Bible Reading Plan

Chapter 29

Renewal of the Covenant

^1 [a]These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab,^(a) in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.^(b)

² Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them:

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.^{(c) 3} With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.^{(d) 4} But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.^{(e) 5} Yet the Lord says, "During the forty years that I led^(f) you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.^{(g) 6} You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink.^(h) I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God."⁽ⁱ⁾

⁷ When you reached this place, Sihon^(j) king of Heshbon^(k) and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.^{(l) 8} We took their land and gave it as an inheritance^(m) to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.⁽ⁿ⁾

⁹ Carefully follow^(o) the terms of this covenant,^(p) so that you may prosper in everything you do.^{(q) 10} All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God—your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, ¹¹ together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.^{(r) 12} You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, ¹³ to confirm you this day as his people,^(s) that he may be your God^(t) as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¹⁴ I am making this covenant,^(u) with its oath, not only with you ¹⁵ who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today.^(v)

¹⁶ You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. ¹⁷ You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.^{(w) 18} Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns^(x) away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.^(y)

¹⁹ When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing^(z) on themselves, thinking, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,"^(aa) they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. ²⁰ The Lord will never be willing to forgive^(ab) them; his wrath and zeal^(ac) will burn^(ad) against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot^(ae) out their names from under heaven. ²¹ The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster,^(af) according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.^(ag)

²² Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it.^{(ah) 23} The whole land will be a burning waste^(ai) of salt^(aj) and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,^(ak) Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.^{(al) 24} All the nations will ask: "Why has the Lord done this to this land?^(am) Why this fierce, burning anger?"

²⁵ And the answer will be: "It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord , the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.^{(an) 26} They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷ Therefore the Lord 's anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.^{(ao) 28} In furious anger and in great wrath^(ap) the Lord uprooted^(aq) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now."

²⁹ The secret things belong to the Lord our God,^(ar) but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.^(as)

Chapter 7

Stephen's Speech to the Sanhedrin

¹ Then the high priest asked Stephen, "Are these charges true?"

² To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers,^(a) listen to me! The God of glory^(b) appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.^{(c) 3} ‘Leave your country and your people,' God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.'^[a](d)

⁴ "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.^{(e) 5} He gave him no inheritance here,^(f) not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land,^(g) even though at that time Abraham had no child. ⁶ God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.^{(h) 7} But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'^{[b](i) 8} Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.^(j) And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth.^(k) Later Isaac became the father of Jacob,^(l) and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.^(m)

⁹ "Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph,⁽ⁿ⁾ they sold him as a slave into Egypt.^(o) But God was with him^{(p) 10} and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.^(q)

¹¹ "Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.^{(r) 12} When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.^{(s) 13} On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was,^(t) and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family.^{(u) 14} After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family,^(v) seventy-five in all.^{(w) 15} Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died.^{(x) 16} Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.^(y)

¹⁷ "As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.^{(z) 18} Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.'^{[c](aa) 19} He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.^(ab)

²⁰ "At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^[d] For three months he was cared for by his family.^{(ac) 21} When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.^{(ad) 22} Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians^(ae) and was powerful in speech and action.