July 24 2021
Source Sheet by Jerome Woolpy
Question: Why does Moses accept
God’s command not to enter the
Promised Land? What if he didn’t?
Does Moses’ summary of what God
has done for Israelites seem just,
peaceful, or loving?
Notice this quotation from commentary cited above: As Jews, we are also
ethically guided by the words of the Prophets. In the Book of Isaiah, we are told:
“Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). Amos warns that we should “Seek good and not
evil…” (Amos 5:14) and “Hate evil and love good and establish justice in the
gate…” (Amos 5:15).
Deuteronomy 3:23-4:4
(23) I [Moses] pleaded with the LORD at that time, saying, (24) “O Lord GOD,
You who let Your servant see the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty
hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or on earth can equal! (25)
Let me, I pray, cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan,
that good hill country, and the Lebanon.” (26) But the LORD was wrathful with
me on your account and would not listen to me. The LORD said to me,
“Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again! (27) Go up to the summit of
Pisgah and gaze about, to the west, the north, the south, and the east. Look at it
well, for you shall not go across yonder Jordan. (28) Give Joshua his
instructions, and imbue him with strength and courage, for he shall go across at
the head of this people, and he shall allot to them the land that you may only
see.” (29) Meanwhile we stayed on in the valley near Beth-peor. (1) And now, O
Israel, give heed to the laws and rules that I am instructing you to observe, so
that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your
fathers, is giving you. (2) You shall not add anything to what I command you or
take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your
God that I enjoin upon you. (3) You saw with your own eyes what the LORD
did in the matter of Baal-peor, that the LORD your God wiped out from among
you every person who followed Baal-peor; (4) while you, who held fast to the
LORD your God, are all alive today.
Deuteronomy 4:5-40
(5) See, I have imparted to you laws and rules, as the LORD my God has
commanded me, for you to abide by in the land that you are about to enter and
occupy. (6) Observe them faithfully, for that will be proof of your wisdom and
discernment to other peoples, who on hearing of all these laws will say, “Surely,
that great nation is a wise and discerning people.” (7) For what great nation is
there that has a god so close at hand as is the LORD our God whenever we call
upon Him? (8) Or what great nation has laws and rules as perfect as all this
Teaching that I set before you this day? (9) But take utmost care and watch
yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with
your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live.
And make them known to your children and to your children’s children: (10)
The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said
to Me, “Gather the people to Me that I may let them hear My words, in order
that they may learn to revere Me as long as they live on earth, and may so teach
their children.” (11) You came forward and stood at the foot of the mountain.
The mountain was ablaze with flames to the very skies, dark with densest
clouds. (12) The LORD spoke to you out of the fire; you heard the sound of
words but perceived no shape—nothing but a voice. (13) He declared to you the
covenant that He commanded you to observe, the Ten Commandments; and He
inscribed them on two tablets of stone. (14) At the same time the LORD
commanded me to impart to you laws and rules for you to observe in the land
that you are about to cross into and occupy. (15) For your own sake, therefore,
be most careful—since you saw no shape when the LORD your God spoke to
you at Horeb out of the fire— (16) not to act wickedly and make for yourselves a
sculptured image in any likeness whatever: the form of a man or a woman, (17)
the form of any beast on 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 waters below the earth. (19) And when you look up to the sky and behold
the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be
lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These the LORD your God
allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven; (20) but you the LORD
took and brought out of Egypt, that iron blast furnace, to be His very own
people, as is now the case. (21) Now the LORD was angry with me on your
account and swore that I should not cross the Jordan and enter the good land
that the LORD your God is assigning you as a heritage. (22) For I must die in
this land; I shall not cross the Jordan. But you will cross and take possession of
that good land. (23) Take care, then, not to forget the covenant that the LORD
your God concluded with you, and not to make for yourselves a sculptured
image in any likeness, against which the LORD your God has enjoined you. (24)
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God. (25) When
you have begotten children and children’s children and are long established in
the land, should you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in
any likeness, causing the LORD your God displeasure and vexation, (26) I call
heaven and earth this day to witness against you that you shall soon perish from
the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure
in it, but shall be utterly wiped out. (27) The LORD will scatter you among the
peoples, and only a scant few of you shall be left among the nations to which the
LORD will drive you. (28) There you will serve man-made gods of wood and
stone, that cannot see or hear or eat or smell. (29) But if you search there for the
LORD your God, you will find Him, if only you seek Him with all your heart
and soul— (30) when you are in distress because all these things have befallen
you and, in the end, return to the LORD your God and obey Him. (31) For the
LORD your God is a compassionate God: He will not fail you nor will He let
you perish; He will not forget the covenant which He made on oath with your
fathers. (32) You have but to inquire about bygone ages that came before you,
ever since God created man on earth, from one end of heaven to the other: has
anything as grand as this ever happened, or has its like ever been known? (33)
Has any people heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have, and
survived? (34) Or has any god ventured to go and take for himself one nation
from the midst of another by prodigious acts, by signs and portents, by war, by
a mighty and an outstretched arm and awesome power, as the LORD your God
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? (35) It has been clearly
demonstrated to you that the LORD alone is God; there is none beside Him.
