Deuteronomy 1-25

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Portion VA-ETHKHANAN (3:23-7:11)
3:23 "And I begged [ethkhanan] YHWH to show you pity at that time, saying,

24. "‘Master, YHWH, You have [only just] begun to show your servant Your
greatness, Your strong hand--who [else] is an El like [You] in the heavens or
on earth, who can do the likes of Your works or Your power?

Begun: literally, "opened up". He had seen miracle after miracle, and
spoken face to face with YHWH on numerous occasions. He had seen YHWH's
afterglow--the most a human being could see and still survive. Yet it was
only beginning. Thus far he had done most of these things alone; if the
people had also been intent on knowing YHWH instaed of doing their own thing,
perhaps it would have been different. Now Israel was finally proving to be a
people compliant with YHWH's wishes, and he wanted to see the fruition of
this. "Begun" could also mean "wounded", "pierced", or "penetrated", thus
meaning He had etched or drilled His greatness into him, or impressed it upon
him at last.

25. "‘Please let me cross over and see the good Land that is beyond the
Yarden--this good mountain and Levanon!'

Cross over: The same word for being a Hebrew. He had passed through the
Reed Sea, but not crossed over into the Land. He had known his affiliation
with the Hebrews for eighty years, but he wanted to really BE one. There is
a parallel in those who have been born again. It is like leaving Egypt, yet
the church is still the wilderness; it may have carried us through the
centuries of exile, but until we return to Torah and begin to live as Israel,
we are not truly Hebrews. "Crossing over" is becoming not just a group of
"saved" individuals, but becoming a people--a nation. And this requires
leaving behind what we were before. The Temple had high walls, and once one
went through the gates he could no longer see what was outside. It also
requires dying to self. That is our responsibility, though we cannot do it
alone (see v. 28). Moshe walked by sight instead of by faith, and this
disqualified him from entering the Land. The bar continues to be raised; it
is not enough to be merely Israelites; we must be Hebrews as well. Good
mountain: or perhaps "goodly hill-country", but more likely a reference to
Mt. Moryah, where he knew Avraham had sacrificed Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov had seen
the gateway to heaven. (Actually this mountain was not taken until seven
years after King David had been crowned--an excellent picture of why the
Temple Mount still is not fully in Israel's hands; it must await the next
"David"--the king chosen by the two houses of Israel together.) So he may in
essence be saying, "What good is all that you have brought me through, if I
do not get to the Good Land? My life is not complete." Levanon: in the
general sense, the snow-capped mountains north of the city of Dan. But the
word means "very white", and he may have also been referring to the purityand
true righteousness of Mt. Moryah and its connection to the heavenlies.

26. "But YHWH passed by me for your sake and would not listen to me, but
YHWH told me, ‘[This is too] much [for] you; don't ever say another word to
Me about this!'

Passed by me for your sake: or "was angry at me because of you"; he had
lived out a pictrue of crucifying Messiah a second time. If the people gave
Moshe instead of YHWH the credit for all he had done so far, what would
happen if he had brought them across the Yarden too? Even Moshe, YHWH's
instrument, was not to be worshiped (echoed in Rev. 19:10; 22:8,9). It was
for their benefit that he could not enter the Land, so they would remember
who their real leader was. (YHWH did not even let them find the place of his
tomb, 34:6.) Too much for you: Mount Moryah was more than he could deal
with. This was the right picture (see v. 28), so Moshe was told to be
satisfied and not try to persuade YHWH to change it, for it would be wrong to
be merciful in this case. But literally it only says, "Much to you", so it
is a blessing as well. Much had indeed been given to him, and he was asked to
simply accept YHWH's judgment.

27. "‘Go up to the head of the summit and lift up your eyes westward and
northward and southward and eastward, and see [it] with your eyes, because
you will not cross over this Yarden.'

Summit: or gap--the way by which they would pass from the plateau to the
Yarden plain. Lift up your eyes: includes a sense of seeing in the spirit,
for while he could probably see further than we can today with Israel's haze,
it is unlikely he could physically see it all--though it is only about 50 to
60 miles from Mt. Nevo to the Mediterranean Sea. But the names of the
different directions also have spiritual meaning in Hebrew. Westward: toward
the sea--perhaps a reminder of where they had come from; north: toward the
hidden treasure--the mystery of the remnant who would remain faithful; south:
toward the "right hand"--a title for Y'shua, the fulness of the Torah; and
eastward: toward the place of "breaking forth" (i.e., sunrise)--the complete
birth of the restored Adam, which is still to come. So he could still keep
"going up" (ascend) though he was not able to enter the Land. This vision
showed h im that all he had worked for was not in vain after all. He could
not cross "THIS Yarden", but he would cross another threshold and be able to
see YHWH after all--in a body that would not be destroyed by His intensity.

28. "‘But appoint Y'hoshua and encourage him and make him strong [enough],
because he shall cross over before this people and cause them to take
possession of the land which you will see.'

Here is another reason Moshe could not cross over: he represents the
Torah, which is meant to bring us to the border of the Promised Land, but it
will have done its job if it does. (See Galatians 3:24) Y'hoshua (the longer
version of Y'shua's name) is the only one who can bring us all the way. He
has been in the Land before, and knows its dangers, but still wants to go.
This is a "son in whom YHWH is well-pleased". He has searched it out and
knows his way around, which is more than could be said for Moshe. "What the
Torah [alone] could not do, weakened as it was due to our flesh, YHWH has
done" in sending Y'shua the Messiah (Romans 8:3). He taught us to die to
self and become one united people. And he indeed went on "before us", as the
firstfruits of the resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:20) Yet notice that Y'shua has
to be strengthened by Moshe (the Torah) as well. Moshe was to tell Y'hoshua
all that he had just seen in the vision (v. 27) and give him the strength it
had given him. When Y'shua was tempted, everything he said was from Moshe.
Faith without works is inadequate; without the Torah, Y'shua had no foot to
stand on. We need to both keep the commandments and have the Testimony of
Y'shua to ultimately conquer. (Rev. 12:17)

29. "But we remained in the valley in front of Beth-Pe'or.

On the spiritual level, Moshe's melancholy Still remains. They were still
in a false elohim's territory.

CHAPTER 4

1. "So now, Israel, listen to the prescribed tasks and the fitting customs
which I am teaching you to carry out, so that you may survive and enter to
take possession of the Land which YHWH, the Elohim of your ancestors, is
giving to you.

Listen: perhaps better, "consent" or "confirm". Survive: If Moshe was
being kept out of the Land for one infraction, how much more strict would be
the expectations once they got into the Land? But for our situation, the
word can also be translated "revive"; this is necessary before we too can
inhabit the Land.

2. "Do not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor diminish it in any
way, so that you can carefully guard the commandments of YHWH your Elohim
that I am laying upon you.

It seems that the commandments that YHWH most ardently warns us to be
especially careful about are those that fall by the wayside most frequently!
Y'shua echoes this warning, reminding us that one who diminishes the Torah
will receive a commensurately low position in His Kingdom. (Mat. 5:18-19;
see also Rev. 22:18 and Prov. 30:5-6) Add: anything more that is said about
them should only be to make the meaning clear, not to mandate new
requirements Minor rulings are to only be applications of the root principle
to a particular case, but not held to be authoritative for every situation;
the "way of walking it out" is meant to remain fluid, though all too often it
has not. But "the word which I am commanding you" may apply more
specifically to the last thing he said: Listen and obey, and you will be
revived; add no conditional clauses to this. Yet if it is so plain and
simple, why have we taken so long to get the point? Because the time of
Israel's punishment is over, and He is allowing the understanding to get
through to us. May we do it rightly this time!

3. "Your [own] eyes see what YHWH has done to Ba-al-Pe'or, because YHWH your
Elohim has exterminated from your midst any man who walked after Ba'al-Pe'or.

4. "But you who stayed close to YHWH are alive today--all of you.

Stayed with: closely adhered to, even "pursued". They did not have the
attitude of "I've got to obey", but of "I get to obey!" Compare Tzefanyah
(Zeph.) 3:18, in which those who grieve for the Temple are the ones who will
be regathered to the Land. He will not take every member of every family.
(Yirm./Jer. 3:14)

5. "Observe closely! I have taught you prescribed limits and principles of
proper judgment, just as YHWH my Elohim has ordered me [to do], so you may
carry them out inside the Land to which you are going in order to inherit it.

Prescribed limits and principles of proper judgment: i.e., the mindset of
a Hebrew--parameters, delineations, and frames of reference around which to
figure out how the rest applies. Inside the Land: literally, within the
inner [nearest] part; i.e., so may get as close to His heart as possible.
Inherit: or "take possession". He is giving us access to the Land (which can
also be a metaphor for all of the rich blessings that He gives us through the
Messiah), but only by following His principles carefully will we be able to
harness all of its potential.

6. "So you shall observe them and carry them out, because this [will be]
your wisdom and your perceptiveness as the [other] peoples who hear of all
these customs will see it, and say, ‘This nation is just [one] learned and
intelligent people!'

Observe and carry out: or, study them carefully (keeping careful guard
over them), then do them. They are not intended to simply be done without
learning their deeper message; in that case, "the letter kills". But the
spirit--the heart of what they are meant to teach us--brings life! Wisdom:
witty skill. In Messiah are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
(Colossians 2)

7. "--because which [other] nation is [so] great that their mighty one comes
close to them as YHWH our Elohim does when we invite Him to?

8. "And who is a great nation whose customs and rulings are as just as this
instruction that I am setting before you today?

9. "Only, be on guard for yourself, and keep strict watch over your soul,
so that you will not forget the things your eyes have seen, nor will they be
taken away from your heart all the days of your life, but instill them in
your children and grandchildren!

Soul: mind, will, emotions, appetites, that which motivates you most
deeply. Forget: or "wither away from". Heart: inclination or resolve.

10. "The day on which you stood before YHWH your Elohim in Horev--when YHWH
told me, ‘Assemble the people for Me, and I will let them hear My words, so
they might learn to stand in [reverent] awe of Me all the days that they live
on the earth, and so they might teach their children.

Teach: train and instruct the unaccustomed; reshape; literally, prod.
His intimacy with them would be greatly diminished, as they would be
spreading across a whole land and not gathered in one place as one body as
they had been. The memory must be preserved even in those who have not seen
it as vividly as the generation to whom he speaks.

11. "So you approached and stood beneath the mountain, with the mountain on
fire, burning to the heart of heaven--thick darkness, a cloud mass, and
obscuring dimness.

Beneath (or under): based on the word for "compressed", because like the
crossing of the sea, they had to put themselves in a position where they
could be crushed by its weight. This is probably the context for Y'shua's
comment that if one has faith he can tell "this mountain" to be removed. Was
he just speaking in generalities? Or was he referring to the potential curse
in the Torah which they were accepting upon themselves here? By trust in
him, it becomes not a threat hanging over their heads, but a wedding canopy
for the betrothal ceremony between YHWH and Israel, in which the two tablets
formed the ketubah (the written contract for the marriage). Yochanan the
Immerser, who Y'shua said stood in Eliyahu's office, was called the "Friend
of the Bridegroom" (one of the two witnesses). Moshe, here, is the friend of
the Bride, who leads her to her Husband. Moshe and Eliyahu were the two who
spoke to Y'shua on another mountain, and appear to be the two witnesses of
Revelation 11. Velikovsky's theory that the earth was passing through the
tail of a comet during the exodus could explain the massive force that it
would take to lift the mountain off the ground. The head of the comet would
have an extremely strong gravitational pull. (Perhaps it also had something
to do with lifting the walls of water up when they passed through the Reed
Sea.) The "flashes" (v. 16) may have been the exchange of electrical
discharges between the comet and the earth, in a much more violent phenomenon
than we usually imagine, to the point that Psalms 18, 29, and 46 could be
taken literally. Psalm 77 actually says "the universe [itself] shook". Psalm
68 says "Sinai itself was moved". Psalm 97 says the "mountains melted like
wax." Obviously there is something cataclysmic going on, not just an
isolated east wind; that only accomplished the rapid drying of the land
between the waters for them to cross the sea.

12. "Then YHWH spoke to you from among the flames; you were hearing the
sound of words, but there was no form for you to be seeing, except for a
[light] voice.

Seeing...a voice: By tradition this took place on Shavuoth, the feast of
Weeks, and the voice went out in 70 languages, to correspond with the 70
nations in Genesis 10. The upshot was that 3,000 disobedient to the commands
fell in one day. (Ex. 32:28) In Greek the day is called Pentecost (50th).
This immediately gives us a basis for the imagery of the "tongues of fire"
which were visible above the heads of the "sent ones" as the mighty sound of
wind [which is the same word for spirit] again some 1,500 years later, and
good news went out in many languages, and 3,000 obeyed it--a reparation of
what happened the previous time.

13. "And He informed you about His covenant, which He commanded you to carry
out--[that is], the Ten Declarations, and He engraved them in two slabs of
stone.

Stone: by tradition, it was sapphire, corresponding with the "plane" on
which YHWH's feet stood (Ex. 24:10) and like which His throne appeared (Ezkl.
1:26; 10:1), and the inscription went all the way through the stones so that
when held backwards the gaps between the letters spelled something different.
This reminds us of the contrast between "the spirit of the Torah" and the
letter, the curse and the promises, the choice between life and death that it
offers, and the fact that long after sinful world is done away with and
recreated and the sin against which it spoke is long forgotten, the Word of
YHWH will still endure forever. There is even a tradition that in the
Messianic kingdom, the letters of the Torah will rearrange themselves and,
though all the letters are still present, it will present a different message
for the altered environment to which it will still go one speaking.

14. "At that time YHWH also ordered me to teach you prescribed tasks and
customs in order that you may put them into effect in the Land which you
shall cross over to take possession of.

15. "So keep careful guard over your souls, because you did not see any
form on the day YHWH spoke to you at Chorev from the midst of the flames,

Form: likeness, representation of any particular shape. The following
verses specify that no animal or planet, man or star, could adequately depict
Him. He is not to be defined by any of the things He has made. Like His
commandments, they are all here to serve us, not enslave us. ("The Sabbath
is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.") We are not to understand Him
according to the limitations of any particular creation of His. When they
made the golden calf, they called it YHWH. They were not consciously going
after other gods, but were putting His name on pagan things. An inscription
was later found on an item devoted "to YHWH and His asherah"; it was simply
trying to give Him honor in the way the other nations honored their deities.
But He does not wish to be worshiped or understood in such a way, but in
"spirit and in truth".

16. "so that you will not act corruptly by making for yourselves a
particular carved image, resembling anything--the shape of a male or female,

17. "the shape of any beast that is on the earth, the shape of any winged
creature that flies through the sky,

18. "the shape of anything that creeps on the ground, or the shape of any
fish that is in the waters below the land;

19. "or lest you lift up your eyes to the heavens and see the sun, the moon,
the stars, and all the armies of heaven, you should be impelled to bow down
to them or enslave yourselves to these [things] that YHWH has apportioned to
all the nations under the whole heaven;

Apportioned: divided, assigned, distributed; Aramaic, "designated to
serve". I.e., He gave them to all the nations and they are common (contrast
v. 20). In the context of "armies of heaven", this probably also refers to
spiritual beings who, though they have a place and they indeed have authority
over particular nations and are limited to such (e.g., Daniel 10:13ff), are
not themselves meant to be worshiped.

20. "But YHWH has selected you, and brought you out from the crucible of
iron--from Egypt--to become His own-for the purpose of being a people [that
are His own] prized possession, just as [is the case] today."

Why throw away such a rare privilege and not rise to the awesomeness of
it all, settling instead for something that the nations all stoop to--nations
that He considered a mere drop in the bucket in comparison (Yeshayahu/Isaiah
40:15)?

21. "Yet YHWH was angry with me because of your words, and swore that there
would be no crossing over the Yarden for me, or entering into the good Land
that YHWH is giving you as an inheritance,

YHWH was angry: Aram., "anger emanated from YHWH".

22. "because I will die in this land; there will be no crossing over the
Yarden for me, but you are crossing over, and have inherited that good Land.

23. "Be on your guard lest you forget the covenant of YHWH your Elohim,
which He has cut with you, and fashion for yourselves a carved image
resembling anything about which YHWH your Elohim has given you orders,

24. "because YHWH your Elohim is a consuming fire; He is a jealous El.

25. "When you have begotten children and grandchildren and have remained so
long in the Land as to be spoiled, and you make a carved image resembling
anything, and do what is evil in the sight of YHWH your Elohim, to provoke
Him to anger,

Be spoiled: literally, "spoiled rotten" or "corrupted". Humanly
speaking, this is why our ancestors had to leave the Land. Those who did not
experience these miracles firsthand got used to the Land, and it became
commonplace for them; they wanted more excitement. Even at the end of the
Kingdom, we still see people who have lived under Messiah's perfect rule
rebelling. There has been "too much peace", as in King Shlomo's day. This
teaches us to appreciate our trials, so we will not become so slack.

