My other websites: Catholic, Prophets today, For Kids

Read Today’s Bible Verses following here:

Deuteronomy 6

1This then is the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances,^a which the LORD, your God, has commanded that you be taught to observe in the land you are about to cross into to possess,

2so that you, that is, you, your child, and your grandchild, may fear the LORD, your God, by keeping, as long as you live, all his statutes and commandments^b which I enjoin on you, and thus have long life.

3Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly; for the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.^c

The Great Commandment.^*

4^d Hear, O Israel!^* The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

5Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.^e

6^f Take to heart these words which I command you today.^g

7Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.^h

8Bind them on your arm as a sign^* and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.ⁱ

9Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.^j

Fidelity in Prosperity.

10^k When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,^l

11with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat and are satisfied,^m

12ⁿ be careful not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery.

13^o The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve,^* and by his name shall you swear.

14^p You shall not go after other gods, any of the gods of the surrounding peoples—

15for the LORD, your God who is in your midst, is a passionate God—lest the anger of the LORD, your God, flare up against you and he destroy you from upon the land.

16You shall not put the LORD, your God, to the test, as you did at Massah.^q

17But keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, and the decrees and the statutes he has commanded you.

18Do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and you may enter in and possess the good land which the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors,

19driving all your enemies out of your way, as the LORD has promised.^r

Instruction to Children.

20^s Later on, when your son asks you, “What do these decrees and statutes and ordinances mean?”^t which the LORD, our God, has enjoined on you,

21^u you shall say to your son, “We were once slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand^v

22and wrought before our eyes signs and wonders, great and dire, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and his whole house.

23He brought us from there to bring us in and give us the land he had promised on oath to our ancestors.^w

24^x The LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes in fear of the LORD, our God, that we may always have as good a life as we have today.

25This is our justice before the LORD, our God: to observe carefully this whole commandment he has enjoined on us.”

Deuteronomy 7,

Destruction of the Nations in the Land.

1^a When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which you are about to enter to possess, and removes many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites,^b seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—

2and when the LORD, your God, gives them over to you and you defeat them, you shall put them under the ban. Make no covenant with them^c and do not be gracious to them.

3^d You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons.

4For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the anger of the LORD would flare up against you and he would quickly destroy you.

5But this is how you must deal with them:^e Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their asherahs,^* and destroy their idols by fire.

6For you are a people holy to the LORD, your God; the LORD, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own.^f

7It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples.^g

8It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.^h

9ⁱ Know, then, that the LORD, your God, is God: the faithful God who keeps covenant mercy to the thousandth generation toward those who love him and keep his commandments,^j

10but who repays with destruction those who hate him; he does not delay with those who hate him, but makes them pay for it.

11Therefore carefully observe the commandment, the statutes and the ordinances which I command you today.

Blessings of Obedience.

12^k As your reward for heeding these ordinances and keeping them carefully, the LORD, your God, will keep with you the covenant mercy he promised on oath to your ancestors.

13He will love and bless and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and wine and oil, the young of your herds and the offspring of your flocks, in the land which he swore to your ancestors he would give you.

14You will be blessed above all peoples; no man or woman among you shall be childless nor shall your livestock be barren.

15The LORD will remove all sickness from you; he will not afflict you with any of the malignant diseases that you know from Egypt, but will leave them with all those who hate you.

16You shall consume all the peoples which the LORD, your God, is giving over to you. You are not to look on them with pity, nor serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.^l

17^m If you say to yourselves, “These nations are more numerous than we. How can we dispossess them?”

18do not be afraid of them. Rather, remember clearly what the LORD, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

19the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, the strong hand and outstretched arm with which the LORD, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the peoples of whom you are now afraid.

20Moreover, the LORD, your God, will send hornets among them, until those who are left and those who are hiding from you are destroyed.ⁿ

21Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the LORD, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God.

