VA’ET’CHANAN (AND I PLEADED)

Parashat Va’etchanan

Moses Pleads to Enter

²³ “I pleaded with Adonai at that time, saying, ²⁴ ‘O Lord Adonai, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand—for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do deeds and mighty acts like Yours? ²⁵ Please! Let me cross over and see the good land across the Jordan—that good hill country and the Lebanon.’

²⁶ “But Adonai was angry with me because of you, so He would not listen to me. ‘Enough!’ Adonai said to me, ‘Do not speak to Me anymore about this matter. ²⁷ Go up to the top of Pisgah, look around to the west and the north and the south and the east, and see with your eyes—for you will not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will cross over before this people, and he will enable them to inherit the land that you will see.’ ²⁹ So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

Bnei-Yisrael Must Listen and Obey

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and possess the land that Adonai the God of your fathers is giving you. ² You must not add to the word that I am commanding you or take away from it—in order to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you. ³ Your eyes have seen what Adonai did at Baal Peor, for Adonai your God has destroyed from among you everyone who followed Baal Peor. ⁴ But you who held tight to Adonai your God are alive today—all of you.

⁵ “See, just as Adonai my God commanded me, I have taught you statutes and ordinances to do in the land that you are about to enter to possess. ⁶ You must keep and do them, for it is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For what great nation is there that has gods so near to them, as Adonai our God is whenever we call on Him? ⁸ What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances that are righteous—like all of this Torah that I am setting before you today?

⁹ “Only be watchful and watch over your soul closely, so you do not forget the things your eyes have seen and they slip from your heart all the days of your life. You are to make them known to your children and your children’s children. ¹⁰ The day that you stood before Adonai your God in Horeb, Adonai said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me and I will make them hear My words, so that they learn to fear Me all the days that they live on the earth, and so that they teach their children.’

Words from the Fiery Mountain

¹¹ “You came near and stood at the bottom of the mountain while the mountain was blazing with fire up to the heart of the heavens—darkness, cloud, and fog. ¹² Adonai spoke to you from the midst of the fire. The sound of words you heard, but a form you did not see—only a voice. ^{[a] 13} He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to do—the Ten Words—and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ^{[b] 14} Adonai commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, so that you might do them in the land you are crossing over to possess.

¹⁵ “So be very watchful over your souls since you saw no form on the day that Adonai spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a graven image in the likeness of any figure—the form of a male or female, ¹⁷ the form of any animal that is on the earth, the form of any winged bird that flies in the sky, ¹⁸ the form of anything that creeps on the ground, the form of any fish that is in the water under the earth— ¹⁹ and so that you do not lift up your eyes toward the heavens and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the heavenly host—and are drawn away and bow down and worship them. Adonai your God has allotted them to all the peoples under all the heavens. ²⁰ But you, Adonai has taken, and He brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people for His own inheritance, as you are this day.

²¹ “Furthermore Adonai was angry with me because of your words, and He swore that I would not cross over the Jordan or enter the good land that Adonai your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land; I am not crossing over the Jordan. But you will cross over and take possession of that good land. ²³ Watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the covenant of Adonai your God, which He cut with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything that Adonai your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For Adonai your God is a consuming fire^[c]—a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you father children and children’s children and have been in the land a long time, and you act corruptly and make a graven image in the form of anything and do evil in the sight of Adonai your God, provoking Him to anger, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will certainly be carried off quickly from the land you are crossing over the Jordan to possess. You will not prolong your days on it, for you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ Adonai will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Adonai will drive you. ²⁸ There you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which do not see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But from there you will seek Adonai your God and you will find Him, when you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰ “When you are in distress and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you will return to Adonai your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For Adonai your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you or destroy you, or forget the covenant with your fathers that He swore to them.