26. "I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that you will
completely vanish from the Land into which you are crossing to dispossess it.
You will not cause your days to be lengthened on it; rather, you will be
utterly exterminated,

I invoke...as witnesses: the traditional covenant style. Note that there
are two witnesses, which is by law what it takes to establish a matter in
Israel. (17:6) Yet compare Matt. 5:33. If we swear this way, we will be
held to it. After making a promise like this, even YHWH could not show pity
at first.

27. "and YHWH will cause you to be fragmented among the peoples, and you
will be left few in number among the nations into which YHWH will cause you
to be driven.

28. "What's more, you will serve elohim made by human hands there--wood and
stone, which can neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell!

Serve elohim: Aramaic, "serve the nations who worship elohim..."

29. "Yet if from there you will diligently seek YHWH your Elohim, you will
find [Him], whenever you inquire after Him with all your determination and
all your passion.

Seek: includes the idea of searching with strong desire; inquire: even
"demand. Determination: "heart", including the understanding, memory,
knowledge, and conscience--the innermost being. Passion: emotion, self-life,
appetites, and active will--almost an addiction.

30. "In your distress and when you have met with all of these things, then
in the last days, you will return to YHWH your Elohim, and obey His voice,

In your distress: or "when you have tribulation", a possible allusion to
the "Great Tribulation" of which Y'shua spoke. Voice: Aramaic, "Memra"
(living Word). You will return...and obey: this is a prophecy and a promise.
It is a lifeline we must cling to so that we can "walk by faith and not by
sight." This is how the Renewed Covenant will differ from the former: this
one will not be broken. (Yirmiyahu/Jer. 31:32; Heb. 8:9)

31. "because YHWH your Elohim is a compassionate El; He will not abandon you
or bring about your ruin, nor will He forget the covenant which He swore with
your ancestors.

Abandon: literally, "let you drop".

32. "Because--ask, now, the earliest days, which took place before [you
existed], from all the way back when Elohim created humanity upon the earth,
or from [one] end of the sky to [the other] end of the sky, ‘Has there ever
been [any] thing as great as this? Or has [anything] like it [ever] been
heard?'

Has there ever been? We are commanded to ask, so that we will be sure to
hear the negative answer. The "earliest days" are invoked as an additional
witness. Yet something more is needed (Heb. 8:7), and indeed there is a
promise that one day there will be something that so far supercedes this
(Yirm. 23:5ff), that the former exodus will no longer even be mentioned!

33. "Has a nation ever heard the voice of an Elohim speaking out of the
midst of the fire as you have heard--and survived?

34. "Or has an Elohim [ever] tried to take for himself a nation out of the
midst of [another] nation, by proof-tests, by distinguishing signs, by
miracles, by war, by a firm hand and an outstretched arm, and by
awe-inspiring spectacles such as YHWH your Elohim performed for you in
Egypt--before your [very] eyes?

35. "You were shown, so you might know that YHWH is Elohim; apart from Him
there is no other.

36. "From out of the heavens He made His voice audible to you, so He might
instruct you, and on the earth He made His great fire visible, and you heard
His words from the within the fire.

Voice: or "thunderous sound". Instruct: Aramaic, "train".

37. "Then in transferring the love He had for your ancestors, He chose their
descendants after them, and led you out from Egypt with His presence--[Such]
great power He had!--

38. "to dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you from before
your face, and to give you their Land as inherited property, as [it is] this
day.

39. "So be aware today, and bring it back to mind, that it is YHWH who is
Elohim in the heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

40. "So hear [and obey] His prescribed customs and His orders that I am
laying on you today, so that it may go well for you and for your descendants
after you, and so that you may extend [your] days on the ground that YHWH
your Elohim is giving to you [for] all time."

Extend your days...for all time: literally, "make long days...all the
days".

41. Then Moshe set aside three cities on the sunrise side of the Yarden

42. to which a manslayer who had unwittingly killed his fellow could escape
(when he had not already hated him beforehand, and, having fled to one of
these cities, might survive):

Already beforehand: literally, "three days ago"--a common Hebrew idiom.
These cities: or perhaps, "cities of El". And, having fled: Aram., "now he
could flee".

43. Betzer in the wilderness of the plateau for the Reuvenites, Ramoth in
Gil'ad for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Menashites.

Plateau: literally, "level land". Golan: This is where the name for
today's Golan Heights originated.

44. And this is the instruction that Moshe set before the descendants of
Israel;

45. these are the evidences, the prescribed customs, and the legal
procedures that Moshe talked [intensely] to the descendants of Israel about
after they left Egypt

46. across the Yarden in the valley in front of Beyth-Pe'or in the territory
of Sichon king of the Emorites, who had been living in Heshbon when Moshe and
the descendants of Israel attacked while they were leaving Egypt.

47. So they took possession of his territory and the territory of Og the
king of Bashan, both kings of the Emorites, which are on the side of the
Yarden toward the rising of the sun,

48. from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon and all the way to
Mount Sion (which is Chermon),

49. as well as all the Aravah on the sunrise side of the Yarden all the way
to the sea of the Aravah below the waterfalls of the cliffs.

Aravah: i.e., the Rift Valley. Sea of the Aravah: the Dead Sea or Salt
Sea.

CHAPTER 5

1. Then Moshe summoned all of Israel, and told them, "Consent, O Israel, to
the prescribed customs and legal procedures that I will discuss in your
hearing this day so you may be prodded by them and attentive to carry them
out.

Attentive: on your guard. Take measures to keep yourself away from sin.

2. "YHWH our Elohim has cut a covenant with us at Chorev.

3. "Not with our fathers did YHWH cut this covenant, because it is with
us--ourselves--these who are here today, all of us who are alive!

This verse shows us clearly that the Hebrew idiom pattern of "not this,
but that" does not mean that the first was not true at all (because YHWH did
indeed cut a covenant with these people's parents), but rather that the
emphasis is to be placed on the content of the "but" clause. We do much the
same when we say, "I'm not talking about that [usage of the word]; what I
really mean is..." Knowing this could have spared the church from such
errors as saying, "Keeping the letter of the Torah doesn't matter, only
following its spirit", or "We do not have to obey the Torah because Paul says
we are not under the Law but under grace!" The emphasis is on those who are
alive: Psalm 115 emphasizes that it is only those who have breath who can
praise YHWH. Y'shua said YHWH is not the Elohim of the dead, but of the
living. Whatever our forebears may have done in obedience to the Torah, it is
up to us today to carry it on. And those who had no faith were never really
alive; the parents of the generation to whom he is speaking might never
partake of the resurrection. It is for the faithful and obedient, for that
is what makes us truly alive.

4. "Face to face YHWH spoke with you at the mountain, from the midst of the
fire,

5. ("I myself stood between YHWH and yourselves at that time, to announce
the word of YHWH to you, because you were afraid due to the presence of the
fire, and did not go up onto the mountain.), saying,

I myself: a more intimate form of the normal term for "I", much like our
English idiom "yours truly". Due to the presence: literally, "from the face".

6. "‘I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out from the land of Egypt--from
a place of slavery.

I am: recognize nothing else as Me. What follows is a paraphrase of
Exodus chapter 20.

7. "‘For you there will be no other elohim above Me."

There may indeed be other elohim given jurisdiction over areas of the
world to prevent total anarchy (1 Cor. 8:5; Dan. 10:13, etc.), but as far as
we are concerned, there are no intercessors except Y'shua. If we are given
access to the highest court, why should we go through middlemen?

8. "‘Do not make for yourselves a carved image resembling anything that is
in the heavens above or that is on the earth below, or that are in the waters
below the land.

9. "‘You must not bow down to them or serve them, because I--YHWH your
Elohim--am a jealous El, bringing the punishment for fathers upon their
children to the third and fourth [generation] of those who hate Me,

10. "‘but acting with kindness upon thousands of those who love Me and guard
My commandments.

Love and guard...: Fondness for Him alone does not earn us His mercy.

11. "‘Do not take up the name of YHWH your Elohim wastefully, because YHWH
will not acquit such [a one] who takes up His name wastefully.

Wastefully: emptily, worthlessly, for nothing; i.e., making it void. Are
we who claim to be His turning out to be of any benefit to Him? Acquit:
leave unpunished or exempt from punishment.

12. "‘Treasure up the Sabbath day in order to observe it as set apart, as
YHWH your Elohim has commanded.

Treasure up: or safeguard. It is our responsibility to build a hedge
around the treasure He has given us. Be stricter than you have to, to be
sure it is not lost! There is more written about this command than any of
the others, yet it receives the least emphasis today, and what publicity it
receives is usually inaccurate.

13. "‘Six days you may [both] serve [others] and carry out your [own]
business,

14. "‘but the seventh day is a Sabbath for YHWH your Elohim; you may do no
work--[neither] you nor your son nor daughter nor your male or female
servant, nor your bull, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the
visitor who is within your gates, so that your male or female servant may
rest just as you do.

Sabbath: Heb., shabbath, an intense time of desisting from something.
Work: business, craftsmanship, occupation, public or political activity, or
anything in regard to your own property (other than what is necessary to keep
them alive). We may not allow others to work for us, which rules out
purchasing anything from shops which we are encouraging to remain open if we
do so, thus forcing others to work. Anyone who is within Israelite precincts
(or under our authority) must also abide by the same regulations, whether or
not they recognize any need to do so when they are at home. The word for
"visitor" also often means a convert to Israelite religion, or one who is in
the process of learning about it; thus it appears that Gentiles who recognize
YHWH to any extent are also held accountable for observing His day. What may
be done is service to the holy community, especially assembling together to
build up the spiritual house.

15. "‘Also, remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and YHWH
your Elohim brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched
arm. For this reason YHWH your Elohim has commanded you to put the Sabbath
day into effect.

For this reason: It is linked directly to having been slaves, because
when we keep the Sabbath, we are truly freed from Egypt, which had enslaved
us to the day of the Sun. Put into effect: or attend to, prepare, carry out,
do, perform, institute, accomplish, even "make" or "produce"--i.e., do not do
other forms of work, and by not doing so, carve out a space in time that is
an entity in itself and a picture of the Messianic Kingdom when everything on
earth will serve Y'shua's purposes. It already exists, but make it effective.

16. "‘Honor your father and your mother, as YHWH your Elohim has commanded
you, so that your days may be extended, and so that it may go well for you on
the ground that YHWH your Elohim is giving to you.

Honor: give weight to, treat as important, enrich.

17. "‘You will not commit murder, nor will you commit adultery, nor will you
steal, nor will you hear [or respond to] false testimony against your fellow,

Adultery always involves being unfaithful to one to whom you have vowed
loyalty, and thus includes idolatry against YHWH. Your fellow: literally,
"one from your same flock". In English this constitutes four verses, thus
giving the chapter 33 verses instead of 30 as the Hebrew version has.

18. "‘nor will you lust for your fellow's wife, nor will you envy your
fellow's house, his field, or his male or female servant, his bull or his
donkey, or anything that belongs to your fellow.'

19. "YHWH spoke these words to your whole assembly at the mountain from
within the fire, the thundercloud, and the heavy darkness with a loud voice,
and he added no more, but wrote them on two slabs of stone and delivered them
to me.

Delivered: or "gave", but Hebrews 2:2 says it was by the mediation of
messengers or angels. Heavy darkness: Aram., "very dense clouds"; LXX:
"storm".

20. "But what happened was that, when you heard the voice from the midst of
the darkness, with the mountain burning in fire, you (all the heads of your
tribes and your elders) approached me

21. "and said, ‘Behold, YHWH has shown us how weighty and magnificent He
[is], and we have heard His voice from within the fire, and we have seen that
an Elohim can speak with a man, and he can survive.

His voice (the combination of His word and His spirit, or breath) in
itself contains His authority and greatness.

22. "‘But now, why should we die? Because this great fire might consume us!
If we hear any more of YHWH's voice, then we will die!

23. "‘For who of all flesh has heard the voice of a living Elohim speaking
from within a fire as we have, and survived?

They assumed that they had simply been spared by some fluke of His mercy
the first time, but did not wish to "press their luck".

24. "‘You [go] approach and hear all that YHWH our Elohim may say, then you
can tell us all that YHWH our Elohim tells you, and we will follow through.'

25. "So YHWH listened to the tone of your words when you spoke to me, and
YHWH told me, ‘I have heard the tone of the words this people have spoken.
All that they have said was appropriate.

He saw that they did indeed fear them, and wished this could continue:

26. "‘Who will grant that this attitude of theirs were always to respect Me
and to observe all My commands, so that it might go well for them and for
their descendants forever?

Could you imagine anyone starting a rebellion against Moshe or
fornicating in the Tabernacle precinct while this was going on? They were
trembling at Him, and this is the "beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Prov.
9:10) Nothing else seemed important just then.

27. "‘Go and tell them, "You [may] return to your tents."

28. "But you, stand here by Me, and I will declare to each command, and the
prescribed customs and the legal procedures which you shall teach them, so
they may carry them out in the Land that I myself am giving to them to take
possession of.'

29. "So you must be careful to act according to what YHWH your Elohim has
commanded you; you must not turn aside to the right or to the left.

30. "You must walk in every way that YHWH your Elohim has commanded you, so
that you may live and it may go well for you, and you may lengthen your days
in the Land of which you will take possession.

CHAPTER 6

1. "Now this is the commandment, the prescribed customs, and the legal
procedures which YHWH has ordered that [I] teach you, to carry out in the
Land into which you are crossing to take possession of,

2. "so that you might reverence YHWH your Elohim and observe all His
prescribed customs and His commands [about] which I am giving you
orders--you, your son, and your grandson all the days of your life, and so
that your days may be lengthened.

3. "So listen, Israel! And be careful to do what will be good for you, and
what will [make] you increase greatly, just as YHWH the Elohim of your
ancestors has promised you--a Land gushing with milk and honey.

Listen: Aramaic, "accept".

4. "Listen, Israel! YHWH is our Elohim! Only YHWH!

Listen: Heb., Sh'ma. This along with the next several verses is the
heart of the Torah. Only YHWH: or, "YHWH is one (or unified, or
everything)."

5. "And you shall long for YHWH your Elohim with all of your resolve, with
all of your passion, and with all of your resources.

6. "And these words that I am commanding you today shall be on your mind,

On your mind: Aramaic, "taken to heart".

7. "and you shall bring them to a point for your children, and speak of them
when you sit in your house, while you walk on the road, when you lie down,
and when you get up.

Bring them to a point for: literally, "sharpen them for" or "point them
out to". I.e., make sure they understand the "main point", or "teach
incisively". Mystically, we see here the four stages of life: sitting in
your house is being in the womb; walking on the road is living out our lives;
we lie down in death, and arise at the resurrection.

8. "And you shall tie them on your hand as a visible reminder, and they
shall serve as what is bound on between your eyes.

What is bound on: or "head-ornaments".

9. "You shall even write them on the doorposts of your house, and upon your
gates.

Your gates: would seem redundant with doorposts if it did not apply to
either the seat of a city's judicial rulings or our own bodily orifices,
through which sin often gains entrance. (Gen.4:7; Yaaqov/James 1:26) YHWH
gives us beards to guard the eye and nose gates, pe'ot of hair to guard the
ear gates, and tzitziyoth, on which are often "written" YHWH's name, near the
sexual organs to remind us who we belong to.

10. "Then when YHWH your Elohim brings you into the Land, as he promised
your ancestors Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov that He would give you large and
prosperous cities which you did not build,

Prosperous: or "goodly". Aramaic, "flourishing"; LXX: "beautiful".

11. "houses full of every pleasantry, which you did not fill up, hewn
cisterns which you did not dig out, vineyards and olive orchards that you did
not plant--and you will eat and be satisfied.

12. "Be on guard for yourselves lest your forget YHWH your Elohim, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt--out of the slave-quarters.

13. "YHWH your Elohim [is the one] you shall stand in awe of. He [is the
one] you serve, and His is the Name by which you will swear.

By which you will swear: since this would seemto contradict Y'shua's
recommendation that we not swear at all, especially by heaven (often a
euphemism for YHWH Himself), we should look into the other meanings of the
word. Indeed, the phrase could just as well read, "His is the Name in which
you will be complete." His Name opens many doors, and there is no need to
enter any others.

14. "You must not go after other elohim, from the elohim of the peoples who
are around you,

15. "(since a jealous El is [what] YHWH your Elohim [is] in your innermost
part), lest the anger of YHWH your Elohim begin to burn against you, and He
annihilate you from off the face of the Land.