22He will remove these nations before you little by little. You cannot finish with them quickly, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you.^o

23The LORD, your God, will give them over to you and throw them into utter panic until they are destroyed.^p

24He will deliver their kings into your power, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No one will be able to stand up against you,^q till you have destroyed them.

25^r The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD, your God.^s

26You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, so as to be, like it, under the ban; loathe and abhor it utterly for it is under the ban.^*

Deuteronomy 8.

God’s Care.

1Be careful to observe this whole commandment^a that I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors.

2Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness,^b so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not.

3He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,^c a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone^* that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

4The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.^d

5So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD, your God, disciplines you.^e

6Therefore, keep the commandments of the LORD, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.

Cautions About Prosperity.

7^f For the LORD, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys,

8a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey,

9a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper.

10But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the LORD, your God, for the good land he has given you.

11^g Be careful not to forget the LORD, your God, by failing to keep his commandments and ordinances and statutes which I enjoin on you today:

12lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built fine houses and lived in them,

13and your herds and flocks have increased, your silver and gold has increased, and all your property has increased,

14you then become haughty of heart and forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery;

15he guided you through the vast and terrible wilderness with its saraph^* serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; he brought forth water for you from the flinty rock^h

16and fed you in the wilderness with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end.

17Otherwise, you might say in your heart,ⁱ “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has got me this wealth.”

18Remember then the LORD, your God, for he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant he swore to your ancestors.

19But if you do forget the LORD, your God, and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them,^j I bear witness to you this day that you will perish utterly.

20Like the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so shall you too perish for not listening to the voice of the LORD, your God.

Hebrews 10:19-39

Recalling the Past.^*

19Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary^m

20^* by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil,ⁿ that is, his flesh,

21^{* o} and since we have “a great priest over the house of God,”

22let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience^* and our bodies washed in pure water.^p

23Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.^q

24We must consider how to rouse one another to love and good works.

25We should not stay away from our assembly,^* as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.^r

26^{* s} If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins

27but a fearful prospect of judgment and a flaming fire that is going to consume the adversaries.^t

28Anyone who rejects the law of Moses^* is put to death without pity on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^u

29Do you not think that a much worse punishment is due the one who has contempt for the Son of God, considers unclean the covenant-blood by which he was consecrated, and insults the spirit of grace?^v

30We know the one who said:

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay,”

and again:

“The Lord will judge his people.”^w

31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.^x

32Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened,^* you endured a great contest of suffering.^y

33At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and affliction; at other times you associated yourselves with those so treated.^z

34You even joined in the sufferings of those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you had a better and lasting possession.^a

35Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense.^b

36You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.^c

37“For, after just a brief moment,^*

he who is to come shall come;

he shall not delay.^d

38But my just one shall live by faith,

and if he draws back I take no pleasure in him.”^e

39We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life.

Sermons Rosary Prayers Catholic Answers

The complete Book of Deuteronomy

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

The title of Deuteronomy in Hebrew is Debarim, “words,” from its opening phrase. The English title comes from the Septuagint of 17:18, deuteronomion, “copy of the law”; this title is appropriate because the book replicates much of the legal content of the previous books, serving as a “second law.” It brings to a close the five books of the Torah or Pentateuch with a retrospective account of Israel’s past—the exodus, the Sinai covenant, and the wilderness wanderings—and a look into Israel’s future as they stand poised to enter the land of Canaan and begin their life as a people there.

The book consists of three long addresses by Moses. Each of these contains narrative, law, and exhortation, in varying proportions. In an expansion of the first commandment of the decalogue (Ex 20:5–6; Dt 5:9–10), Moses tells the Israelites how to make a success of their life as a people once they are settled in the land. The choice presented to Israel is to love the Lord and keep his commandments, or to serve “other gods.” That choice will determine what kind of life they will make for themselves in the land. Whichever choice they make as a people carries consequences, which Deuteronomy terms “blessing” and “curse.” Thus the book can be seen as a kind of survival manual for Israel in their life as a people: how to live and what to avoid. This gives the book its hortatory style and tone of life-or-death urgency.