(36) From the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; on earth He
let you see His great fire; and from amidst that fire you heard His words. (37)
And because He loved your fathers, He chose their heirs after them; He Himself,
in His great might, led you out of Egypt, (38) to drive from your path nations
greater and more populous than you, to take you into their land and assign it to
you as a heritage, as is still the case. (39) Know therefore this day and keep in
mind that the LORD alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is
no other. (40) Observe His laws and commandments, which I enjoin upon you
this day, that it may go well with you and your children after you, and that you
may long remain in the land that the LORD your God is assigning to you for all
time.
Deuteronomy 4:41-49
(41) Then Moses set aside three cities on the east side of the Jordan (42) to
which a manslayer could escape, one who unwittingly slew a fellow man
without having been hostile to him in the past; he could flee to one of these
cities and live: (43) Bezer, in the wilderness in the Tableland, belonging to the
Reubenites; Ramoth, in Gilead, belonging to the Gadites; and Golan, in Bashan,
belonging to the Manassites. (44) This is the Teaching that Moses set before the
Israelites: (45) these are the decrees, laws, and rules that Moses addressed to the
people of Israel, after they had left Egypt, (46) beyond the Jordan, in the valley
at Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon,
whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they had left Egypt. (47) They had
taken possession of his country and that of King Og of Bashan—the two kings
of the Amorites—which were on the east side of the Jordan (48) from Aroer on
the banks of the wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sion, that is, Hermon; (49) also
the whole Arabah on the east side of the Jordan, as far as the Sea of the Arabah,
at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.
Deuteronomy 5:1-18
(1) Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the laws
and rules that I proclaim to you this day! Study them and observe them
faithfully! (2) The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. (3) It was
not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, the living,
every one of us who is here today. (4) Face to face the LORD spoke to you on
the mountain out of the fire— (5) I stood between the LORD and you at that
time to convey the LORD’s words to you, for you were afraid of the fire and did
not go up the mountain—saying: (6) I the LORD am your God who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: (7) You shall have no other
gods beside Me. (8) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any
likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters
below the earth. (9) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the
LORD your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon
the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who
reject Me, (10) but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those
who love Me and keep My commandments. (11) You shall not swear falsely by
the name of the LORD your God; for the LORD will not clear one who swears
falsely by His name. (12) Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD
your God has commanded you. (13) Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, (14) but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall
not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave,
your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so
that your male and female slave may rest as you do. (15) Remember that you
were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God freed you from there
with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God has
commanded you to observe the sabbath day. (16) Honor your father and your
mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may long
endure, and that you may fare well, in the land that the LORD your God is
assigning to you. (17) You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You
shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (18) You
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house,
or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is
your neighbor’s.
Deuteronomy 5:19-6:3
(19) The LORD spoke those words—those and no more—to your whole
congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense
clouds. He inscribed them on two tablets of stone, which He gave to me. (20)
When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze
with fire, you came up to me, all your tribal heads and elders, (21) and said,
“The LORD our God has just shown us His majestic Presence, and we
have heard His voice out of the fire; we have seen this day that man may
live though God has spoken to him. (22) Let us not die, then, for this
fearsome fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the LORD our
God any longer, we shall die. (23) For what mortal ever heard the voice
of the living God speak out of the fire, as we did, and lived? (24) You go
closer and hear all that the LORD our God says, and then you tell us
everything that the LORD our God tells you, and we will willingly do
it.” (25) The LORD heard the plea that you made to me, and the LORD said to
me, “I have heard the plea that this people made to you; they did well to speak
thus. (26) May they always be of such mind, to revere Me and follow all My
commandments, that it may go well with them and with their children forever!