16. "Do not put YHWH your Elohim to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.

Massah also means "the place of testing".

17. "You must guard the commandments of YHWH your Elohim to observe
them,along with His evidences, and His prescribed customs about which He has
given you orders.

18. "And you must do what is proper and beneficial in the eyes of YHWH, so
that it may go well for you and you may go in and take over the good Land
which YHWH promised to your ancestors:

19. "that is, drive out all your enemies from before you, as YHWH haas said.

20. "In time to come, when your son asks you, ‘What are the evidences and
the customs and the legal procedures that YHWH our Elohim has commanded you?',

This is similar to the questions the children traditionally ask at
Passover.

21. "then say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, but YHWH
brought us out from Egypy with a firm hand,

22. "‘and YHWH provided distinguishing signs and tokens--intense and
severe--upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon his whole household, before our
[very] eyes!

23. "‘But he brought us out from there in order to bring us in--to give us
the Land that He had promised to our ancestors.

24. "‘Then YHWH ordered us to carry out all these customs to honor YHWH our
Elohim, for our benefit, to sustain our life as it is this day,

25. "‘and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to carry out all
these orders in the presence of YHWH our Elohim, as He directed us.'

It will be righteousness for us: LXX, "there will be mercy for us";
Aramaic, "it will be to our merit".

CHAPTER 7

1. "When YHWH your Elohim brings you into the Land into which you are going
in order to take it over, and He has cleared away many nations from before
you: the Chittites, the Girgashites, the Emorites, the Kanaanites, the
Prizzites, the Hiwites, and the Y'vusites--seven nations greater and more
numerous than you--

Cleared away: LXX, "removed"; Hirsch, "rendered without hold".

2. "and YHWH your Elohim delivers them up before you, and you strike them
down, then you shall turn them over to destruction; you must not cut a
covenant with them, nor show them any pity,

They had four hundred years to repent, since the influence Avraham had on
them, yet they did not. But on the spiritual level, we should treat "self"
this way, giving it no leaveway, because selfishness--acting as if we were
only individuals--is an arch-enemy of Israel (becoming a people who truly
operate in unison), and there are many strongholds in "self" to tear down (v.
5).

3. "nor may you intermarry with them: you must not give your daughter to his
son, nor take his daughter for your son,

Intermarry with them: literally, "make each other in-laws".

4. "because he will cause your child to turn away from following Me, so they
can serve other elohim, and YHWH's anger will be ignited against you, and He
will let you be destroyed swiftly.

They: i.e., both of them; the evil one will have the worsening influence
on the innocent. This is the nature of those people: they are "missionaries"
for their religion, and you are not strong enough to resist their allures.
Your child will be considered "plunder" for their deity. He will
let...swiftly: Aramaic, "it will summarily destroy you."

5. "Rather, this is what you must do to them: tear down their altars, and
shatter their uprights! Chop down their groves, and burn their carved images
with fire,

Uprights: "standing stones" or makeshift pillars, used as phallic symbols
around fertility cult sites. Groves: not merely stands of trees, but those
specifically used in pagan fertility rites. For this reason, no grove of
trees of any kind is to be planted near an altar to YHWH (Deut. 16:21), just
so no association will even be imagined by those who are used to such things.
Yet the tradition of Christmas trees was rooted in this very practice.

6. "because you are a people set apart to your Elohim; you are the nation
YHWH your Elohim has chosen to be an especially-valued treasure out of all
the nations that are on the face of the earth.

The "you" here is singular; He sees them as one man. Especially-valued
treasure: Hirsch, "belonging exclusively to Himself".

7. "YHWH did not delight in you or choose you because of your being more
numerous than all [other] nations, because you were [actually] the smallest
of any nation.

Delight in you: "become attached to you"; LXX: "prefer you".

8. "Rather, because of YHWH's love for you, and because He kept the oath
that He swore to your ancestors, has YHWH brought you out with a firm hand
rescued your from the slave-quarters--from the hand of Pharaoh, the sovereign
of Egypt.

9. "So recognize that YHWH is your Elohim; He is the Elohim--the faithful
El--who keeps the pledge with goodwill toward those who love Him and keep His
commandments to the thousand[th] generation,

Recognize: know intimately because of the foregoing facts; rest assured
and do not doubt it. Faithful: Aramaic, "trustworthy". Pledge with
goodwill: Aramaic, "a generous covenant".

10. "but pays back in full the ones who hate Him to His face, to his
destruction. He will not defer to the one who hates him; He will repay him in
full to his face!

The ones...his: an apparent reference to how, just as Israel forms "one
man" (v. 6), all the haters of YHWH will also be united into "one man" just
before they are destroyed. Defer: or "delay", "be too slow", "leave
unfinished"; LXX, "be slack". To his face: Aram., "during his lifetime".

11. "So be careful to carry out the command, the prescribed customs, and the
legal procedures [about] which I myself am giving you orders today!"

Legal procedures: or rulings; Hirsch, "social regulations".

Portion EQEV (7:12-11:25)
7:12. "And this [is what] will follow on the heels ['eqev] of your paying
attention to these ordinances, giving them prominence, and carrying them out:
YHWH your Elohim shall guard the covenant and the lovingkindness that He
promised [with an oath] to your forefathers.

Note that these promises are conditional, but that YHWH's blessing will
follow closely upon obedience. Guard...lovingkindness: Aramaic, "follow
through for you on a generous covenant". He will "safeguard" the covenant,
"give it prominence", and "hedge it about" (alternate translations) if we do.
Lovingkindness: or mercy. The idea in cutting the animals in two (Gen. 15)
was to say, "If I or my descendants do not keep our part of the agreement,
may the same thing be done to us." So He had to divide the Kingdom. But
when they become obedient again, He will do the opposite--restore His mercy
to us and make us one people again. (Hos. 1)

13. "And He will befriend you, bless you, and make you great; He will also
bless the fruit of your womb as well as the fruit of Land: your grain, your
new wine, and your oil, and the offspring of your cattle and the sheep of
your flocks in the Land which He promised your forefathers [that He would]
give to you.

Befriend: or love. Bless: literally "bend the knee"; when speaking of
YHWH, it would mean He would stoop down to our level and pay attention to us
as a father does to a small child. Grain, new wine, and oil: often metaphors
also for people (those who can be components in "one bread" that is
satisfying to Him), fresh joy, and spiritual anointing, which, even if
already present, can always stand to be increased.

14. "From among all peoples, you shall be [the ones most] blessed; there
shall not be anyone sterile among you--male or female--nor among your animals.

15. "And YHWH will take all sickness away from you, and place upon you none
of the dreadful Egyptian diseases with which you are familiar, but will send
them upon all the ones who hate you.

Sickness: illness, weakness, or grieving, which Y'shua's cross made
unnecessary. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 53:4). Dreadful diseases: literally, "evil".
Some sickness is for YHWH's glory (Yochanan 9:3; 11:4), but others have no
purpose. Also, many of the diseases of Egypt can be directly prevented by
obeying the Torah's regulations in regard to cleanliness, diet, circumcision,
not eating blood, and refraining from sexual relations at certain times.

16. "And you will devour every nation that YHWH your Elohim shall deliver up
to you; your eye shall have no pity on them [so that you would spare them],
nor shall you worship [serve] their gods, because that [would only be] a trap
for you.

In case we were beginning to be lulled to sleep by His promises, YHWH put
the most difficult command right up front, rather than in the "fine print",
so we would count the cost of what it will mean to be Israelites. Most of
the time this command will need to be carried out more figuratively, but
especially when we go back into the Land, there may be a need to take it very
literally once again, judging by the demographics in the Land now and their
political repercussions. A trap for you: He knows us well enough to point
out what will be especially tempting to us. King Sha'ul disobeyed just here
(1 Shmuel 15), resulting in the existence of Haman. (Esther 3:1) We have to
prefer making war, hard as it may be, to becoming slaves again. (Compare
11:16.)

17. "Since you're going to say in your heart, ‘These nations are stronger
than I am; how could I dispossess them?'

18. "Don't be afraid of them, but always keep in mind what YHWH your Elohim
did to Pharaoh and to all of Egypt!

Being afraid, as regards a commandment, is not so much an emotion as a
failure to act which results from assuming that any threat is greater than
YHWH. Always keep in mind: literally, "remember remembering".

19. "The magnificent evidences that were presented to your eyes, along with
the distinguishing tokens and conspicuous signs, and the prevailing hand and
outstretched arm by which YHWH your Elohim brought you out; YHWH your Elohim
will do the same to all the people of whom you are afraid.

20. "In addition, YHWH will send the hornet among them until the ones
remaining who [manage to] hide from your presence are done away with.

Hornet: related closely to the word for "leprosy", perhaps because its
sting leaves a similar mark on one's flesh. Leprosy is also symbolic of
selfishness, which in itself will "divide and conquer" those who cling to it.

21. "Don't tremble at them, because YHWH your Elohim is among you--a great
and awe-inspiring elohim!

Y'shua reiterated the principle of fearing only YHWH, who alone can do
more than destroy the body, but can also snuff out one's soul-existence.
(Mat. 10:28) Among you: when at least two members of the House of Israel are
together. (Mat. 18:20) Until there is another to love, we cannot really know
He is present with us. (Yochanan/John 13:35)

22. "Also, YHWH will clear [pluck] those nations away before you little by
little; you won't be able to finish them off all at once, so the wild animals
will not become too numerous for you.

He thought of everything! This has a figurative application as well to
the conquest of our own souls. YHWH leaves some of our less desirable traits
intact long enough to make use of them and prevent us from having to fight
too many battles at the same time. LXX adds, "lest the Land become desert".

23. "But YHWH your Elohim shall set them in front of your face and disquiet
them with a great disturbance until they are annihilated.

24. "He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their
name disappear from under the heavens; not a man shall stand before you until
you have exterminated them.

25. "You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire, and you shall
not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor salvage it for yourself,
so you will not be ensnared by it, because it is repulsive to YHWH.

This is part of what Yaaqov (James) meant when he spoke of keeping
oneself unstained by the world. (1:27)

26. "Nor shall you bring [such] a disgusting thing into your house, so you
will not become a cursed thing like it [is], but shall [count it] utterly
detestable, because it is a thing dedicated [to destruction].

A cursed thing: Aram., "proscribed". Utterly detestable: or "filthy";
this is more than just not wanting to have anything to do with pagan
practices. We have to actually hate them.

CHAPTER 8

1. "All the commands that I give you today you must be careful to carry out,
so that you may survive and become great and go in and take possession of the
Land that YHWH has promised to your forefathers.

2. "But remember the whole journey by which YHWH your Elohim led you these
forty years in the wilderness, to bring you into [a place of] neediness and
put you to the test, to know what was in your heart--whether you would keep
His commandments or not.

Bring you to a place of neediness: like Avraham, not knowing where he was
going--"humbled you" so we have no way out except to trust YHWH. But the
word is based on "keeping one busy". Humility is not necessarily being
brought low per se, but learning who we really are and seeing clearly where
we are supposed to fit in, and then seeking neither a higher nor lower place,
but going about doing the job given specifically to us. To know what was in
your heart: not that He did not know, but so we might realize what kind of
people we really were. Tests reveal our true colors. (Compare 2 Cor. 2:9;
7:8-12) This was a very long test, but those who are now hearing about it
have proven to have passed the test.

3. "Indeed, He brought you into [a place of] neediness and allowed you to be
famished, then fed you with [you didn't know] what--something neither you nor
your forefathers were familiar with, to make known to you that [it is] not on
the bread alone [that] humanity will stay alive, but [it is] on everything
that comes forth from the mouth of YHWH [that] humanity will live.

Everything that comes out of the mouth of YHWH: not just words, but His
"breath" (same as "spirit" in Hebrew) as well.

4. "Your clothing did not wear out, nor did your foot become blistered
during these forty years!

Did your foot become blistered: Aramaic, "did your sandals tear"; LXX,
"become painfully hardened".

5. "Recognize in your heart that, just as a man corrects his son, YHWH
corrects you,

Corrects: a strong term for disciplining, chastening, chastising, but all
for the purpose of instructing--i.e., turning him in the right direction. We
need to expect to pay this price if we step out of line, because otherwise we
will miss the treasure that YHWH has for us at the end of the right road.
(Heb. 12:5-11)

6. "So safeguard the commands of YHWH your Elohim, so you will walk in His
ways and reverence Him,

7. "because YHWH your Elohim is bringing you into a good Land--a land of
rivers of water, of springs and subterranean waters that gush forth from
valleys and hills,

Rivers of water: as opposed to dried-up arroyos (wadis), because that is
what the term would mean if "water" was not attached to it.

8. "a land of wheat and barley, of [the] vine, fig tree, and pomegranate, a
land of [the] oil-bearing olive [tree] and honey,

9. "a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity--you will not be in
need of anything in it! [It is] a land whose stones are iron, and out of
whose hills you can dig copper.

Bread: or food in general. I.e., it will have plenty of raw materials as
well, so that you will not even need to acquire them from foreigners. Iron
and copper: these were eventually mined in the Land (1 Chron. 22:3) Hirsch
summarizes, "It is land that, by the nature of its soil, offers the most
suitable opportunities for agriculture and industry." They would not need to
buy these basic commodities (of which so much was needed for Temple service,
etc.) from other nations.

10. "When you have eaten and are satisfied, then you shall bless YHWH your
Elohim for the good land He has given you.

Satisfied: enriched, filled to excess.

11. "Take [special] care not to forget YHWH your Elohim by failing to guard
His commandments His customs, and His prescribed limits which I am laying
upon you today,

Don't forget Him; everything else is just a gift given so we can know Him
better. Sticking close to Him will prevent us from being ensnared by the
lures along the way.

12. "lest you eat and become full, build pleasant houses and settle down,

13. "and your flocks and herds multiply and your gold and silver become
abundant, and all that you have becomes great,

14. "and then your thinking becomes lifted [puffed] up and you let YHWH your
Elohim fade from your memory--[He] Who brought you out from the land of
Egypt, from the slave quarters--

15. "[the One] Who led you through that huge, terrifying wilderness where
there were burning serpents, scorpions, and thirsty ground where [there was]
no water, and brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock,

Burning: or poisonous. Flinty: from a word meaning "hard" (and
translated as such into Aramaic), but alternately, it is related to the word
for dreams, which immediately calls to mind Yoseyf, the man of dreams, who is
a prototype of the Messiah, who brought us "living water".

16. "Who fed you in the wilderness with you-knew-not-what, with which your
forefathers were not familiar, so He might put you in a place of need, and
test you, in order to do you good at last,

Y'shua said he was the real "bread" from heaven (Yochanan 6:22ff), since
to partake of him is to have eternal life. Part of what comes from the mouth
of YHWH is His Word (Yoch. 1:1) and "in him was life". Their "fathers did not
recognize" that this bread was actually what preserved them. Do you good
(make you glad) at last: literally, at your lattermost end, so it must refer
chiefly to the end times. Despite the path our stubbornness led us to take,
He still left us hope that we would finally learn from our mistakes.

17. "and you think in your heart, ‘My strength and the power of my hand have
produced this wealth for me!'

We are not self-made. But from YHWH's perspective, we must also be
suspicious of those who teach that we can assume that His "right hand"
(Y'shua) and "power" (His spirit) have given us our material prosperity;
haSatan can make us rich too in that sense. The word here for "wealth" is
literally "strength" or "capability".

18. "So bring YHWH your Elohim to remembrance, because He is the One who
gives you the strength to attain wealth, in order to establish His covenant
which He made with your forefathers, just as [is the case] today.

19. "Now what will happen is, if you in any way forget YHWH your Elohim and
go after other elohim, serve them, or prostrate yourselves to them--then I go
on record [as a witness] against you today, that you will by all means be
lost.

Forget: or "wither away from".

20. "Just like the nations that YHWH your Elohim is exterminating before
your face, you will indeed be lost, because you would not pay attention to
the voice of YHWH your Elohim.

Be lost: wander away, stray, perish, or be destroyed. But it can also
mean we would lose ourselves. As Yaaqov (James) 1:23 says, if we do not
carry out the Word when we hear it, we will forget who we are, like one who
forgets the "natural face" he saw in the mirror--the one that tells him about
his ancestry and lineage. But when we did look back into "the perfect law of
liberty" and return to the covenant, the converse came true--He let us know
His true identity and got us back on the right path.

CHAPTER 9

1. "Pay attention, Israel! Today you will cross over the Yarden to enter in
and dispossess nations larger and stronger than yourself, cities of great
size and [fortified] with walls [reaching] to the sky,

2. "a people high and lofty, the descendants of the Anaqim, with whom you
are familiar and [about whom] you have heard [it said], ‘Who is able to stand
before the face of the descendants of Anaq?'