³² “Indeed, ask now about the former days that were before you, from the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of the sky to the other. Has there ever been such a great thing as this, or has anything like it been heard? ³³ Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard—and lived? ³⁴ Or has any god ever tried to come to take for himself a nation from within a nation—by trials, by signs and wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—like all that Adonai your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ You were shown, so that you might know that Adonai is God—there is no other besides Him. ^{[d] 36} From the heavens He made you hear His voice to instruct you,^[e] and on earth He caused you to see His great fire—you heard His words from the midst of the fire. ³⁷ Because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants after them. Then He brought you out from Egypt with His presence, by His great power— ³⁸ to drive out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.

³⁹ “So you will know today and take to heart that Adonai, He is God, in the heavens above and on the earth below—there is no other. ⁴⁰ You must keep His statutes and His mitzvot, which I am commanding you today, 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 that Adonai your God is giving you for all time.”

⁴¹ Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan, toward the east. ⁴² There the manslayer might flee, who kills his neighbor unintentionally and did not hate him previously. He may flee to one of these cities and live: ⁴³ Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramot in the Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in the Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴ This is the Torah, which Moses set before Bnei-Yisrael. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to Bnei-Yisrael when they came out from Egypt— ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and Bnei-Yisrael struck down when they came out from Egypt. ⁴⁷ They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of the Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan toward the east— ⁴⁸ from Aroer, which is on the edge of the wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sion (that is, Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, as far as the sea of the Arabah^[f], under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Words

5 Moses called to all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances that I am speaking in your hearing today, learn them and make sure to do them. ² Adonai our God cut a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ Not with our fathers has Adonai cut this covenant but with us—all of us alive here today. ⁴ Adonai spoke with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ⁵ (I was standing between Adonai and you at that time, to tell you the word of Adonai, because you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.)

‘He said:

⁶ ‘I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

⁷ ‘You shall not have other gods beside Me.

⁸ ‘Do not make for yourself a graven image—no image of what is in the heavens above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁹ Do not bow down to them or worship them. For I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My mitzvot.

¹¹ ‘You must not take the Name of Adonai your God in vain, for Adonai will not leave unpunished anyone who takes His Name in vain.

¹² ‘Observe Yom Shabbat to keep it holy, as Adonai your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you are to labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Shabbat to Adonai your God. In it you are not to do any work—not you or your son or your daughter, or your slave or your maid, or your ox, your donkey or any of your livestock or the outsider within your gates, so that your slave and your maid may rest as you do. ¹⁵ You must remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God commanded you to keep Yom Shabbat.

¹⁶ ‘Honor your father and your mother just as Adonai your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and it may go well with you in the land Adonai your God is giving you.^[g]

¹⁷ ‘Do not murder.

‘Do not commit adultery.

‘Do not steal.

‘Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.^[h][i]

¹⁸ ‘Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

¹⁹ “These words Adonai spoke to all your assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud and the fog, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

Live and Prolong Your Days

²⁰ “As soon as you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, you came near to me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²¹ Then you said, ‘Adonai our God has just shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. This day we have seen that God speaks with man, and yet he keeps on living. ²² Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us! If we hear the voice of Adonai our God any more, then we will die. ²³ For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁴ You go near and hear all that Adonai our God says. Then you tell us all what Adonai our God tells you, and we will hear it and do it.’

²⁵ “Adonai heard the tone of your words when you spoke to me, and Adonai said to me, ‘I have heard the tone of the words that this people has spoken to you—they have done well in all they have spoken. ²⁶ If only there were such a heart in them to fear Me and keep all My mitzvot always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! ²⁷ Go say to them, “Return to your tents.” ²⁸ But as for you, stand here by Me, and I will tell you the whole commandment—both the statutes and the ordinances that you are to teach them. And they will do them in the land I am giving them to possess.’