(27) Go, say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ (28) But you remain here with Me,
and I will give you the whole Instruction—the laws and the rules—that you shall
impart to them, for them to observe in the land that I am giving them to
possess.” (29) Be careful, then, to do as the LORD your God has commanded
you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left: (30) follow only the path that
the LORD your God has enjoined upon you, so that you may thrive and that it
may go well with you, and that you may long endure in the land you are to
possess. (1) And this is the Instruction—the laws and the rules—that the LORD
your God has commanded [me] to impart to you, to be observed in the land
that you are about to cross into and occupy, (2) so that you, your children, and
your children’s children may revere the LORD your God and follow, as long as
you live, all His laws and commandments that I enjoin upon you, to the end that
you may long endure. (3) Obey, O Israel, willingly and faithfully, that it may go
well with you and that you may increase greatly [in] a land flowing with milk
and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, spoke to you.
Deuteronomy 6:4-25
(4) Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. (5) You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7)
Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and
when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as
a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9)
inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (10) When the
LORD your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to you—great and flourishing cities that
you did not build, (11) houses full of all good things that you did not fill, hewn
cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not
plant—and you eat your fill, (12) take heed that you do not forget the LORD
who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. (13) Revere only
the LORD your God and worship Him alone, and swear only by His name. (14)
Do not follow other gods, any gods of the peoples about you— (15) for the
LORD your God in your midst is an impassioned God—lest the anger of the
LORD your God blaze forth against you and He wipe you off the face of the
earth. (16) Do not try the LORD your God, as you did at Massah. (17) Be sure
to keep the commandments, decrees, and laws that the LORD your God has
enjoined upon you. (18) Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD,
that it may go well with you and that you may be able to possess the good land
that the LORD your God promised on oath to your fathers, (19) and that all
your enemies may be driven out before you, as the LORD has spoken. (20)
When, in time to come, your children ask you, “What mean the decrees, laws,
and rules that the LORD our God has enjoined upon you?” (21) you shall say to
your children, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the LORD freed us
from Egypt with a mighty hand. (22) The LORD wrought before our eyes
marvelous and destructive signs and portents in Egypt, against Pharaoh and all
his household; (23) and us He freed from there, that He might take us and give
us the land that He had promised on oath to our fathers. (24) Then the LORD
commanded us to observe all these laws, to revere the LORD our God, for our
lasting good and for our survival, as is now the case. (25) It will be therefore to
our merit before the LORD our God to observe faithfully this whole
Instruction, as He has commanded us.”
Deuteronomy 7:1-11
(1) When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are about
to enter and possess, and He dislodges many nations before you—the
Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and
Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you— (2) and the LORD your
God delivers them to you and you defeat them, you must doom them to
destruction: grant them no terms and give them no quarter. (3) You shall
not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their
daughters for your sons. (4) For they will turn your children away from Me to
worship other gods, and the LORD’s anger will blaze forth against you and He
will promptly wipe you out. (5) Instead, this is what you shall do to them: you
shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred
posts, and consign their images to the fire. (6) For you are a people
consecrated to the LORD your God: of all the peoples on earth the LORD your
God chose you to be His treasured people. (7) It is not because you are the most
numerous of peoples that the LORD set His heart on you and chose
you—indeed, you are the smallest of peoples; (8) but it was because the LORD
favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers that the LORD freed
you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the
power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) Know, therefore, that only the LORD your
God is God, the steadfast God who keeps His covenant faithfully to the
thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments,
(10) but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject Him—never
slow with those who reject Him, but requiting them instantly. (11) Therefore,
observe faithfully the Instruction—the laws and the rules—with which I charge
you today.
Source Sheet created on Sefaria by Jerome Woolpy