Anaq: apparently a very tall (literally "long-necked") people, possibly
having more to do with a necklace, or choking--perhaps the way they killed
their enemies--or their food. (We may take a hint from the apostles'
instruction in Acts 15 to eat nothing "strangled", which word actually means
anything not killed in a kosher manner in which the blood is drained
immediately from the meat.)

3. "So understand today that YHWH your Elohim is the One Who crosses over in
front of you; a consuming fire, He shall annihilate them or bring them into
subjection before your face, so you shall dispossess them and destroy them
quickly, as YHWH has told you.

Understand: i.e., get it straight this time and don't let what happened
to your parents happen again. He shall annihilate...you will destroy them:
He will prepare the way and set the stage, but you must walk it out. He will
not do it all for us. When He delivers our enemy into our hands, it is up to
us to slay him. When He lays bare the inconsistencies in someone's belief
system, cut it to pieces with the sword of His Word. By "killing" this type
of enemies (by fighting the lies that hold them in bondage), we actually
create new allies for ourselves.

4. "After YHWH has expelled them before you, do not think in your heart,
‘[It is] because of my deserving [it that] YHWH has brought me in to take
possession of this land'; rather, [it is] because of the wickedness of these
nations [that] YHWH dispossess them before you.

5. "You are not going in to take possession of their land because of your
merit or the uprightness of your heart, but because of the wickedness of
these nations YHWH is dispossessing them from before you, so He can fulfill
the word which He promised [with an oath] to your forefathers, Avraham,
Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov.

They might have been doing what they were told, but perhaps it was
because they saw their parents die for their sins or because they wanted to
enter the Land badly enough, not because they truly loved YHWH. But He made
a promise, and they were merely the tools He was using. (cf. Rom. 9:20-29) It
was only that the other nations were worse than they. Today we should
remind ourselves that it is not because we are any better than foregoing
generations that YHWH is revealing to us that we are Israel, but because the
timing is right and we "happen" to live in the right day. The Jews have a
concept of "beautifying the commandment"--doing more than is required. This
is very noble. He wants us to obey because His commands deserve to be
carried out, not because we "have to".

6. "So [let's] be clear [about this], that YHWH is not giving you this good
Land to possess because of your righteousness, because you yourselves are a
stiff-necked people.

Probably an indirect allusion to the Anaqim, the "long-necked" people;
the Israelites are not quite as repulsive as the Kanaanites, whom the land
can no longer tolerate, but all things considered, they are not that far
behind. In other words, "They may have long necks, but you have stiff necks!
So don't get a big head about it!"

7. "Remember--Do not forget!--how you were making YHWH your Elohim furious
in the wilderness; from the day you left Egypt until you arrived at this
place, you have been rebellious [bitter] against YHWH!"

Aramaic, "Remember never to forget".

8. "Even in Chorev you provoked YHWH to anger, and YHWH became furious
enough to have annihilated you.

Chorev: Mount Sinai "in Arabia", as Sha'ul and recent archaeological
findings tell us.

9. "When I had gone up into the mountain to receive the slabs of stone--the
slabs of the covenant that YHWH was cutting with you--I stayed on the
mountain forty days and forty nights, neither eating bread nor drinking water.

Stone: the word comes from a root meaning "to build", so this was not
just "rock", but something meant for "a nation and a congregation of nations"
to be built upon. Forty days and forty nights: the parallel with the deluge
of Noach's day is obvious. Forty in Scripture refers to either a time of
testing or of transition, and in this case it was both. Note the parallel
with Y'shua's fasting.

10. "Then YHWH gave me two slabs of stone inscribed with the finger of
Elohim--upon them [was] the likeness of all the words that YHWH had spoken to
you from among the flames on the day of the convocation.

Likeness of all the words: Aramaic, "the exact words".

11. "It was at the cut-off of forty days and forty nights when YHWH gave me
the two stone slabs--the covenant slabs.

Cut-off: the body starts devouring its own cells for food after forty
days of fasting. "Days and ... nights" are actually singular in Hebrew here.

12. "Then YHWH told me, ‘Get up! Quickly, go down from this [place],
because your people, whom you brought out from Egypt, have caused a
perversion! They have turned away so soon from the way [in] which I directed
them! They have made themselves a cast-metal image!'

13. "YHWH even told me, ‘I have observed this nation, and indeed it is a
stiff-necked people!

14. "‘Leave me alone, so I may allow them to be annihilated, and obliterate
their name from under the heavens, and I will make you into a nation more
numerous and greater than they!'

15. "So I turned [my] face and came down from the mountain, the mountain
being ablaze with fire, with the two slabs of the covenant in both of my
hands.

16. "And I looked, and sure enough, you had sinned against YHWH your Elohim,
and made a cast-metal bull-calf for yourselves; so soon you had turned off
the path [in] which YHWH had directed you.

Sinned: literally, "missed the mark", the least offensive wrongdoing,
because it usually implies no malicious intent and even an attempt to hit a
target, which failed. These people were intending to create a focal point
for their worship of YHWH, and had not yet received the instruction through
Moshe. They did not get the point, but could still be corrected, although at
a price.

17. "So I seized the two slabs and hurled them from upon my two hands, and
shattered them before your eyes.

From upon: apparently they were resting on his arms, but then he shifted
to a position in which he could wield them.

18. "Then I threw myself down in YHWH's presence; as before, [for] forty
days and forty nights I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the
guilt you had [incurred by] going off track and doing evil in YHWH's sight to
make Him angry,

19. "because I was terrified in the face of the exasperation and fury by
which YHWH was upset with you [and ready] to annihilate you, but YHWH
listened to me this time also.

20. "YHWH even breathed so hard [as] to [almost] cause Aharon to be
destroyed, but I pleaded for Aharon at that time also.

Breathed so hard: or "was angry enough". That He was angry at Aharon was
not mentioned in Exodus.

21. "And I took your sin which you fashioned--the calf--and burned it with
fire, then beat it into pieces and ground it thoroughly until it was as
powdery as dust. Then I threw its dust into the stream that came down from
the mountain.

Was the rock that brought them water on the mountain at this time?
Exodus says they had to drink this water. They had "made their bed", and now
had to "lie in it". Our ancestors allowed bits of pagan idolatry to creep
into the church, and we have had to drink from a mixed cup for many
centuries. But the more living water (YHWH's word) that is put in to displace
the mixed water, the purer it can become again.

22. "Then at Tab'erah, Massah, and Qibroth-haTa'avah, you were beginning to
make YHWH angry.

23. "But when YHWH sent you from Qadesh-Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take
possession of the Land which I have designated for you', then you balked at
the mouth of YHWH your Elohim, and did not trust Him or listen into [the tone
of] His voice.

24. "You have been rebellious with YHWH since the day I came to know you!

With YHWH: LXX, "in the things relating with YHWH".

25. "And I [remained] prostrate before YHWH for the forty days and forty
nights when I had thrown myself down, because YHWH had talked about
annihilating you.

26. "So I intervened toward YHWH, and said, ‘O Adonai YHWH! Do not destroy
Your people and Your acquired possession, which You have brought out from
Egypt with a firm hand!

27. "‘Remember Your servants Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov! Do not [turn
and] look toward the stubbornness of this nation, nor toward its wickedness,
nor its sin,

28. "‘or else the land from which you brought us out might say, ‘[It was]
due to YHWH's lack of ability to bring them into the Land that He promised
them, and because He hated them, that He brought them to their death in the
uncivilized territory.

29. "‘Moreover, they are Your people, and Your acquired possession, whom You
have brought out by Your intense force and Your outstretched arm.'

CHAPTER 10

1. "At that time, YHWH told me, ‘Carve out for yourself two slabs of stone
like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain, and prepare for yourself a
wooden chest,

The first time YHWH had cut the slabs Himself. (5:22) Moshe could have
them back again, but it required much more work. Likewise, as the eastern
gate to the Temple was closed and pilgrims had to take a ritual bath, walk up
through long tunnels and across a wide courtyard just to get to where it
would have brought them, we can get back into the Garden of Eden, but only by
going the long way around. Because of our sin, we have to go through
Y'shua's blood, obey the commandments, and experience physical death first;
only then will we be merely back at the starting point of worshiping YHWH the
way He intended.

2. "‘and I will write on the slabs the words that were on the original slabs
which you shattered, and you shall place them inside the chest.'

The chest: probably not the Ark of the Covenant, for that was to have
been built when the Tabernacle was built. But it may have been placed inside
the Ark of the Covenant.

3. "So I prepared a chest from acacia wood, and carved out two slabs of
stone like the original [ones], and went up into the mountain with both slabs
in my hand.

Acacia wood: LXX, "incorruptible wood". Rabbinical teaching says the
shattered slabs were also placed within the chest.

4. "And He wrote on the slabs just what had been written before--the Ten
Declarations that YHWH had spoken to you on the mountain from within the fire
on the Day of the Assembly, and YHWH gave them to me.

Within these ten commands are contained all the others, which only give
them in more detail.

5. "Then I turned [My face] and came down from the mountain, and put both
slabs into the chest that I had made, and there they will remain, as YHWH
directed me.

6. "Then the descendants of Israel traveled from the Wells of the Son of
Yaaqan to Moserah, where Aharon died and was buried, and his son El'azar
became a priest in his place.

Yaaqan: means "Let him oppress them"; Moserah: "place of bonds or
fetters".

7. "From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, then from Gudgodah to Yotbathah,
a land of streams of water.

Gudgodah: "place of slashing or cutting"; Yotbathah: "a pleasing place".
There is a strong parallel here and in 8:3-5 with 1 Kefa [Peter] 5:6-11: "Be
humbled...under the mighty hand of YHWH, so He may exalt you at the right
time, throwing all your anxiety on Him, because it matters to Him concerning
you. Be sensible, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, like a
roaring lion, prowls around, seeking someone to devour. Resist him firmly in
your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being completed by your
brothers in the world. Then the Elohim of all grace--the One [who is]
calling you to His eternal glory in Messiah Y'shua--after you have suffered a
little will Himself repair [complete] you, fix firmly, strengthen, and
stabilize."

8. "At that time, YHWH separated [out] the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of
YHWH's Covenant, to stand before YHWH, to minister to Him and bless His
name--[as it is] until today.

9. "For this reason Levi has no inherited territory or property along with
his brothers, just as YHWH your Elohim told him.

10. "So I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had the
first time, and this time YHWH listened [and yielded] to me and consented to
not destroy you.

11. "Then YHWH told me, ‘Get up and proceed to break camp in front of the
people so that they will go in and take possession of the Land that I
promised their forefathers [with an oath] to give them.

12. "So now, Israel, what does YHWH ask from you, except to reverence YHWH
your Elohim, and walk in all His ways, and serve YHWH your Elohim with all
your heart and all your soul--

13. "to guard YHWH's commandments and prescribed limits which I am laying on
you this day for your [own] good?

He does not leave us in the dark about what He wants from us as the pagan
gods did. Y'shua and Hillel also simplified the commandments down to two
(see also Micha 6:8), and in another sense He summarized them by saying that
the works of YHWH were to believe on the one YHWH had sent. (Yochanan 6:29)
After all, He is the living Torah.

14. "Look! The heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to YHWH your Elohim,
along with the earth and everything in it,

15. "[but] only to your ancestors did He become attached [and long] to
befriend them, and He selected their descendants to follow them, just as [is
the case] today.

16. "So circumcise [cut off] the excess fleshiness that hangs over your
heart, and don't be stiff-necked any longer!

This was the real point that His custom of circumcision was to teach
them. Circumcision, removing the fat from around our hearts, and bowing our
necks are all pictures of the same concept. There is actually a bone in the
neck which is called the "lux" which, if fused or missing, prevents one from
bowing his head or turning his face around (repenting). This bone is usually
found in ancient tombs even if the rest of the body has decomposed, so it is
considered a symbol of resurrection. But stiff-necked people cannot look
with certainty to the hope of being resurrected.

17. "Because YHWH your Elohim is an Elohim among elohim, a superior over
masters, the great El, the champion who inspires awe, and neither plays
favorites [regards faces] nor takes a bribe,

18. "[but] carries out justice for the fatherless and the widow, and
befriends the outsider, providing him with food and clothing.

Carries out justice for: Aram., "takes up the case of". Outsdier: often
means a newcomer to the faith.

19. "So befriend the outsider, because you yourselves were guests in the
land of Egypt.

Elsewhere this command is given as regarding the "guest within your
gates": not just any stranger, but one who has come under your protection and
thus authority. After he had stayed for three days, he was considered as
responsible to the Torah and the upkeep of the household as one's child was.

20. "Revere YHWH your Elohim. He is the one you shall serve; He is the one
you shall stick close to; He is the one in whose Name You shall make your
oaths.

Doesn't this conflict with Y'shua's warning that it is better to take no
oaths at all? Not in the actual wording. "Oath" is derived from a word
meaning "completeness" (it is identical to the number seven), so this could
just as well read, "by whose Name you shall be made complete."

21. "He is your renown; He is your Elohim! He has done for you these great
and awesome things which your eyes have seen!

Renown: or "song of praise"; LXX, "your boast".

22. "Your ancestors descended to Egypt with 70 souls, but now YHWH your
Elohim has made you like the stars of the sky in number [greatness].

Thius promise to Avraham was already fulfilled in a sense, but they were
not yet as numerous as the sand of the seashore.

CHAPTER 11

1. "So befriend YHWH your Elohim, and guard what He entrusts to your
watchcare--His prescribed limits, His customs, and His commandments--for all
time!

Even if Y'shua had not said so, this tells us from the start that any
doctrine that says the Torah is to be nullified or replaced is in error.

2. "Now recognize today that I am not speaking of your children, who have
neither experienced nor seen the discipline of YHWH your Elohim, His
greatness, His firm hand, His outstretched arm,

Greatness: Aramaic, "majesty".

3. "or His distinguishing tokens, the things which He did within Egypt to
Pharaoh, the King of Egypt and his whole country,

4. "And what He did to the army of Egypt and their horses and chariots--how
He made the waters of the Reed Sea overwhelm their faces as they chased after
you, and YHWH caused them intense loss [which still lasts] to this day--

Overwhelm them: "flow over them", or even "cause them to float", i.e., to
the surface afterward. Their faces: Aram., "against them".

5. "or what He has done for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this
place,

6. "or what He did to Dathan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav, the son of
Reuven--how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up along with their
households, their tents, and all the paraphernalia that was standing at their
feet [right] in the midst of all of Israel.

Was at their feet: or possibly, "which followed them according to their
pace"; Aram., "every living thing that belonged to them".

7. "Rather, your eyes are seeing all the great accomplishments that YHWH has
carried out;

8. "you must therefore guard all the commandments about which I am giving
you orders today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of
the Land into which you are crossing to take it over,

Strong: firm and secure; able to prevail.

9. "and so that you may extend the length of your days in the Land that YHWH
promised your forefathers [with an oath] to give to them and their seed--a
Land gushing with milk and honey!

Promised to your forefathers: They will be there in the resurrection. So
how will they all fit along with later generations? Many prophets say the
Land will at first become overcrowded, and will need to be expanded. But
Paul also says the true "seed" of Avraham are only those who have faith as he
did (Gal. 3:7-9, 29), so not all of his physical seed will share in the
resurrection.

10. "Because the Land into which you are going is not like the land of
Egypt, from which you came out, where you sowed your seed and watered it by
foot, like a walled vegetable garden.

By foot: i.e., a garden on flat land (like Egypt) that you had to
irrigate, like the seminars so common in the church about how to make
yourself prosper.

11. "rather, the Land into which you are going to take possession is a Land
of hills and valleys, that drinks water [directly] from the rain of the sky.

YHWH waters this Land; you have to seek Him directly for our provision
trust Him to do so. (Compare v. 17) There is no river in the middle as in
Egypt that we can decide to draw from when we choose. Once you have chosen
His path, you must receive from Him or you will not receive. Now the Land is
not as lush as it was when they entered (8:7), partly as a result of their
disobedience in the past. But walk by faith: it will be even greater one day.

12. "A land that YHWH your Elohim seeks out; the eyes of YHWH your Elohim
are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.

Seeks out: resorts to, frequents, or walks through. Especially in the
context of verse 12, this passage hints, as does Genesis 2:13 (among many
other passages), that the Land of Israel is precisely where the Garden of
Eden was. From the beginning ...until the end of the year: all through the
festival cycle He set up.

13. "This is how it will be: if you pay close attention to my orders which I
lay on you today, to love YHWH your Elohim and serve Him with all your heart
and all your soul,

14. "then I will give the Land its rain at the proper time--the early rain
and the latter rain [for the maturing of the harvest], so you may gather in
your grain, your wine, and your oil.

