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In this book are the words that Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between the town of Paran on one side and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other.
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(It takes eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea by way of the hill country of Edom.)
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On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after they had left Egypt, Moses told the people everything the LORD had commanded him to tell them.
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This was after the LORD had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in the town of Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who ruled in the towns of Ashtaroth and Edrei.
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It was while the people were east of the Jordan in the territory of Moab that Moses began to explain God's laws and teachings. He said,
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"When we were at Mount Sinai, the LORD our God said to us, 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
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Break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions---to the Jordan Valley, to the hill country and the lowlands, to the southern region, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and on beyond the Lebanon Mountains as far as the great Euphrates River.
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All of this is the land which I, the LORD, promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. Go and occupy it.' "
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Moses said to the people, "While we were still at Mount Sinai, I told you, 'The responsibility for leading you is too much for me. I can't do it alone.
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The LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
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May the LORD, the God of your ancestors, make you increase a thousand times more and make you prosperous, as he promised!
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But how can I alone bear the heavy responsibility for settling your disputes?
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Choose some wise, understanding, and experienced men from each tribe, and I will put them in charge of you.'
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And you agreed that this was a good thing to do.
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So I took the wise and experienced leaders you chose from your tribes, and I placed them in charge of you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten. I also appointed other officials throughout the tribes.
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"At that time I instructed them, 'Listen to the disputes that come up among your people. Judge every dispute fairly, whether it concerns only your own people or involves foreigners who live among you.
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Show no partiality in your decisions; judge everyone on the same basis, no matter who they are. Do not be afraid of anyone, for the decisions you make come from God. If any case is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will decide it.'
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At the same time I gave you instructions for everything else you were to do.
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"We did what the LORD our God commanded us. We left Mount Sinai and went through that vast and fearful desert on the way to the hill country of the Amorites. When we reached Kadesh Barnea,
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I told you, 'You have now come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God, the God of our ancestors, is giving us. Look, there it is. Go and occupy it as he commanded. Do not hesitate or be afraid.'
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"But you came to me and said, 'Let's send men ahead of us to spy out the land, so that they can tell us the best route to take and what kind of cities are there.'
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"That seemed like a good thing to do, so I selected twelve men, one from each tribe.
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They went into the hill country as far as Eshcol Valley and explored it.
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They brought us back some fruit they found there, and reported that the land which the LORD our God was giving us was very fertile.
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"But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God, and you would not enter the land.
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You grumbled to one another: 'The LORD hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to hand us over to these Amorites, so that they could kill us.
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Why should we go there? We are afraid. The men we sent tell us that the people there are stronger and taller than we are, and that they live in cities with walls that reach the sky. They saw giants there!'
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"But I told you, 'Don't be afraid of those people.
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The LORD your God will lead you, and he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt
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and in the desert. You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son.'
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But in spite of what I said, you still would not trust the LORD,
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even though he always went ahead of you to find a place for you to camp. To show you the way, he went in front of you in a pillar of fire by night and in a pillar of cloud by day.
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"The LORD heard your complaints and became angry, and so he solemnly declared,
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'Not one of you from this evil generation will enter the fertile land that I promised to give your ancestors.
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Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will enter it. He has remained faithful to me, and I will give him and his descendants the land that he has explored.'
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Because of you the LORD also became angry with me and said, 'Not even you, Moses, will enter the land.
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But strengthen the determination of your helper, Joshua son of Nun. He will lead Israel to occupy the land.'
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"Then the LORD said to all of us, 'Your children, who are still too young to know right from wrong, will enter the land---the children you said would be seized by your enemies. I will give the land to them, and they will occupy it.
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But as for you people, turn around and go back into the desert on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba.'
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"You replied, 'Moses, we have sinned against the LORD. But now we will attack, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' Then each one of you got ready to fight, thinking it would be easy to invade the hill country.
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"But the LORD said to me, 'Warn them not to attack, for I will not be with them, and their enemies will defeat them.'
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I told you what the LORD had said, but you paid no attention. You rebelled against him, and in your pride you marched into the hill country.
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Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased you as far as Hormah and defeated you there in the hill country of Edom.
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So you cried out to the LORD for help, but he would not listen to you or pay any attention to you.
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"So then, after we had stayed at Kadesh for a long time,
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we finally turned and went into the desert, on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba, as the LORD had commanded, and we spent a long time wandering about in the hill country of Edom.
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that we had spent enough time wandering about in those hills and that we should go north.
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He told me to give you the following instructions 'You are about to go through the hill country of Edom, the territory of your distant relatives, the descendants of Esau. They will be afraid of you,
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but you must not start a war with them, because I am not going to give you so much as a square foot of their land. I have given Edom to Esau's descendants.
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You may buy food and water from them.'
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"Remember how the LORD your God has blessed you in everything that you have done. He has taken care of you as you wandered through this vast desert. He has been with you these forty years, and you have had everything you needed.
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"So we moved on and left the road that goes from the towns of Elath and Eziongeber to the Dead Sea, and we turned northeast toward Moab.
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The LORD said to me, 'Don't trouble the people of Moab, the descendants of Lot, or start a war against them. I have given them the city of Ar, and I am not going to give you any of their land.' "
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(A mighty race of giants called the Emim used to live in Ar. They were as tall as the Anakim, another race of giants.
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Like the Anakim they were also known as Rephaim; but the Moabites called them Emim.
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The Horites used to live in Edom, but the descendants of Esau chased them out, destroyed their nation, and settled there themselves, just as the Israelites later chased their enemies out of the land that the LORD gave them.)
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"Then we crossed the Zered River as the LORD told us to do.
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This was thirty-eight years after we had left Kadesh Barnea. All the fighting men of that generation had died, as the LORD had said they would.