One defining concern of the book is centralization of worship. As Israel’s God is one (6:4–5), so its worship must be focused in one place, which the Lord “will choose from among your tribes”; there the Lord will “make his name dwell” (see note on 12:5). Thus the privileged status of the Jerusalem Temple is asserted; all other places and all other modes of worship of the God of Israel (the local shrines, the “high places,” “under every green tree”) are proscribed.

The book was probably composed over the course of three centuries, from the eighth century to the exile and beyond. It bears some relation to “the Book of the Law” discovered in the Jerusalem Temple around 622 B.C. during the reign of King Josiah (2 Kgs 22:8–13). It gives evidence of later editing: cf. the references to exile in 4:1–40; 28:63–68; 29:21–28; 30:1–10.

Over the book looms the disaster of 722/721, the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Israel. The detailed description of siege (28:49–57) especially echoes the fate the North suffered at the hands of the Assyrian invader. The book draws the minds of its intended readers back to a time before disastrous mistakes were made and their disastrous effects felt, and serves to explain the political and theological dynamics that led to the destruction of the North as well as to warn the surviving Southern Kingdom, Judah, to reform by keeping faith with Israel’s covenant Lord.

The characteristic and highly recognizable language and theology of Deuteronomy are seen in editorial comments structuring the works that follow it in the Hebrew canon, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Together with Deuteronomy, these present a history of Israel from Moses to the time of the Babylonian exile. Conventionally this great multivolume work is termed the Deuteronomistic History. The Book of Deuteronomy itself was also incorporated into the Torah as its fifth volume.

The book presents three discourses by Moses, as follows:

1. First Address (1:1–4:43)
2. Second Address (4:44–28:69)
   1. The Lord’s Covenant with Israel (4:44–11:32)
   2. The Deuteronomic Code (12:1–28:69)
3. Third Address (29:1–33:29)
4. The Death of Moses (34:1–12)

I. FIRST ADDRESS

The book of Hebrews

THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS

As early as the second century, this treatise, which is of great rhetorical power and force in its admonition to faithful pilgrimage under Christ’s leadership, bore the title “To the Hebrews.” It was assumed to be directed to Jewish Christians. Usually Hebrews was attached in Greek manuscripts to the collection of letters by Paul. Although no author is mentioned (for there is no address), a reference to Timothy (Heb 13:23) suggested connections to the circle of Paul and his assistants. Yet the exact audience, the author, and even whether Hebrews is a letter have long been disputed.

The author saw the addressees in danger of apostasy from their Christian faith. This danger was due not to any persecution from outsiders but to a weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to their calling (Heb 2:1; 4:14; 6:1–12; 10:23–32). The author’s main theme, the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus (Heb 3–10), is not developed for its own sake but as a means of restoring their lost fervor and strengthening them in their faith. Another important theme of the letter is that of the pilgrimage of the people of God to the heavenly Jerusalem (11:10; 12:1–3, 18–29; 13:14). This theme is intimately connected with that of Jesus’ ministry in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb 9:11–10:22).

The author calls this work a “message of encouragement” (Heb 13:22), a designation that is given to a synagogue sermon in Acts 13:15. Hebrews is probably therefore a written homily, to which the author gave an epistolary ending (Heb 13:22–25). The author begins with a reminder of the preexistence, incarnation, and exaltation of Jesus (Heb 1:3) that proclaimed him the climax of God’s word to humanity (Heb 1:1–3). He dwells upon the dignity of the person of Christ, superior to the angels (Heb 1:4–2:2). Christ is God’s final word of salvation communicated (in association with accredited witnesses to his teaching: cf. Heb 2:3–4) not merely by word but through his suffering in the humanity common to him and to all others (Heb 2:5–16). This enactment of salvation went beyond the pattern known to Moses, faithful prophet of God’s word though he was, for Jesus as high priest expiated sin and was faithful to God with the faithfulness of God’s own Son (Heb 2:17–3:6).