"Early rain": the word is related to "teaching" and "instruction"
[torah], and "the latter rain" is related to "ingathering", "despoiling", and
the "aftermath"--a perfect description of the two comings of the Messiah!
Indeed, in Yoel 2:23, the phrase translated "early rain" actually says
"teacher of [for] righteousness"--an idiom for the Messiah very common in His
day (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls). The ingathering correlates with Yom T'ruah
(the feast of trumpet-blasts), the despoiling with Yom Kippur (the Day of
Atonement), and the aftermath with Sukkoth, the season of our joy after the
birthpangs of the Kingdom are complete. All of these festivals bespeak
events related to his second coming.

15. "And I will bestow upon your fields herbage for your cattle, so you may
eat and become satisfied.

16. "Be on guard for yourselves, so your hearts will not be gullible and you
[will not] turn aside [from the way] and serve other elohim and prostrate
yourselves to them,

Gullible: literally, "open-minded"--the very byword of our generation,
but it really means naive, simple-minded, deceived, easily persuasible,
seduced, or allured. The solution is to set clear, definite boundaries, as
in verse 18, so you will not be "swayed by every wind of doctrine".

17. "and YHWH's anger burn against you, and He close up the sky so there
will not be any rain and the land not yield its produce, and you vanish from
the good Land YHWH is giving you.

Compare verse 11: Look anywhere but to Him for your provision, and it
will cease altogether.

18. "So set these words of mine up firmly [as a signpost] in your heart and
in your soul, and tie them tightly as a distinguishing mark on your arm, so
they may be like phylacteries between your eyes.

Distinguishing mark: or standard.

19. "Then teach them to your children [to exercise them thereby], conversing
about them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you
lie down, and when you get up.

20. "And write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates,

Gates: literally, entrances: thus also the orifices of your body through
which you are susceptible to be seduced as in v. 16: your eyes, ears, mouth,
nostrils, and reproductive organs. This is why the tribe of Yehudah has
traditionally carried on the interpretation of literally letting the hair in
front of their ears, nose, and mouth keep growing as a symbol of this
"guarding", using phylacteries near their eyes with YHWH's words written in
them, and the fringes that were commanded to be placed on garments, which
hang near the loins.

21. "So that your days may become greater--along with the days of your
children--on the Land that YHWH promised their forefathers [with an oath] to
give them, like the days of heaven on earth,

Like the days: the days were to be filled with quality, whether long or
short, but then prolonged through the Messianic Kingdom after the
resurrection for those who obeyed.

22. "Because if you diligently guard all these orders which I am laying on
you, to carry them out --[which, in summary are] to love YHWH your Elohim,
walk in all His ways, and follow Him closely--

23. "then YHWH will drive out all these nations from before you, and you
will dispossess nations larger and stronger than yourselves.

24. "Every place where the soles of your foot tread shall be yours: your
border shall extend from the desert to Levanon, from the River--the Euphrates
River--to the Western [Mediterranean] Sea.

25, "No man shall be able to remain standing before you; YHWH your Elohim
will put the terror of you and respect for you on the face of the whole Land
over which you tread, just as He promised you.

And so it happened: Rahav told the two spies that the whole city of
Yericho was in dread of them, having lost all will to fight. (Y'hoshua 2:11)

Portion RE'EH (11:26-16:17)
11:26. "Look [re'eh]! Today I am setting before you a blessing or a curse--

27. "a blessing if you listen to [and obey] the orders of YHWH your Elohim,
which I am laying on you today,

28. "but a curse if you do not heed he orders of YHWH your Elohim and reject
[turn aside from] the path that I am ordaining for you today, in order to
follow after other gods with which you have not been familiar.

Gods: Aramaic, "idols of the nations". Been familiar: Aram.,
"experienced". In many cases they had sexual rituals as part of their
worship.

29. "Now what will happen is that, when YHWH your Elohim has brought you
into the Land you are entering to take possession of, you will designate the
blessing as [being] on Mount Grizim, and the curse on Mount Eval?

Grizim: means "cuttings off", as opposed to Eval, which means "a bald
stone mountain", symbolizing the fruitfulness of the one choice (from which
useful trees could be cut) and the barrenness of the other.

30. "Aren't they on the other side of the Yarden, following the direction of
the sun's going [down], in the land of the K'naanites who dwell in the [dark]
desert plain toward Gilgal near the oaks of Moreh?

Gilgal: south of Yericho, very close to the Yarden; oaks of Moreh: near
Sh'chem (Nablus today), which sits between the two mountains, near the
geographical center of the Land, close to the tribal border between Efrayim
and Menashe (in what was later known as Samaria). Moreh means "teacher".

31. "--Because you will be crossing over the Yarden in order to go in and
take possession of the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving to you. You
will [not only] take possession of it, but also settle in it.

32. "But be careful to carry out all the prescribed tasks and privileges
which I am laying in front of you today.

CHAPTER 12

1. "These are the prescribed tasks and privileges which you shall observe in
order to carry out in the Land which YHWH, your ancestors' Elohim, is giving
you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth:

2. "You shall utterly destroy all the places in which the nations you are
going to dispossess served their gods on the uplifted mountains and hills,
and under every flourishing tree.

Flourishing tree: LXX, "thick tree".

3. "You shall also pull down their altars and break down the upright pillars
they have erected. Burn their sacred groves with fire, and chop down the
idols of their gods, and blot out their names from that place.

Note that the first command specifically given for when they arrived in
the Land was to totally eradicate paganism. No artifacts are to be left, and
indeed archaeologists at the city of Ay (Ai) have uncovered a stratum full of
gold and silver ornaments that were simply covered up when that level of
civilization there was burned, so apparently Y'hoshua and his generation
obeyed this command to the letter. Upright pillars: carried on today through
steeples, a tradition which began so that pagan temples could be seen from a
distance. Constantine changed all pagan temples into churches, and their
structure remained the same.

4. "You shall not deal in the same way for YHWH your Elohim,

Not...the same way: This could refer both to not worshiping YHWH as other
gods were worshiped (an idea He reiterates throughout Scripture) as well as
not destroying the altar specifically dedicated to Him.

5. "Because you shall resort to [enquire after, seek out] the place where
YHWH your Elohim shall choose out of all your tribes in order to put His Name
there for His dwelling-place, and come there.

6. "That is where you shall bring your ascending offerings and your
slaughtered sacrifices, your tithes and contributions from your hand, the
things you vowed to offer, and your free-will offerings, as well as the
firstborn of your flocks and herds.

7. "That is also where you will eat before the face of YHWH your Elohim, and
will rejoice in all that you set your hand to undertake--[both] you and your
households with which YHWH your Elohim has blessed you.

8. "You shall not do any of the same kind of things we are doing here
today--everyone [doing] whatever is right [logical, convenient] in his own
eyes,

9. "since you have not yet entered the resting-place and inherited property
that YHWH your Elohim is giving to you.

10. "But when you cross over the Yarden and settle into the Land which YHWH
your Elohim is giving you to take possession of, and He grants you a respite
from all your enemies on every side,
so that you dwell in security,

11. "then there shall be a place where YHWH your Elohim shall choose to
establish His Name; that is where you shall bring everything I am commanding
you--your ascending offerings and your slaughtered sacrifices, your tithes
and contributions from your hand, and all the best of the things you have
vowed [by choice] to give to YHWH.

12. "Then you will rejoice [brighten up] in the presence of YHWH your
Elohim--you and your sons and daughters, male and female servants, as well as
the Levite who is within your gates, since he does not have a share or
inherited property as you do.

13. "Watch yourself carefully so you will not offer up your ascending
offerings in [just] any place that you may see [fit],

Offer up your ascending offerings: could just as accurately be translated
"ascend your staircase", which in the context of the word "place" seems a
clear allusion to Yaaqov's dream of the staircase in a particular "place",
which Y'shua implied was a prototype of himself. "The Place" is also a
common Jewish euphem-ism for YHWH. He has given us one way and one place to
approach Him; substitutes are not accepted. See fit: or possibly, notice or
envision.

14. "but [only] in the place that YHWH your Elohim shall choose from one of
your tribes--that's where you shall raise your ascending offerings and carry
out all that I am ordering you [to do].

15. "Now you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gated
cities--whatever your soul desires--in accordance with the prosperity that
YHWH your Elohim gives you; both clean and unclean [people] may eat of this,
just as [they would eat] a gazelle or deer;

Gazelle or deer: the salient examples (perhaps because most common) of
animals that are clean but not acceptable for sacrifice. Since YHWH is more
concerned with what our diet teaches us than with what we actually eat, we
need to look for the picture here. Gazelles and deer are not domestic like
flocks and herds from which sacrifices are drawn. They are wild, and though
they may eat from human hands with a fence in between, they shy away from
humans when no safety barrier is present. These animals are pictures of
people who do not submit to a holy community; therefore we can partake of
their teachings, for they may be valid and important, bringing us life. But
only a community forms an altar fit for "food for YHWH to consume".

16. "just don't eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

YHWH repeats this in verse 23 below, perhaps because He knew it would be
one command that people would tend to forget. This is what distinguishes a
clean animal from one that is specifically kosher (acceptable for
consumption). This (with an even stricter requirement--that it be killed
according to Jewish traditional methods which were only an extrapolation on
the extra commands) is reiterated again in Acts 15.

17. "Within your gated cities you may not eat the tithe of your corn, wine,
or oil, or the firstborn of your flock, nor any of the offerings you have
vowed to give, nor your freewill offerings nor the contribution from [what]
your hand [is able to give];

18. "rather, you must eat them in the presence of YHWH your Elohim, in the
place that YHWH your Elohim shall choose--you and your son or daughter, male
or female servant, as well as the Levite who is within your gates--and
brighten up in the presence of YHWH your Elohim!

Unlike many extrapolations upon tithes today, these were purely
agricultural and were actually partaken of by those who grew them. The
difference is that it was shared. The fellowship involved in the meal is
what YHWH is after. This is what makes it holy according to His commandments.

19. "Only take special care to not neglect the Levite as long as you live on
the Land.

20. "When YHWH your Elohim shall enlarge your territory as He has promised
you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat meat' because your soul craves meat, you
may eat meat to your soul's content.

To your soul's content: according to any wish of your soul. Eat meat:
something they were not doing in the wilderness, since they did not know how
many animals they would need to sacrifice.

21. "If the place in which YHWH has chosen to establish His Name is too far
away from you, then you shall take [something] from your herd or flock, with
which YHWH has provided you, as I have ordered you. You shall eat whatever
your soul desires within your gates.

22. "You shall eat them just as the gazelle or deer are eaten; the clean and
unclean alike may eat of them.

23. "Just be firm about not eating the blood, because the blood is life, and
you may not eat the life along with the meat [flesh].

Be firm: Aramaic, "control yourself". The life: literally, soul, which
gives a better angle on why we should not take it into ourselves. The soul
of another type of being should not be mingled with ours.

24. "You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.

25. "You shall not eat it, in order that it may go well with you and with
your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in YHWH's
eyes.

Get the point yet? Only bloodless meat may be eaten by a holy people.
Go well: so that all that is in your life may be "well-placed".

26. "Only your holy things which belong to you shall you take up and come to
the place that YHWH shall choose.

27. "You shall offer up your ascending offerings--the flesh as well as the
blood--on the altar of YHWH your Elohim. Now the blood from your slaughtered
sacrifices is to be poured out on the altar of YHWH your Elohim, but you may
eat the meat.

28. "Be careful to obey all these things that I am commanding you, so it may
go well with you and with your children after you into perpetuity, because
you will be doing what is good and right in YHWH's eyes.

29. "When YHWH your Elohim cuts off the nations from before you, wherever
you go in to dispossess them, and you succeed them and dwell in their Land,

30. "Be especially careful that you are not brought down by following
[imitating] them [even] after they are annihilated from your presence, by
enquiring after [resorting to] their gods, saying, ‘In what way did these
nations serve their gods, so I can do the same?'

Brought down: could read "knocked down", "impelled", or "ensnared".

31. "For YHWH your Elohim you shall not deal in the same way, because every
[kind of] thing that is an abomination to YHWH--just what He hates--[is what]
they have done unto their gods--because to their gods they have even burnt
their sons and daughters with fire.

32. "Whatever I have ordered you to do, be very careful to carry it out; do
not add to it or diminish it.

CHAPTER 13

1. "If there arises among you a prophet or one who has [prophetic] dreams,
and presents you with a distinguishing sign or token as proof,

Prophet: literally, "one who raves".

2. "and if the sign or token comes true which he foretold for you, saying,
'Let's walk after other gods which you have not been familiar with [before],
and let's serve them!',

3. "then you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer of
dreams, because YHWH your Elohim is testing you, to discern whether you love
YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your being.

4. "You shall walk after YHWH your Elohim, and hold Him in awe, and treasure
His commandments, and obey His voice, and serve Him, and cling closely to Him.

Hold Him in awe: or "fear Him"--not be terrified of Himself, but of His
removing Himself from us, which holds infinite terror. He is glad to be a
sanctuary to us, but if He disconnects us from His presence, we could hardly
even continue to exist.

5. "Moreover, that prophet or dreamer or dreams shall be executed, because
he has made a declaration with the intent of turning you away [in rebellion]
from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out from the land of Egypt and rescued
you from the dungeon of slavery--to compel you to leave the path in which
YHWH your Elohim commanded you to walk. So you shall utterly consume away
the evil from your midst.

6. "If your brother--your mother's son--or your daughter, or [even] the wife
of your bosom, or your companion who is [as close] as your own soul--allures
you deceitfully, saying, 'Let's follow and serve other gods, which neither
you nor your fathers have been familiar with'--

7. "[that is], gods of the peoples who encompass you on every side, whether
nearby or far away, from one extremity of the earth to its other end,

8. "you shall neither give in to him nor listen to him, nor shall your eye
have pity on him. You shall neither spare him nor protect him [from justice],

Listen to him: Aramaic, "show affection for h im".

9. "but you shall by all means kill him; your own hand shall be the first
against him for his execution, then the hand of all the [rest of] the people
afterwards.

Kill him: LXX, "report concerning him".
10. "You must pelt him with stones so that he dies, since he has tried to
drive you away from YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out from the land of
Egypt and rescued you from the dungeon of slavery.

11. "Then all Israel will take notice and stand in awe, and never again do
any such wickedness as this among you.

He does not want this type of action to ever be necessary again.
Instilling the fear within us should be enough of a deterrent so He does not
have to.

12. "If you shall hear it said in one of your cities which YHWH has given
you to dwell in,

13. "'Some men, sons of Belial have gone out from among you and compelled
the inhabitants of your city, saying, "Let's go and serve other gods, with
which you have not been acquainted"',

Belial: worthlessness.

14. "then you shall carefully consult [witnesses] and make an investigation
and a thorough enquiry, and if the matter is indeed determined to be
established truth, that such an abomination has been done among you,

15. "Then you shall by all means [mortally] strike the inhabitants of that
city with the edge [mouth] of the sword, dedicating it in its entirety, along
with everything in it, even its animals, to destruction with the edge of the
sword.

16. "Then you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of its open
square, and burn the city with fire, including all its loot--every bit of
it--for the sake of YHWH your Elohim, and it shall remain a ruin-heap
perpetually; it shall never be rebuilt.

Ruin-heap: Heb., tel. LXX, "uninhabited".

17. "Nothing of what is dedicated to destruction shall stick to your hand,
so that YHWH may turn away from the hotness of His nostrils, and show you
mercy, and have compassion on you, and make you great, as He promised [with
an oath] to your forefathers,

18. "because you are listening to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, in order to
treasure up all His commandments which I am laying on you today, so that you
will do what is right in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim.

Listening to the voice of YHWH: Aramaic, "accepting the Memra [Living
Word] of YHWH.

CHAPTER 14

1. "You are children to YHWH your Elohim; you shall not make cuttings in
your [bodies], nor bring about any baldness between your eyes for the sake of
the dead,

Cuttings: something that penetrates the flesh; usually taken to include
tattoos; Aramaic, "Do not gash yourself". Baldness... for the sake if the
dead: apparently something permanent that perpetually chains one to the dead
soul, letting the other personality permanently affect oneself even after
they have departed. This is forbidden no matter how close the person was to
oneself, for it rather than the fact of one's belonging to YHWH becomes his
identity. (Hirsch)

2. "because you are a people set apart unto YHWH your Elohim. Moreover,
YHWH has selected you to be a people especially treasured by Himself above
all nations that are on the earth.

I.e., you are not to do anything in a common way or live an "unexamined
life".

3. "You shall not eat any abominable thing;

4. "these are the beasts that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

5. "the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the antelope, the bison, and the
mountain sheep,

Antelope: Aram.," ibex"; bison: Aram., "wild ox", considered in Hebrew to
be a form of cattle.