²⁹ “So you must take care to do as Adonai your God has commanded you—do not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³⁰ You are to walk in all the way that Adonai your God has commanded you, so that you may live and it may be well with you and you may prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and ordinances that Adonai your God commanded to teach you to do in the land you are crossing over to possess— ² so that you might fear Adonai your God, to keep all His statutes and mitzvot that I am commanding you and your son and your son’s son all the days of your life, and so that you may prolong your days. ³ Hear, therefore, O Israel, and take care to do this, so that it may go well with you and you may increase mightily, as Adonai the God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Shema Israel, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI Echad

⁴ “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one^[j]. ⁵ Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ^{[k] 6} These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. ⁷ You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets^[l] between your eyes, ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

When You Prosper, Do Not Forget

¹⁰ “Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—to give you great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns dug that you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you eat and are full, ¹² then watch yourself so that you do not forget Adonai, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. ¹³ You must fear Adonai your God and serve Him,^[m] and swear by His Name. ¹⁴ You must not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for Adonai your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of Adonai your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶ “You are not to test Adonai your God, as you tested Him at Massah. ^{[n] 17} Diligently keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God, and His testimonies and His statutes that He has commanded you. ¹⁸ You are to do what is right and good in the sight of Adonai, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and possess the good land that Adonai swore to your fathers— ¹⁹ to drive out all your enemies from before you, as Adonai has spoken.

When Your Son Asks

²⁰ “When your son asks you in time to come, saying ‘What are the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances that Adonai our God commanded you?’ ²¹ then you are to tell your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and Adonai brought us out from Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Before our eyes Adonai showed signs and wonders, great and terrible—on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house. ²³ Then He brought us out from there so that He might bring us in, to give us the land that He swore to our fathers. ²⁴ Adonai commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Adonai our God—for our good always, to keep us alive, as is the case this day. ²⁵ It will be righteousness^[o] to us, if we take care to do all this commandment before Adonai our God, just as He has commanded us.’

No Mixing With Idolaters

7 “When Adonai your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out many nations before you—the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you— ² and Adonai your God gives them over to you and you strike them down, then you are to utterly destroy them. You are to make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ³ You are not to intermarry with them—you are not to give your daughter to his son, or take his daughter for your son. ⁴ For he will turn your son away from following Me to serve other gods. Then the anger of Adonai will be kindled against you, and He will swiftly destroy you. ⁵ Instead, you are to deal with them like this: tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their carved images with fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people to Adonai your God—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Adonai your God has chosen you to be His treasured people.^[p]

⁷ “It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that Adonai set His love on you and chose you—for you are the least of all peoples. ⁸ Rather, because of His love for you and His keeping the oath He swore to your fathers, Adonai brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Know therefore that Adonai your God, He is God—the faithful God who keeps covenant kindness for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His mitzvot, ^{[q] 10} but repays those who hate Him to their face, to annihilate them. He will not hesitate with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you are to keep the commandment—both the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today, to do them.

Comfort, Proclaim Good News

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³¹ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers! ³³ O snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape the condemnation of Gehenna?

³⁴ “Because of this, behold, I’m sending you prophets and wise men and Torah scholars. Some of them you will kill and execute at the stake, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. ³⁵ And so, upon you shall come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah,^[a] whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. ^{[b] 36} Amen, I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

Holy Temple to Be Destroyed

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! ³⁸ Look, your house is left to you desolate! ^{[c] 39} For I tell you, you will never see Me again until you say, ‘Baruch ha-ba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”^[d]

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A Lame Beggar Walks

3 Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour,^[a] the time of prayer. ² A man lame from birth was being carried—every day they used to put him at the Temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg for tzedakah from those entering the Temple. ³ When he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he began asking to receive tzedakah.

⁴ But Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, “Look at us!” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you—in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach ha-Natzrati, get up and walk!” ⁷ Then grabbing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸ Jumping up, he stood and began walking; and he went with them into the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God!

⁹ Now all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ They began to realize he was the one who used to sit begging for tzedakah at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment over what had happened to him.