Just as the infidelity of the people thwarted Moses’ efforts to save them, so the infidelity of any Christian may thwart God’s plan in Christ (3:6–4:13). Christians are to reflect that it is their humanity that Jesus took upon himself, with all its defects save sinfulness, and that he bore the burden of it until death out of obedience to God. God declared this work of his Son to be the cause of salvation for all (Heb 4:14–5:10). Although Christians recognize this fundamental teaching, they may grow weary of it and of its implications, and therefore require other reflections to stimulate their faith (5:11–6:20).

Therefore, the author presents to the readers for their reflection the everlasting priesthood of Christ (Heb 7:1–28), a priesthood that fulfills the promise of the Old Testament (Heb 8:1–13). It also provides the meaning God ultimately intended in the sacrifices of the Old Testament (Heb 9:1–28): these pointed to the unique sacrifice of Christ, which alone obtains forgiveness of sins (Heb 10:1–18). The trial of faith experienced by the readers should resolve itself through their consideration of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary and his perpetual intercession there on their behalf (Heb 7:25; 8:1–13). They should also be strengthened by the assurance of his foreordained parousia, and by the fruits of faith that they have already enjoyed (Heb 10:19–39).

It is in the nature of faith to recognize the reality of what is not yet seen and is the object of hope, and the saints of the Old Testament give striking example of that faith (Heb 11:1–40). The perseverance to which the author exhorts the readers is shown forth in the earthly life of Jesus. Despite the afflictions of his ministry and the supreme trial of his suffering and death, he remained confident of the triumph that God would bring him (Heb 12:1–3). The difficulties of human life have meaning when they are accepted as God’s discipline (Heb 12:4–13), and if Christians persevere in fidelity to the word in which they have believed, they are assured of possessing forever the unshakable kingdom of God (Heb 12:14–29).

The letter concludes with specific moral commandments (Heb 13:1–17), in the course of which the author recalls again his central theme of the sacrifice of Jesus and the courage needed to associate oneself with it in faith (Heb 13:9–16).

As early as the end of the second century, the church of Alexandria in Egypt accepted Hebrews as a letter of Paul, and that became the view commonly held in the East. Pauline authorship was contested in the West into the fourth century, but then accepted. In the sixteenth century, doubts about that position were again raised, and the modern consensus is that the letter was not written by Paul. There is, however, no widespread agreement on any of the other suggested authors, e.g., Barnabas, Apollos, or Prisc(ill)a and Aquila. The document itself has no statement about its author.

Among the reasons why Pauline authorship has been abandoned are the great difference of vocabulary and style between Hebrews and Paul’s letters, the alternation of doctrinal teaching with moral exhortation, the different manner of citing the Old Testament, and the resemblance between the thought of Hebrews and that of Alexandrian Judaism. The Greek of the letter is in many ways the best in the New Testament.

Since the letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, written about A.D. 96, most probably cites Hebrews, the upper limit for the date of composition is reasonably certain. While the letter’s references in the present tense to the Old Testament sacrificial worship do not necessarily show that temple worship was still going on, many older commentators and a growing number of recent ones favor the view that it was and that the author wrote before the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In that case, the argument of the letter is more easily explained as directed toward Jewish Christians rather than those of Gentile origin, and the persecutions they have suffered in the past (cf. Heb 10:32–34) may have been connected with the disturbances that preceded the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in A.D. 49 under the emperor Claudius. These were probably caused by disputes between Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and those who did not.

The principal divisions of the Letter to the Hebrews are the following:

1. Introduction (1:1–4)
2. The Son Higher than the Angels (1:5–2:18)
3. Jesus, Faithful and Compassionate High Priest (3:1–5:10)
4. Jesus’ Eternal Priesthood and Eternal Sacrifice (5:11–10:39)
5. Examples, Discipline, Disobedience (11:1–12:29)
6. Final Exhortation, Blessing, Greetings (13:1–25)