6. "And any beast whose hoof is divided and the split is cloven into two
parts and that brings up the cud; among the beasts, that is what you may eat.

Hoof...two parts: Some animals have either the inner or outer part of the
hoof cloven, but not both parts; only the animals in which both parts are
split are kosher. LXX, "makes claws of two divisions".

7. "However, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hoofs, you may not
eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax (since they chew the cud
but do not have cloven hoofs; they shall be impure for you),

The picture is of an animal that studies (as ruminating is used as a
metaphor for meditating YHWH's word it over and over) but does not walk it
out in a confident, sure-footed manner (as cloven-hoofed beasts can do best).

8. "and the pig. (Because it has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud,
it is impure for you.) You shall not eat of their flesh, nor [even] touch
their dead body.

Here, the picture is of someone who walks the walk, but does not know
why. The pig appears to be kosher on the outside, but its body does not rid
itself of impurities in any way, and it will eat anything, including other
pigs or even humans. So it is a picture of someone who accepts any doctrine
without testing it, and makes it a part of himself without having any way to
divest himself of it later. Interestingly, Sha'ul (Paul) tells us
specifically not to devour one another over what we eat (Gal. 5:15; Romans
14:20), so the real point is to learn what the eating or not eating teaches
us.

9. "These [are the ones] you may eat, of everything that is in the waters:
you may eat any that have fins and scales,

10. "but whatever does not have fins and scales, you shall not eat; it is
impure for you.

Thus any sort of shellfish, dolphin, whale, etc. is not kosher. At one
time it was thought that tuna did not have scales, but it was later found to
have them while it is still in the water.

11. "You may eat of any ritually-clean birds.

12. "But of these you shall not eat: the eagle, the osprey, and the buzzard,

13. "the kite, the falcon, and the vulture, and such species;

14. "nor any raven or such species,

15. "nor the owl, the ostrich, the seagull, the hawk,

Owl: Aramaic, "night hawk".

16. "the little owl, the eared owl, nor the ibis,

17. "the pelican, a carrion vulture, or the cormorant,

18. "the stork, the heron, or such species, nor the hoopoe, nor the bat.

In some cases the precise species are not known, but the general types of
creatures are; in general, any bird or beast that eats another animal may not
be eaten, because it thus loses its purity.

19. "Any insect [creeping thing] that flies will be impure for you; they
shall not be eaten,

20. "but of any ritually pure fowl you may eat.

This includes chickens, turkeys, ducks, quails, pigeons, etc.

21. "You shall not eat anything that [withers away and] dies of natural
causes, but you may give it to a sojourner who is in your city to eat, or you
may sell it to a foreigner, because you are a people set apart unto YHWH your
Elohim; you must not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

Sojourner: Aramaic, "uncircumcised transient". Boil a kid...milk: This
has been taken to mean it is never permissible to eat milk and meat products
at the same meal, but Avraham did this (Gen. 18:8), and it is a poor
typology, because the Torah is described as milk (1 Peter 2:2) and Y'shua as
meat (Yochanan 6:54). Boiling specifically a kid-goat in its own mother's
milk (all that is actually forbidden) was a custom common among pagans in the
region. Also, in the tense used here it can either mean to boil or to "cause
to ripen" or "raise to maturity". In the context that follows, regarding the
firstfruits, it fits to translate this "do not raise a kid to maturity on its
mother's milk", i.e., bring it the firstborn as the offering as soon as its
can be coaxed away from its mother.

22. "You shall by all means set aside a tenth of your produce--of the seed
that the cultivated field brings forth year by year.

23. "Then you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as
well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds in YHWH's presence in the
place where He shall choose to establish His Name, so that you may learn the
reverence of YHWH your Elohim all the days.

The learning takes place in the eating and in the coming to the place
where there is teaching about Him--the Temple, which shows us what the Body
of Messiah is supposed to look like.

24. "But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are unable to carry
it since the place which YHWH your Elohim shall choose (to establish there
His name) is too far away for you, when YHWH your Elohim has blessed you,

25. "then you shall exchange it for money, and secure the money in your hand
and go to the place which YHWH your Elohim shall select,

26. "and you shall use that money for whatever your soul desires--for oxen,
sheep, wine, or intoxicating drink, or whatever your soul requires--and eat
it there in the presence of YHWH your Elohim and rejoice [brighten up]--both
you and your household.

27. "But you shall not forget [neglect] the Levite who is within your
[gated] city, since he has no territorial share or inherited property as you
do.

28. "At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your
produce in that year, and deposit it [allow it to lie] within your gates,

29. "and the Levite (since he has no territorial share or inherited property
as you do) and the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow who are within your
gates shall come and eat their fill, so that YHWH may bless you in all the
work that you carry out with your hand.

Sojourner: one who has come to dwell temporarily among the people of
Israel specifically to learn about YHWH, and does not have a trade, since it
might take work away from the native-born. He is a guest and is to be
sustained. Orphan: specifically the fatherless, who, like the widow, may
have some physical strength but no chief breadwinner in the family and thus
poorer than other people. By the time of Y'shua, the priesthood was largely
corrupt, and there is no indication that Levitical cities still existed or
that Levites continued to dwell in the regions outside Yehudah for the
purpose of teaching the Torah to those who could only come to the Temple
three times per year. Thus the Levitical requirements are not repeated, but
Y'shua's brother Yaaqov, who was in the chief position in the congregation at
Yerushalayim, summarized "true, undefiled religion" as "aiding the widow and
orphan in their need, and keeping oneself unspotted by the world [system]".

CHAPTER 15

1. "From the end of every seven years you shall put into effect a release
from debt.

2. "Now this is the manner of the release from debt: every creditor must let
drop anything he has lent to his fellow; he must not put pressure on his
fellow or his brother, because a release for YHWH has been proclaimed.

Creditor: literally "owner of a hand loan". Not put pressure: LXX, "not
ask payment".

3. "You may exact it from an outsider, but your hand must release whatever
of yours is with your brother,

4. "Unless there should no longer be any needy among you--because YHWH will
indeed bless you in the Land that YHWH your Elohim is entrusting to you as an
inheritance to take as a possession

5. "if you will indeed obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, in order to be
careful to obey these commandments which I am drilling into you today--

6. "because YHWH your Elohim is going to bless you just as He promised you,
and you will lend to many nations, but you yourself will not borrow, and you
will exercise dominion in many nations, but they will not exercise dominion
in you.

Lend: literally, "cause to borrow". Israel is not meant to be counted
among the nations; when obeying YHWH, no one else is to rule over her,
influence her, or obligate her to their customs.

7. "Because there is a needy person among you, one of your relatives from
within any of your gates in the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, you
must not let your heart become obstinate or close your hand against your
needy brother,

Close your hand: or draw it back from him; Aramaic, "tighten your fist".

8. "because you are to open wide your hand to him, and by all means lend him
enough of anything he needs that is lacking to him.

9. "Keep watch over yourself lest there be a pointless idea in your mind
that says, ‘The seventh year--the year of release--is getting close", and
your eye becomes evil toward your brother, so that you give him nothing, and
he cries out to YHWH against you; this will constitute guilt for you.

Pointless: Heb., Belial--worthless, unprofitable, or destructive. Eye
becomes evil: an idiom for being stingy or ungenerous. This will constitute
guilt for you: see Psalm 140:12.

10. "Indeed, you shall give to him, and your heart must not be fearful when
you give to him, because on account of this YHWH your Elohim will bless you
on account of this matter, in all your pursuits and in every undertaking of
your hand.

Our natural tendency is to be afraid we will not have enough left for our
own needs if we meet someone else's needs, but YHWH is our true source of
sustenance; helping the poor is like lending to Him, and He is the one who
will repay us (Prov. 19:17; 28:27); we should not depend on frail mankind to
meet our needs.

11. "For there will never cease to be needy [people] in the midst of the
Land; that is why I am commanding you, saying you must open wide your hand to
your poor or needy brother within your Land.

12. "If your relative--a Hebrew man or woman--is sold to you, he [or she]
may serve you six years, then in the seventh year, you must set him free with
no obligation to you.

13. "Moreover, when you send him out from [being] with you with no
obligation, you must not send him away empty [handed];

14. "you will liberally supply him from your flock, your threshing floor,
and your wine vat. You shall give him [from] whatever YHWH your Elohim has
blessed you with.

Liberally supply him: literally, "lay a collar on his neck"--not with a
slave-chain any longer, but as a woman is given a necklace full of costly
gems as a dowry to provide for her later in life should she be widowed.

15. "Remember [this], because you were a slave in the Land of Egypt, and
YHWH your Elohim rescued you; that is why I am giving you orders concerning
this matter today.

16. "Now if he should tell you, ‘I will not go out from [being] with you',
because he loves you and your household, and it has gone well for him [while
he was] with you,

Notice the similarities with Ruth, who was free to leave Naomi, but chose
not to, because she loved the people of Israel.

17. "then take the piercing-tool and put it through his ear and onto the
door, and he shall be a slave to you perpetually. You may even do the same
to a maidservant.

Maidservant: or perhaps "concubine".

18. "It must not seem burdensome in your sight when you set him free with no
obligation to you, because he has served you for six years, earning double
the wages of a hired servant, and YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all that
you do.

A hired servant: i.e., he has been worth twice as much to you as someone
hired from a labor pool for a day's work, because he knows the territory much
better and can bring to bear in his work his familiarity with the household.
He deserves to have you outfit him with supplies when he goes, because you
have gotten far more than what you originally paid for him, compared to the
wages of a day-laborer. (Hirsch)

19. "Every firstling male born of your herd or your flock you must set apart
[as devoted] to YHWH your Elohim; you must not do any work with the firstborn
of your cattle, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep.

20. "Year by year, you shall eat it in the presence of YHWH your Elohim in
the place YHWH shall choose--you and your household.

21. "But if there is any blemish in it--lameness, blindness, or any bad
defect--you may not slaughter it unto YHWH your Elohim;

22. "you shall eat it within your gates--ritually clean and unclean [people]
alike--as [you would] a gazelle or deer.

Alike: or "together". Gazelle or deer: these animals are kosher, but
never used for Temple sacrifice, probably because they are wild rather than
domesticated.

23. "Only its blood you shall not eat; you shall pour it out onto the ground
like water.

CHAPTER 16

1. "Observe the month ofAviv, and prepare the Passover unto YHWH your
Elohim, because in the month of Aviv YHWH your Elohim brought you out of
Egypt at night.

Aviv: the greening of the ears of barley.

2. "So slaughter a Passover to YHWH your Elohim--flock or herd animal--in
the place where YHWH your Elohim shall choose for the dwelling of His name.

Passover: since the lamb is not specified here as it was at the first
Passover, in the context of 15:21, it would almost appear it should be
translated "a lame animal", because the word is spelled the same, the
connection being that the animal with a lame leg "skips over" that leg when
hobbling, as the death angel "skipped over" the homes that had the lamb's
blood on the doors. For the dwelling of His name: the place eventually chosen
was Yerushalayim, which is built over a grid of valleys shaped like the
Hebrew letter "shiin", the abbreviation for Shaddai, the name often chosen
when His name is to be written on a common object (like a doorpost mezuzzah,
though not on articles associated with the Temple, on which YHWH was
engraved).

3. "You may not eat leaven on top of it; seven days you must eat on top of
it unleavened loaves--bread of affliction, since you left Egypt in a
hurry--in order that you may remember the day of your leaving the land of
Egypt all the days of your life.

Bread of affliction: or weakness, poverty, humiliation. Hurry:
trepidation, alarm, fleeing in haste.

4. "Moreover, no leaven belong to you shall be seen within any of your
territories [for] seven days, nor shall any of the meat which you slaughtered
on the first day at evening remain overnight until morning.

5. "You cannot slaughter the Passover within any of your towns that YHWH
your Elohim is giving to you;

You cannot: literally, "you shall not have power to." Any of your towns:
literally, "one of your gates".

6. "rather, [go] to the place where YHWH your Elohim shall select for the
dwelling of His Name. There you shall slaughter the Passover in the evening,
according to the setting of the sun [at the] time of your departure from
Egypt.

Time: or season, but this probably correlates with "at night" (v. 1),
i.e., "after the sun sets".

7. "Then cook and eat [it] in the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses, and
in the morning turn and walk to your tents.

8. "Six days you shall eat unleavened loaves, and on the seventh [hold] a
festive farewell assembly to YHWH your Elohim; you must do no servile labor.

No servile labor: LXX, "no work, except what is necessary to be done for
a soul", i.e., to preserve life.

9. "Count for yourself seven weeks. Start counting [the] seven weeks from
when you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

10. "Then observe the Feast of Weeks to YHWH your Elohim--a freewill
offering in proportion to what you can afford, commensurate with how YHWH
your Elohim may bless you.

Weeks: Heb., "Shavuoth". Freewill offering: yet it is still expected to
be in an amount relative to one's means.

11. "And rejoice in the presence of YHWH your Elohim--you, your son, your
daughter, your slave, your concubine, the Levite who is within your precinct,
and the guest, the fatherless, and the orphan who are among you, in the place
where YHWH your Elohim has chosen for His name to dwell.

12. "Now remember, because you were a slave in Egypt, so be careful to carry
out these prescribed customs.

13. "Put the Feast of Booths into effect for yourself [for] seven days, when
you have gathered in [the crops] from your threshing floor and your wine
press,

Booths: Heb., Sukkoth.

14. "and rejoice in the feast---you, your son, your daughter, your slave,
your concubine, and the Levite, the guest, the fatherless, and the widow who
are within your gates.

15. "Celebrate a feast for seven days in the place that YHWH shall choose,
because YHWH your Elohim will bless you in all your produce and in all the
undertakings of your hands; so you must be nothing but joyful!

Celebrate a feast: includes the concepts of making a pilgrimage, reeling
[perhaps from strong drink], and dancing in a circle. Lev. 23:42 specifies
living in temporary dwellings during this particular feast. Produce: crop
yield or revenue of any kind.

16. "Three times a year all your males shall appear before YHWH your Elohim
at the place which He shall choose: at the feast of Unleavened Loaves, at the
Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. Moreover, you they shall not
appear before YHWH empty [handed],

17. "[but] each with the gift that he can afford commensurate with the
blessing that YHWH your Elohim has given you."

Portion SHOFTIM (16:18-21:9)
16:18. "You shall appoint for yourselves judges [shoftim] and officials within all your jurisdictions which YHWH your Elohim is giving you, according to your tribe, and they shall judge the nation with the deserved legal rulings.

Judges: or governors; those who make legal rulings. Officials: from a word meaning "to write", but not the typical word for "scribes". Putting legal rulings in writing brings more of a sense of authority to them. Deserved: or above-board, righteous, charitable.

19. "You must not allow justice to be bent, nor allow faces to be recognized, nor receive a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and overturns righteous words.

Faces to be recognized: an idiom for showing partiality.

20. "Justice, justice you shall pursue, for the sake of surviving and possessing the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you!

21. "You must not plant a grove of any kind of tree contiguous to the altar of YHWH your Elohim which you will make for yourself,

A grove: or poles styled like trees, commonly used in idolatrous practices; Heb. asherah. The tradition of setting up Christmas trees is rooted in this practice.

22. "nor shall you set up for yourself any upright [stone], which YHWH your Elohim hates.

Upright: or erect, which suggests the type of pagan fertility theme it had. Aramaic, "statue"; Hirsch, "memorial stone". The patriarchs prior to this command did set some of these up, but it was not "for themselves", as something they could control, but unto YHWH, e.g., as a marker in recognition of what would be the site of the Temple (in Yaaqov's case). Nor were they ever worshipped.

CHAPTER 17

1. "You must not slaughter to YHWH your Elohim an ox or sheep in which there is a defect--anything wrong [with it]--because that is abhorrent [to] YHWH your Elohim.

Anything wrong with it: literally, "any evil word". If the sacrifice YHWH will accept from returning Israel is "words...and the calves of our lips" (Hos. 14:2), then a defective sacrifice is a picture of the same mouth producing both blessing and cursing (Yaaqov/James 3:10). Yaaqov (Y’shua’s younger brother) was the rightful king of Israel after Y'shua left the earth, and was bringing out the deeper meaning of the Torah (vv. 18, 19 below).

2. "If there should be found within one of your gate[d citie]s which YHWH your Elohim is giving you a man or a woman who does what is evil in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim by stepping outside the bounds of His covenant,

Note the parallel with the ox or sheep with a defect in v. 1.