Peter Speaks at the Temple

¹¹ While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people together came running toward them in the place called Solomon’s Portico. ¹² But when Peter saw, he responded to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us—as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant^[b] Yeshua—the One you handed over and disowned before Pilate, though he had decided to release Him. ¹⁴ But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. ¹⁵ You killed the Author of life—the One God raised from the dead! We are witnesses of it. ¹⁶ Now through faith in the name of Yeshua, His name has strengthened this man whom you see and know. Indeed, the faith through Yeshua has given this man perfect health in front of you all.

¹⁷ “Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders did. ¹⁸ But what God foretold through the mouth of all His prophets—that His Messiah was to suffer—so He has fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent, therefore, and return—so your sins might be blotted out, ²⁰ so times of relief might come from the presence of Adonai and He might send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you. ²¹ Heaven must receive Him, until the time of the restoration of all the things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of His holy prophets. ²² Moses said, ‘Adonai your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. Hear and obey Him in all that He shall say to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to that Prophet shall be completely cut off from the people.’ ^{[c] 24} Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel on have announced these days. ²⁵ You are the sons of the prophets and also of the covenant that God cut with your fathers,^[d] saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ ^{[e] 26} God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you, to bless you all by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Standing Before the Sanhedrin

4 As Peter and John were speaking to the people, the kohanim and the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees came up to them. ² They were indignant because Peter and John were teaching the people and announcing in Yeshua the resurrection of the dead. ³ So they grabbed them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ But many who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

⁵ On the next day, the rulers and elders and Torah scholars were gathered together in Jerusalem. ⁶ Annas the kohen gadol was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all those who were of high-priestly descent. ⁷ When they had placed Peter and John in their midst, they began to inquire, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are on trial today for a mitzvah done for a sick man, as to how this fellow was healed, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach ha-Natzrati—whom you had crucified, whom God raised from the dead—this one stands before you whole. ¹¹ This Yeshua is ‘the stone—rejected by you, the builders—that has become the chief cornerstone.’ ^{[f] 12} There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved!”

¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and figured out they were laymen without training, they were amazed. They began to realize that these men had been with Yeshua. ¹⁴ But seeing the healed man standing with them, they had nothing to say in response. ¹⁵ When they had ordered Peter and John to go out of the council chamber, they began to confer with one another, ¹⁶ saying, “What shall we do with these men? For indeed, it’s obvious to everyone living in Jerusalem that a remarkable miracle has happened through them, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷ But so it won’t spread any further among the people, let’s warn them not to speak anymore to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸ So they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Yeshua. ¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. ²⁰ For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹ After threatening them again, they let them go—finding no way they could punish them on account of the people, because they all were glorifying God for what had happened. ²² For the man in whom this miracle of healing had happened was more than forty years old.

Prayer for Courage

²³ As soon as they were released, Peter and John went to their own people and reported all that the ruling kohanim and elders had said to them. ²⁴ When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “O Sovereign Master, ‘You made heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them.’ ^{[g] 25} You said by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, through the mouth of our father David Your servant,

²⁷ “For truly both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together in this city against Your holy Servant Yeshua, whom You anointed. ²⁸ They did whatever Your hand and Your purpose predetermined to happen. ²⁹ And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant Your servants to speak Your word with utmost courage— ³⁰ while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy Servant Yeshua.”

³¹ When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. And they were all filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Ruach-Filled Community Life

³² Now the whole group of those who believed was one in heart and mind. No one would say anything he owned was his own, but they had everything in common. ³³ With great power the emissaries were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Yeshua, and abundant favor was upon them all. ³⁴ No one among them was needy, for all who were owners of lands or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds ³⁵ and set them at the feet of the emissaries. And the proceeds were distributed according to the need each one had.

³⁶ Now Joseph, also called Barnabas by the emissaries (which is translated Son of Encouragement), was a Levite and native of Cyprus. ³⁷ He sold a field that he owned and brought the money and laid it at the feet of the emissaries.