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The LORD kept on opposing them until he had destroyed them all.
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"After they had all died,
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'Today you are to pass through the territory of Moab by way of Ar.
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You will then be near the land of the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot. Don't trouble them or start a war against them, because I am not going to give you any of the land that I have given them.' "
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(This territory is also known as the land of the Rephaim, the name of the people who used to live there; the Ammonites called them Zamzummim.
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They were as tall as the Anakim. There were many of them, and they were a mighty race. But the LORD destroyed them, so that the Ammonites took over their land and settled there.
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The LORD had done the same thing for the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in the hill country of Edom. He destroyed the Horites, so that the Edomites took over their land and settled there, where they still live.
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The land along the Mediterranean coast had been settled by people from the island of Crete. They had destroyed the Avvim, the original inhabitants, and had taken over all their land as far south as the city of Gaza.)
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"After we had passed through Moab, the LORD told us, 'Now, start out and cross the Arnon River. I am placing in your power Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, along with his land. Attack him, and begin occupying his land.
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From today on I will make people everywhere afraid of you. Everyone will tremble with fear at the mention of your name.'
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"Then I sent messengers from the desert of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with the following offer of peace:
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'Let us pass through your country. We will go straight through and not leave the road.
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We will pay for the food we eat and the water we drink. All we want to do is to pass through your country,
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until we cross the Jordan River into the land that the LORD our God is giving us. The descendants of Esau, who live in Edom, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, allowed us to pass through their territory.'
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"But King Sihon would not let us pass through his country. The LORD your God had made him stubborn and rebellious, so that we could defeat him and take his territory, which we still occupy.
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"Then the LORD said to me, 'Look, I have made King Sihon and his land helpless before you; take his land and occupy it.'
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Sihon came out with all his men to fight us near the town of Jahaz,
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but the LORD our God put him in our power, and we killed him, his sons, and all his men.
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At the same time we captured and destroyed every town, and put everyone to death, men, women, and children. We left no survivors.
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We took the livestock and plundered the towns.
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The LORD our God let us capture all the towns from Aroer, on the edge of the Arnon Valley, and the city in the middle of that valley, all the way to Gilead. No town had walls too strong for us.
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But we did not go near the territory of the Ammonites or to the banks of the Jabbok River or to the towns of the hill country or to any other place where the LORD our God had commanded us not to go.
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Then Jesus spoke to them in parables: "Once there was a man who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip.
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When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest.
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The tenants grabbed the slave, beat him, and sent him back without a thing.
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Then the owner sent another slave; the tenants beat him over the head and treated him shamefully.
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The owner sent another slave, and they killed him; and they treated many others the same way, beating some and killing others.
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The only one left to send was the man's own dear son. Last of all, then, he sent his son to the tenants. 'I am sure they will respect my son,' he said.
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But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the owner's son. Come on, let's kill him, and his property will be ours!'
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So they grabbed the son and killed him and threw his body out of the vineyard.
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"What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do?" asked Jesus. "He will come and kill those tenants and turn the vineyard over to others.
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Surely you have read this scripture? 'The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.
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This was done by the Lord; what a wonderful sight it is!' "
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The Jewish leaders tried to arrest Jesus, because they knew that he had told this parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.
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Some Pharisees and some members of Herod's party were sent to Jesus to trap him with questions.
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They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you tell the truth, without worrying about what people think. You pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people. Tell us, is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor? Should we pay them or not?"
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But Jesus saw through their trick and answered, "Why are you trying to trap me? Bring a silver coin, and let me see it."
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They brought him one, and he asked, "Whose face and name are these?" "The Emperor's," they answered.
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So Jesus said, "Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God." And they were amazed at Jesus.
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Then some Sadducees, who say that people will not rise from death, came to Jesus and said,
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"Teacher, Moses wrote this law for us: 'If a man dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man's brother must marry the widow so that they can have children who will be considered the dead man's children.'
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Once there were seven brothers; the oldest got married and died without having children.
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Then the second one married the woman, and he also died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother,
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and then to the rest: all seven brothers married the woman and died without having children. Last of all, the woman died.
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Now, when all the dead rise to life on the day of resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven of them had married her."
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Jesus answered them, "How wrong you are! And do you know why? It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power.
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For when the dead rise to life, they will be like the angels in heaven and will not marry.
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Now, as for the dead being raised: haven't you ever read in the Book of Moses the passage about the burning bush? There it is written that God said to Moses, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'
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He is the God of the living, not of the dead. You are completely wrong!"
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A teacher of the Law was there who heard the discussion. He saw that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer, so he came to him with a question: "Which commandment is the most important of all?"
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Jesus replied, "The most important one is this: 'Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord.
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
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The second most important commandment is this: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment more important than these two."
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The teacher of the Law said to Jesus, "Well done, Teacher! It is true, as you say, that only the Lord is God and that there is no other god but he.
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And you must love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is more important to obey these two commandments than to offer on the altar animals and other sacrifices to God."
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Jesus noticed how wise his answer was, and so he told him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." After this nobody dared to ask Jesus any more questions.
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As Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he asked the question, "How can the teachers of the Law say that the Messiah will be the descendant of David?
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The Holy Spirit inspired David to say: 'The Lord said to my Lord: Sit here at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet.'
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David himself called him 'Lord'; so how can the Messiah be David's descendant?" A large crowd was listening to Jesus gladly.
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As he taught them, he said, "Watch out for the teachers of the Law, who like to walk around in their long robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplace,
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who choose the reserved seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts.
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They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!"
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As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money;
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then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny.
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He called his disciples together and said to them, "I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others.
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For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had---she gave all she had to live on."