3. "and has gone and served other mighty ones and bowed himself to them or to the sun or moon or any of the army of the skies, which I have not appointed,

Appointed: i.e., to be worshipped; alt., "commanded". Army of the skies: probably the stars, but alternately "the hosts of heaven", i.e., the spirits under YHWH that He has appointed to have jurisdiction over limited areas only, but not the people or Land of Israel. The sun and moon also represent one's forefathers (as in Yoseyf's dream, Gen. 37:9ff). The forefathers--either the "early Church fathers" or the ancient rabbinical
sages--while they may have said much we can learn from, were far from perfect and are not to be worshipped.

4. "and it is reported to you, and you have heard [the case] and made a thorough inquiry, and it is indeed reliably confirmed that this abominable thing has been done in Israel,

Confirmed: "determined" or "established". Verse 6 explains what constitutes reliability. In Israel: the holiest part of the earth, where there is no tolerance for anything pagan, whatever may be permitted anywhere else.

5. "then you shall bring that man or that woman who has done this wicked thing out from your gates, and you shall pelt them with stones so that they die.

This may explain another reason the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath was stoned to death. He could not build a fire to YHWH on that day, so he may have wished to build it toward another object of worship. "He who does not gather with me scatters", says Y'shua. If we are gathering people unto Sunday worship (gathering sticks out of season), Christmas, steepled buildings (a remnant of the "pillars" in 12:3), etc., we are preparing a sacrifice unto someone other than YHWH.

6. "Upon the word of two witnesses or three witnesses shall the one being executed be put to death; he must not be put to death on the word of [only] one witness.

Witnesses: includes the sense of bringing evidence, not just a report.

7. "The hand of the witnesses shall be the first against him in order to execute him, then afterward the hand of the whole nation; thus you will burn away the evil from your midst.

Burn away: Two witnesses--perhaps the two houses of Israel--show up just before the fire of YHWH's purification of the earth, before the Messianic Kingdom, the "Sabbath" millennium, begins. (Rev. 11:3)

8. "If a matter is too difficult for you to render judgment between blood and blood, between [one] cause and [another], or between [one] blow and [another]--matters of legal controversy between your civil precincts, then proceed to go up to the place that YHWH your Elohim will choose,

Blood: or bloodguiltiness. Cause: plea, case, suit, or legal dispute; Hirsch, "verdict". Blow: or how many strokes one should receive in judgment; Aramaic, "even involving the leprosy plague". Different levels of courts are thus instituted here.

9. "and come to the Levitical officials or to the judge that there will be in those days, and consult them, and they will make known to you the manner of deciding the case.

Officials: or priests (cohanim), which stems from the Hebrew word for "officiate". Make known: LXX, "report" or "declare"; includes the sense of expounding on how they came to the conclusion. The ruling is hidden from those at the local levels so that the ruling may be made known to the entire nation of Israel; it is a precedent YHWH has decided is significant enough for everyone to hear. The rulings of the Pharisaically-based Rabbis, who usurped authority from Levi, are conspicuously absent from this protocol.

10. "But you must act on the word of the sentence which they make known to you from that place which YHWH shall choose, and be careful to carry out all that they direct you [to do].

Act on the word of the manner that they make known: Aramaic, "act on the basis of the verdict that they relate".

11. "You must do according to the word of the instruction by which they direct you and the decision with which they answer you; you must not deviate from the sentence which they make known to you, [neither] to the right not to the left.

I.e., do not ask for a ruling unless you are willing to be bound by it. Once there is a verdict, you have no option but to obey it, and nothing is said here about an appeal process. This behooves us to use extreme caution in choosing the judges who will make rulings for us. They must themselves be able to present two or three "witnesses" (pieces of evidence) from Scripture, rather than basing them on only one ambiguous passage. If they direct the less learned to do wrongly, they themselves will bear the blame.

12. "Now the man who acts defiantly so as to avoid obeying the officiator who is appointed to wait on YHWH your Elohim there or the judge, that man should die; thus you shall burn away the evil from Israel.

Defiantly: presumptuously, proudly, arrogantly.

13. "Then the whole nation will hear of it and be afraid, and no longer act defiantly.

14. "When you come into the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let me set over myself a king like all the nations that surround me',

15. "you may indeed set over you in it a king whom YHWH your Elohim chooses. (You shall set a king over yourselves from among your relatives; you may not appoint over yourselves a foreign man who is not your relative.)

YHWH chooses: It was always a prophet who anointed a rightful king in Israel. Foreign man: an outsider.

16. "Only, he must not amass to himself many horses or cause the nation to turn back to Egypt in order to amass horses, since YHWH has told you never to return that way again.

Amass to himself many: Aramaic, "own too many". That way: both the literal road to Egypt as well as the Egyptian way of doing things, which includes dependence on great numbers. (1 Shmuel 14:6) Yeshayahu (Isaiah 31 clarifies that "going to Egypt" and relying on horses signifies trusting in the "arm" of flesh, and not looking to the Set-Apart One of Israel. That Pharaoh's horses were also lost in the Red Sea because of such a simple thing as getting stuck in the mud shows how unreliable they are. (cf. Rev. 19:18)

17. "Nor shall he amass women to himself, and his heart will not turn away, nor shall he amass to himself very much silver or gold.

18. "Now when he takes his seat upon the throne of his kingdom, what he must do is write in a book a copy of this Torah for himself from [the one that is] in the presence of the Levitical officials.

Either Shlomo (Solomon) failed to do this, or he forgot what he had written, because he disobeyed every one of these commands, even going specifically to Egypt to obtain horses! (1 Kings 4:26; 2 Chron. 9:25) Shlomo did not even have his heart set on such wealth, but when given to him as a reward it still turned his heart away. He would have been much better off without it. If someone so wise could be turned from YHWH when this went to his head, what sort of warning is it for us? Some of the later kings actually dedicated their horses to the sun (a Persian practice), and kept them stationed right outside the Temple of YHWH! But Yoshiyahu (Josiah) faithfully did away with them. (2 Kings 23:11).

19. "Then it must be [kept] with him, and he must read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to reverence YHWH your Elohim in order to guard all the words of this instructin and these prescribed customs, for the purpose of carrying them out,

Reverence: or fear. Only YHWH is a worthy object of our fear. (Mat. 10:28) Situations, armies, shortages, etc., are not. No one who takes anything beside YHWH into consideration can bring a right ruling.

20. "so his heart will not be lifted up above his brothers and he may avoid turning aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, and thus he may extend days over his kingdom [for both] himself and his sons in the very heart of Israel.

The very heart: not the same Hebrew word as "his heart" above, but meaning "the innermost part" or "that which is nearest" in the midst of Israel. In other words, he could thus become as close to YHWH as possible. Only a few kings made serious attempts at this.

CHAPTER 18

1. "For the Levitical officials--[in fact, for] the whole tribe of Levi--there shall be no territory or property along with Israel; YHWH's fire offering and His inheritance [is what] they shall eat.

Eat: Aramaic, "live off". Property: the word can also mean something that seduces or flatters (thus hampering the focus of one's dedication).

2. "He will not have inherited property among his brothers; YHWH Himself is his inheritance, as He promised him.

3. "Now this will be the priest's due from among the people--from among those who slaughter an offering, whether cattle or flock animals: they shall give the cohen the foreleg, the two jawbones, and the stomach,

Foreleg: or arm, a symbol of strength and a title for the Messiah; alt., "shoulder". It is rooted in the term for "mighty". Jawbones: what Shimshon (Samson) used to slaughter many Filistines; alt., "cheek". Stomach: or ruminant ventricle--where it digests food and returns it for further digestion so it has something very nourishing to feed its young. This is a picture of our meditating on YHWH's word over and over so we can feed newer believers with greater accuracy and proper attitude. (e.g., Acts 17:11)

4. "the first of your grain, your new wine, and your freshly-pressed oil. You shall also give him the first of what you shear from your sheep,

First: also the best, the choicest part. LXX, "firstfruits". Grain: from a term for "what multiplies".

5. "because YHWH your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and serve in the Name of YHWH--[both] him and his sons forever.

Stand: Aramaic, "be in attendance". Serve: or "minister to, "wait on". Forever: literally, "for all days". Just because the Melchitzedeq priesthood is added to this one does not cancel the Levitical order.

6. "Now if the Levite comes out of one of your cities--from any [part of] Israel where he has been staying--and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place YHWH will choose,

Levite: Note the Levites who were specifically attached to Temple service, but those who resided in outlying cities among all the tribes for the purpose of teaching all Israel the Torah. This allowance sets a precedent for YHWH's promise that one day He will take priests and Levites from those of all tribes who were exiled among the nations. (Yeshayahu 66:21) The "high calling" of Phil. 3:14 is to be as holy as the holiest, not just Levites, but even priests. Cities: literally, "gates". Staying: finding temporary
hospitality, sojourning.

7. "then he may serve in the Name of YHWH his Elohim, just as all his brothers, the Levites, who stand there before YHWH.

Serve in the Name: LXX, "minister to the Name". He would still not be a priest per se.

8. "They shall eat share for share, except [what he received] from the sale of what belonged to his ancestors.

Share for share: i.e., the newcomer (who serves by his own choice) will have the same amount (portion) to eat as those who have preceded him as YHWH had prescribed. LXX, "an allotted portion, besides the sale..."

9. "When you come into the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving to you, you must not learn to do abominable practices such as those nations [do]:

This type of compromise is what brought about the Christian calendar. But now that we are entering into Torah again, we find that some abominations have been set up in its realm as well, such as the forbidding of the use of YHWH's name and the forbidding of eating milk and meat together (an overextension of a command, which destroys a picture the same way Moshe's striking the rock the second time did). So we have pitfalls to avoid in both directions.

10. "There must not be found among you one who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who practices divination, a soothsayer, a whisperer, or a sorcerer,

Soothsayer: literally, one who observes or produces clouds. King Sha'ul let his fears lead him into consulting a medium. Whisperer: one who conjures spells or tells fortunes by observing omens, but also a gossip, who produces unfounded rumors that take on a life of their own and influence how people treat one another. There is something "forbidden" about whispering that attracts us in a seductive sort of way.

11. "or one who ties magic charms, or one who consults familiar spirits, or a wizard, or one who enquires of the dead,

Ties magic charms: Aram., "casts spells"; LXX, "a sorcerer employing incantation". Familiar spirits: the word may be based on the word for "ancestor", but is also used for a water-bottle made from an animal skin. Wizard: literally, a "knower". Some Jewish mysticism is valid, but some gets into these practices.

12. "because all who do these things are abhorred by YHWH, and on account of these abominations, YHWH your Elohim is causing them to be dispossessed from before you.

Abhorred by YHWH: He is disgusted with these people, destroying the myth that He "loves everyone".

13. "You must be entirely in accord with YHWH your Elohim,

Or, "...be mature toward YHWH", seeking learning rather than childishly following after attractively-hawked mediums who only want your money.

14. "because these nations which you are disinheriting listen to soothsayers and diviners, but as for you, YHWH your Elohim has not permitted you to [to do] so;

Permitted you to do so: Aramaic, "assigned these [i.e., such authorities] to you".

15. "a prophet like myself from within your midst--from among your brothers--will YHWH your Elohim raise up; he is [the one] to whom you must listen.

16. "According to all that you asked from YHWH your Elohim at Chorev on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Don't let me hear the voice of YHWH my Elohim anymore, or let me see this great conflagration again, so I will not die!'

17. "And YHWH told me, ‘What they have said is appropriate;

18. "‘I will raise up a prophet for them from among their brothers like yourself, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them all that we will command.

We: perhaps both YHWH and Moshe, since Y'shua (whom YHWH said was the one to listen to, Mat. 17:5) ordered his life by the Torah (Mat. 5:17) and said he could do nothing but what he saw the Father doing. (Yochanan 5:19, 30) Y'shua appealed to Moshe's testimony about him. (Yochanan 5:46-47) The verb is rather unusual: it appears to read "I will command us", though "him" would seem the logical object.

19. "‘And what will happen is that the man who does not obey the words that he will speak in My name, I myself will require it from him.

Require: seek out with precision, demand, conduct an investigation.

20. "‘Moreover, the prophet who may presume to speak a word in My name which I have not ordered him to say, or who speaks in the name of other mighty ones, that prophet shall die.

Presume: i.e., intentionally do so, not just by mistake when he thought it was from YHWH.

21. "‘Now since you may say in your heart, "How are we to recognize which word is not from YHWH?",

Y'shua adds that the one who truly desires to do the will of YHWH will have the truth made clear to him. (Yochanan 7:17)

22. "‘when a prophet speaks in the name of YHWH, if the thing does not take place and does not come [true], that is the thing that YHWH has not said. The prophet has spoken presumptuously; do not be afraid of him.

Be afraid of him: show him any respect; or alternately, "dwell with him" or "argue with him". Do not be afraid: Hirsch, "Have no scruples concerning him" (since we are told in 13:5 to stone him to death). In the case of the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled thousands of years later, they are either given a point of reference "in that Day" (i.e., the Day of YHWH) and/or have a more immediate, smaller-scale fulfillment in the prophet's own day and a wider one in the days yet to come.

CHAPTER 19

1. "When YHWH your Elohim shall cut off the nations whose Land YHWH your Elohim is giving to you to take over and settle in their cities and their houses,

2. "you shall set aside three cities for yourself in the midst of the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you to take possession of.

I.e., in the Land proper. Moshe had already set up three of them in the "extra" Lands given to the two and a half tribes on the side of the Yarden which they had already conquered. (4:43) Y'hoshua did set up an additional three in obedience to this command. (Y'hoshua 20:2).

3. "You shall prepare the way for yourself by dividing the territory of the Land that YHWH your Elohim will cause you to inherit into three parts, so that any manslayer may escape there.

Prepare the way: LXX, "Take a survey of your way" to find out which way will be the layout most conducive to escaping to the cities of refuge. I.e., do not place the border just across the mountains from the city, making his flight more difficult.

4. "Now this is the case of the manslayer who may flee there and survive: whoever [mortally] strikes his fellow inadvertantly and without having hated him in times past,

Case: or "affirmation" (Hirsch); LXX, "ordinance". Survive: yet as a prisoner, in a sense. He may not leave the city until the high priest's death and be guaranteed any safety. We can only go where Y'shua's forgiveness allows us to go. The perfect law of liberty (Yaaqov 1:25; 2:12) is spiritual (Rom. 7:14); any other rule is flesh.

5. "[for example, one] who goes with his neighbor into the forest to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to fell a tree, but the iron [head] comes off the wood [handle] and hits his neighbor so that he dies--he [is the one who] may flee to one of these cities and stay alive

6. "in case the avenger of blood might chase after the manslayer while his passion is hot and catch up with him because the distance is too great, then beat the life out of him, though he had no legal death sentence, since he had not hated him in times past.

Avenger: Hirsch, "acceptor of responsibility for". Passion: literally, "heart". Had no death sentence: or "did not deserve death". Hated him: or "been his enemy" (Hirsch).

7. "Therefore, I myself am ordering you as follows: Set apart for yourself three cities,

8. "and if YHWH your Elohim should enlarge your territory, as indeed He has promised to your ancestors, and has given you all the Land that He said He would give to your ancestors

9. "if you will be careful to carry out all these orders that I am commanding you today--to love YHWH your Elohim and to walk in all His ways--then you shall add another three cities in addition to these three,

This would apparently bring the total of Cities of Refuge to nine. This command is yet to be fulfilled.

10. "so that innocent blood will not be shed within the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inherited possession, and there should come to be blood upon you.

He is concerned that this Land, which is intended to serve as a restoration of Eden insofar as is possible in this age, be free from all forms of injustice, especially wrongful destruction of life.

11. "But if there should be a man who is malicious toward his neighbor and waits in ambush for him, then rises up and strikes his body so that he dies, then escapes to one of these cities,

12. "then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, so that he may be put to death.

Elders: literally, "bearded ones". Even the later Y'hoshua (the Messiah) cannot protect us if we sin willfully. (Heb. 10:26)

13. "Your eye must not take pity on him; rather, you must purge the innocent blood from Israel, so it may go well for you.

Purge: lit., "burn away", remove, consume, or do away with. The success of this enclave of righteousness in a world gone bad depends on ridding it of any vestige of what expelled man from Eden in the first place.

14. "You may not shift your neighbor's boundary marker, which the first [settlers] have laid out to mark off the property that you will inherit in the Land which YHWH your Elohim is entrusting you to take over.

Shift: move or displace; Aramaic, "alter". This is a form of stealing. The fact that your neighbor may not know exactly where the property limit is that his earliest ancestors in the Land (the patriarchs) set up does not give you the right to adjust it to your advantage when he is not looking. The root word for boundary (or border) is "a twisted cord"--probably the rope used to measure or mark it off, but it recalls the three-stranded cord which is not easily broken. Moshe set up a rope boundary around Mt. Sinai (which YHWH said was good, 18:17, since He, liuek Moshe, desires that there be many prophets in Israel). This also specifically links the Torah to the tribal lands: if we are again obedient to His commands, He will restore us to our proper lands. If we do not "bind it back up" (give the Torah its right interpretation rather than slackening it, Mat. 5:19), our tribal lands will remain trodden underfoot by "dogs". This type of bond is not being bound hand and foot, as so many imagine, but being supported and braced as with a belt or girdle.

