inheritance and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first
of all the produce of the ground which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your
God is giving you and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses
to make His name abide.
And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days and say to him, I declare today
to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers
to give us.
Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar
of the LORD your God.
And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God, My father was a Syrian about to
perish and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number.
And there he became a nation, great, mighty and populous.
But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us and laid hard bondage on us.
Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers and the LORD heard our voice and looked on
our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm,
with great terror and with signs and wonders.
He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and
honey.
And now behold I have brought the first fruits of the land which you O LORD have given me.
Then you shall set it before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God.
So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your
house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.
When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year,
the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and
the widow so that they may eat within your gates and be filled.
Then you shall say before the LORD your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house
and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow according
to all your commandments which you have commanded me.
I have not transgressed your commandments nor have I forgotten them.
I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean
use, nor given any of it for the dead.
I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God and have done according to all that you have
commanded me.
Look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people Israel and the land
which you have given us, just as you swore to our fathers a land flowing with milk and
honey.
This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments.
Therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your
soul.
Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God and that you will walk in His ways and
keep His statutes, His commandments and His judgments and that you will obey His voice.
Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people just as He promised
you that you should keep all His commandments and that He will set you high above all nations
which He has made in praise, in name and in honor and that you may be a holy people to
the LORD your God just as He has spoken.
Chapter 27 Now Moses with the elders of Israel commanded
the people saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you today, and it shall be
on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God is giving
you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones and whitewash them with lime.
You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over that you may
enter the land which the LORD is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as
the LORD God of your fathers promised you.
Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall
set up these stones which I command you today and you shall whitewash them with lime.
And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones.
You shall not use an iron tool on them.
You shall build them with whole stones, the altar of the LORD your God, and offer burnt
offerings on it to the LORD your God.
You shall offer peace offerings and shall eat there and rejoice before the LORD your
God.
And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.
Then Moses and the priests, the Levites spoke to all Israel saying, Take heed and listen
O Israel, this day you have become the people of the LORD your God.
Therefore you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God and observe His commandments
and His statutes which I command you today.
And Moses commanded the people on the same day saying, These shall stand on Mount Gerizim
to bless the people when you have crossed over the Jordan, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar,
Joseph, and Benjamin.
And these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel, Cursed is
the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the
hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.
And all the people shall answer and say Amen.
Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.
And all the people shall say Amen.
Cursed is the one who moves his neighbors landmark.
And all the people shall say Amen.
Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.
And all the people shall say Amen.
Cursed is the one who perverts justice to the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.
And all the people shall say Amen.
takes a bribe to slay an innocent person, and all the people shall say, Amin.
Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them, and
all the people shall say, Amin.
Chapter 28 Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently
obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command
you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth, and
all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of
the Lord your God.
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of
your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face.
They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you
set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you.
If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, then all peoples
of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be
afraid of you, and the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body,
in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of
which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land
in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.
You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and the Lord will make you the
head and not the tail.
You shall be above only and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your
God which I command you today and are careful to observe them.
So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the
right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe
carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these
curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of
your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion and rebuke in all that you set your hand to
do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness
of your doings in which you have forsaken me.
The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which
you are going to possess.
The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe
burning fever, with the sword, with scorching and with mildew.
They shall pursue you until you perish.
And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under
you shall be iron.
The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust.
And the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.
You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.
And you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and
no one shall frighten them away.
The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with
the itch from which you cannot be healed.
The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.
And you shall grope at noon day, as a blind man gropes in darkness.
You shall not prosper in your ways.
You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her.
You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it.
You shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.
Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.
Your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and it shall not be restored
to you.
Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.
Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look
and fail with longing for them all day long.
And there shall be no strength in your hand.
A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of
your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.
So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see.
The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot
be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither
you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.
And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord
will drive you.
You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall
consume it.
You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather
the grapes, for the worms shall eat them.
You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself
with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.
You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into
captivity.
Locust shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down
lower and lower.
He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him.
He shall be the head and you shall be the tail.
Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you
are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments
and His statutes which He commanded you.
And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever,
because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance
of everything.
Therefore, you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you in hunger,
in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck
until He has destroyed you.
The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift
as the eagle flies.
A nation whose language you will not understand.
A nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to
the young.
And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are
destroyed.
They shall not leave you grain, or new wine, or oil, or the increase of your cattle, or
the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you
trust, come down throughout all your land.
And they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your
God has given you.
You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons, and your daughters
whom the Lord your God has given you, in a siege and desperate straits in which your
enemy shall distress you.
The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward
the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, so
that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because
he has nothing left in a siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress
you at all your gates.
The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot
on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband
of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, her placenta which comes out from between
her feet and her children whom she bears, for she will eat them secretly for lack of
everything in a siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at
all your gates.
If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book,
that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will
bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, great and prolonged plagues, and
serious and prolonged sicknesses.
Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid,
and they shall cling to you.
Therefore every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of the law,
will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed.
You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude,
because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
And it shall be that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you,
so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing, and you shall
be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and
there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and
stone.
And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have
a resting place.
But there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.
Your life shall hang in doubt before you.
You shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.
In the morning you shall say, O that it were evening, and in evening you shall say, O that
it were morning, because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight
which your eyes see.
And the Lord will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you,
you shall never see it again.
And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but
no one will buy you.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.