15. "A single piece of evidence will not stand to establish anyone's guilt or to bring punishment for any error that he commits; upon the word of two witnesses, or [better] upon the declaration of three witnesses, shall a matter be confirmed.

Piece of evidence: or "witness". Error: or lapse (Hirsch). Matter: or "charge" (Hirsch). Matter: or "word", i.e., a claim of what one said.

16. "If a hostile witness should rise up against a man to accuse him of treason,

Hostile: vicious, violent, or malicious; Heb., hamas, the very name of the violent terrorist group in the Land today. In fulfillment of Psalm 35:11, this happened in Y'shua's own trial. (Mat. 26:60) It also happened to Stefanos. (Acts 6:13). Treason: apostasy, departing from the way, defection.

17. "then both of the men who have the dispute shall stand in YHWH's presence before the cohanim or judges who shall be [in office] in those days,

18. "and the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness turns out to [be bringing] fraudulent evidence or bringing a false accusation against his brother,

Fraudulent: unfounded or deceitful.

19. "then you shall do to him just what he had plotted to do to his brother; thus you shall burn away the iniquity from your midst,

20. "and those who remain alive will hear of it and be afraid, and never again will another such wickedness be done among you.

21. "Nor shall you look [for a way] to spare; rather, life [shall be exacted] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, leg for leg.

CHAPTER 20

1. "When you go out into battle against your enemies, and you see horses and chariots, a nation larger than yourself, do not be afraid of them, because YHWH your Elohim, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with you.

Aramaic, "His Memra [living Word] will be your support." (Compare Yesh./Isa. 51:12ff) Elisha was obedient to this command though he was only waging war spiritually, and both he and his servant had a greater revelation of just who the human forces were up against. (2 Kings 6:17) Since Elisha follows Eliyahu, the spirit that is again coming "before the Great and Terrible Day of YHWH", Elishah represents the time that will follow this, and this may thus be a prophetic allusion to the time when all nations will hem Israel in and threaten to snuff out its existence. For that time period, we are told here not to fear, but rather to obey the following procedures:

2. "But what you should do when you are getting close to battle is that the priest should approach and speak to the people,

3. "telling them, ‘Listen, Israel! Today you are drawing near to engage in battle against your enemies. Do not let your hearts be timid! Do not be afraid! Do not run away or tremble in terror due to their presence,

Be timid: Aramaic, "panic". Tremble: Aramaic, "be discouraged".

4. "because YHWH your Elohim is the one who is going with you to fight with your enemies for you, and to bring you deliverance!'

Going: LXX, "advancing".

5. "The officials shall also say to the people, ‘Which [of you] is the man who has built a new house, but has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it.

Dedicated: the word also means "inaugurated" or "trained".

6. "‘And which [of you] is the man who has planted a vineyard and not [yet] begun [to eat of it]? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man tame it.

Begun: can also mean "broken it in" or (more commonly) "profaned it"--i.e., trimmed it, tamed it, brought it from a wild state to one of usefulness; Aram.,"made general use of it"; LXX, "been made merry with it".

7. "‘And which [of you] is the man who has betrothed a woman, but not [yet] taken her [in marriage]? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man take her.'

What each of these men has in common is that he has unfinished business at home. Their heart is expected to still be on personal matters, and therefore they will not be able to concentrate on the battle. Note how similar they are to the excuses made by those invited to the banquet in Y'shua's parable. (Luk. 14:16-24) This is the same principle as putting the hand to the plow, then looking back, or wanting to go bury one's father first. YHWH is not so much permitting these people to leave, as He is shaming them, for the only people counted in Israel are the soldiers. He is not concerned for numbers, but that those who are in the trenches beside their fellows are trustworthy and single-minded.

8. "And further still, the officers shall say to the people, ‘Which [of you] is the man who is afraid and timid of heart? Let him go and return to his house, so the heart of his brothers will not melt like his heart.'

Timid: LXX, "cowardly". Gid'on obeyed this command in the book that bears the same name as this Torah portion. (Shoftim/Judges 7:3) We should not voice our "what if's" as the ten evil spies did. (See v. 1) Even if the only thing you fear is that others will take what belongs to you (vv. 5-7), you do not belong in this battle.

9. "Then what must happen when the officers have finished speaking to the people is that they shall appoint captains over the organized armies at the forefront of the nation.

Note that there can be no leaders until after the fainthearted are taken away.

10. "When you approach a city to engage it in battle, then call out [an offer of] peace to it.

LXX, "call them out peaceably". The word for "call them out" is the root word for "ekklesia", the called-out ones, because Y'shua intends to call all Israel back out of all nations peaceably. (See note on v. 12) Aramaic, "offer it terms of peace".

11. "And if ‘peace' is how it answers you, and it opens [its gates] to you, then all the people who are found in it will be your tributaries, and they will serve you.

Your tributaries: or "shall merge into you, but they will serve you". I.e., they can become part of Israel, and retain no distinct identity and no baggage of their own; they can never serve self, only the whole entity of Israel. There will no longer be Baptists or Methodists, but only Israelites.

12. "But if it will not conclude [a peace] with you, but makes war on you, then treat it as an enemy.

Peace: a settlement in which they completely surrender, for the verb here means "to complete". Compare Mat. 10:12-15, when Y'shua sends his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom--that those who left the covenant can become part of Israel again, but they must do it according to YHWH's terms. If the dust (descendants of Avraham) from there will not adhere to His "feet" (pilgrim festivals--i.e., His times and seasons), then the peace that is offered to that city will be retracted, and the city will fare worse than S'dom and ‘Amorah. Treat it as an enemy: or "confine it", "besiege it", "close in on
it".

13. "And when YHWH your Elohim has delivered it into your hand, you must strike down every one of its males with the ‘mouth' of the sword.

14. "Only the women, the toddlers, the animals, and whatever [else] may be in the city--any of its spoils--may you seize for yourself. Then you shall eat the plunder of your enemies, which YHWH your Elohim has turned over to you.

Turned over: or entrusted, ascribed, designated, granted.

15. "This is how you shall act in regard to any of the cities which are very distant from you--which are not among the cities of these nations here.

16. "Only from the cities of these peoples, which YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance, shall you not leave alive anything that breathes,

This refers to those who are "in the Land" who have drawn near but have not fully surrendered to Israel, such as pastors of churches, who should know better, but are unwilling to give up their salaries to teach undiluted truth, as opposed to the average person on the street who has no theology. They have muddied the waters by mixing paganism and the doctrines of men with the true water. (Y'chezq'el/Ezek. 34:19) They cannot be upheld in their current condition. They must sit and be taught by those who know Torah; they may no longer instruct (v. 17), even if they were once leaders in their own camps.

17. "because these--the Chittite, the Emorite, the Kanaanite, the Prizzite, the Chiwite, and the Y'vusite--you shall devote to destruction, just as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you,

18. "the intent being that they will not teach you to imitate the disgusting practices which they have been performing for their mighty ones, and thus sin toward YHWH your Elohim.

19. "When you lay siege to a city for many days, to wage war against it in order to capture it, do not waste its tree by wielding an axe against them, because you may eat of them, so do not cut it down. For is a tree of the field a human being, to go from before you into the siege-mound?

Waste: use up, or spoil, ruin, destroy. Is a tree...a human being? Alt., "a tree...is the human being". This is a key for understanding many figures and parables in Scripture. THE human being (Heb., adam) is the new Man that YHWH is restoringThey may need these trees for sustenance if the siege is prolonged. Accordingly, we must not "knock" or curse the "tree" on which Y'shua was executed, as much as it has been abused, for as long as we are still outside the City we are recapturing, it is our only lifeline and "goes before us" into battle as the firstfruit of the "Man" that we are all to become. (1 Yochanan 3:2) Aramaic, "trees of the field are not like humans, to be included in a siege."

20. "Only a tree which you are certain is not a tree from which to eat--that one you may use up or cut down and build a siege-mound against the city that is making war with you, until you bring it down.

Are certain: literally, "you know". Not a tree from which to eat: This immediately brings to mind the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. YHWH barred our first ancestors from the tree of life so it would not be ruined, but He has allowed us to make use of the tree of "knowing" for His purposes in recapturing the City, but once that is accomplished, "knowledge is done away with" (1 Cor. 13:8) since "we know in part" (13:9) and whoever thinks he knows anything has not begun to experience the kind of knowledge he really needs (1 Cor. 8:2).

CHAPTER 21

1. "If someone is found mortally wounded--lying fallen in the [open] field--on the territory that YHWH your Elohim is giving you to take possession of, and it is not known who has struck him down,

Mortally wounded: slain, or more literally "pierced".

2. "then your elders and judges must come out and measure [the distance] to the cities that are all around the mortally-wounded one,

3. "and what must take place is that the city--that is, the elders of the city--nearest the mortally-wounded one must select a heifer from the herd which has not been worked with and has not dragged with a yoke.

We are our brothers' keepers; not just what happens within our own property, but what belongs commonly to the nation of Israel is our responsibility. This heifer parallels the one chosen to purify the priesthood (Num. 19), who are the most respected persons in Israel.

4. "Then the elders of the city shall bring the heifer down to the valley of a perennial stream that is neither tilled nor sown, and behead the heifer there in the valley.

Valley of a perennial stream: or a "primitive", "hard", or "rough" wadi. This parallels the altar being built with stones uncut by human hands--a virginal place and a virginal cow. Behead: literally, sever its neck. This means it cannot be eaten.

5. "Then the cohanim--the sons of Levi--shall approach, because they are the ones YHWH your Elohim has chosen to wait on Him and to cause [others] to bend the knee in YHWH's name, and upon their word will every controversy and blow [be decided].

Blow: Aramaic, "leprosy plague". Torah (its decisive interpretation) is also upon their lips.

6. "And all the elders of that city--the one nearest to the mortally-wounded man--must wash their hands over the heifer that was beheaded in the valley,

Washing one's hands is a declaration of one's innocence so he is not counted among evildoers (Psalm 26:5ff), but this must be proven by paying its price. When an innocent man's blood is shed, there must be a payment of blood by someone, so an innocent substitute is required. This foreshadows Pontius Pilatus' declaring himself innocent of Y'shua's undeserved execution, even though his city (Rome) was most directly responsible for Y'shua's death, as those who actually carried it out. It seems he knew the Torah better than the House of Yehudah, who made the overt choice to call Y'shua's blood upon themselves and their children (Mat. 27:20ff--a curse and a blessing: it has earned them much hatred over the centuries as those taking the blame for Y'shua's death, but when his blood does come upon them as an atonement, it will be a good thing. Rome still, however, had to "pay for the sacrifice" by coming to bear the responsibility Yehudah abdicated as guardians of YHWH's message to the world, and they did a poor job of it, for which they will have to answer.

7. "and they must testify and say, ‘Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes been witness;

8. "‘O YHWH, effect a covering for your people Israel, whom You have redeemed, and do not allow this innocent blood [to remain] in the innermost part of your people Israel.' And the blood will be atoned for.

9. "Thus you shall purge away the innocent blood from your midst, when you are honest in the eyes of YHWH."

Honest: straightforward, or proper, right, upright, level, correct. I.e., they did not lie about their ignorance in regard to who had slain the man.

Portion KI-THEYTZEY (21:10-25:19)
21:10. "When you go out [ki-theytzey] to battle against your enemies and YHWH your Elohim has given them into your hands, and you have taken them captive,

This must be referring to nations outside the Land of Israel.

11. "if you have seen among the captives a woman of lovely form, and have a longing to take her for yourself as a wife,

12. "then you shall bring her inside your house, and she shall shave her head and prepare her nails.

Prepare (literally, simply "do") her nails: the exact meaning or purpose is unclear, but perhaps it is symbolic, as with her hair, of putting off her uniqueness and individuality completely, like men conscripted into the army are all made to look alike. Her hairstyle and nails are a woman's point of pride, and also identified her as a member of her former culture, so she had the opportunity for a fresh start. In a way she was made to look like a baby again, since she was being "born again" as part of Israel.

13. "Thus she shall remove the resemblance of [the people from which] she was taken away, and remain in your house to mourn for her father and mother for a month of days; after that, yes, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

Resemblance: from the word for "image"--clothing that conforms to the shape of one's body, and thus by extension, the garments by which she conformed to her former culture's standards, for she is now to be an Israelite. Likewise, evangelists who "harvest" and pastors who "thresh" are to teach the paganism out of anyone they "capture", for once one is part of free Israel, his former identity is only a vestige of his captivity. Now that YHWH is drawing us back home, we do not need the reminders of our exile. A month: the symbol of renewal, and also enough time for her, as a woman, to have even what was inside her body purged out. The Apostles also gave those returning to Israel from being scattered among the nations time to learn and absorb Moshe's teaching in the process of rejoining the commonwealth of Israel.

14. "But if it turns out that you are not pleased with her, you shall let her go free [if] her soul [wishes], but you may by no means sell her for money. You may not treat her like a slave, because you have humiliated her.

Let her go free: Aram., "release her to her own rights". She has the same rights as any native-born Israelite woman. A woman who was rightfully married but is no longer desired may not be as attractive to another man, so she must be compensated for this loss of face.

15. "If a man has two wives, one loved and one hated [less favored], and both the loved one and the one less favored have borne him children, and if the firstborn was by the one less favored,

16. "then [this is how it] must be: when [it comes] time to divide his inheritance for his children, he may not give the son of the loved [wife] the right of the firstborn before the son of the less favored, [who is in fact] the firstborn.

Leah's firstborn Reuven only lost his right to Rachel's firstborn because he took his father's concubine.

17. "Rather, he shall recognize the son of the less favored [wife] by bestowing on him a double portion of all that he has, because he is the first of his generative power; the right of the firstborn is his.

First: or "best".

18. "If a man has a son who is rebellious and grievously provokes him and will not obey his father's or mother's voice, and after they have disciplined him, will not listen to them,

19. "then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him to the elders of his city or the gates of his locality,

They must go through the proper authorities.

20. "and tell the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, and will not obey our voice; he is a squanderer and a drunkard.'

A squanderer and a drunkard: the first term means one who is so lavish with things that he acts as if they have no value; i.e., he is "spoiled". Alternately, it can mean that he himself is worthless or insignificant. Sometimes it is translated "glutton"; thus this is the accusation some were trying to level against Y'shua (Mat. 11:19), because he would not submit to the rabbinic customs of his day. However, he said, "Wisdom is shown to be righteous by all of her children" (Luk. 7:35)--an answer that vindicated not only him but his "mother" (Prov. 8), against whom he was thus NOT rebelling.

21. "Then all the men of the city shall pelt him with building-stones, so that he dies, and thus you shall purge out the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and stand in reverential awe.

Building-stones: the community is actually built up by this seeming act of destruction, because it is purified. Stones are one things that cannot be ritually defiled. Purge: the good of the whole nation is more important than individual family ties. Rabbinic writings say that this sentence never had to be carried out; the deterrent was effective. Awe: fear or respect--the very thing which was missing in the rebellious son.

22. "Also, if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he has been executed, and you hang his body on a tree,
"Hang": talith in Hebrew, like the prayer shawl that hangs over one's shoulders. Tree: Hirsch, "gallows".

23. "his body shall not remain on the tree all night. Rather, you shall by all means bury him that [same] day (since whoever is hanged is cursed by Elohim), so that your land, which YHWH is giving you for an inheritance, will not be defiled.

This is why Yoseyf of Ramathayim was so concerned to take Y'shua's body off the cross before sunset, especially when the next day was a Sabbath or festival high day (which is what was mentioned in Yochanan 19:31ff. Being the Passover Lamb, he also could not remain overnight; Deut. 16:4.) But Sha'ul also tells us that by "becoming sin" by taking this type of curse upon himself for us, he removed from us the curse that the Torah held over our heads, and allowed us to share his righteousness. (Galatians 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21) Accursed means "vilified" or "treated lightly"--the picture of hanging
off the ground being appropriate, versus one "carrying weight" with YHWH being buried underground. Though he never did evil, he came to be perceived as a criminal this way.

CHAPTER 22

1. "If you see your fellow tribesman's ox or donkey going astray [being chased], you shall not ignore them. You shall by all means return them to your brother.

Ignore: literally, "hide yourself from".

2. "And if your fellow tribesman is not close to you, or you are not acquainted with him [or do not know whose it is], you shall bring it into [add it to] your own household, and it shall [remain] with you until your countryman comes looking for it, and then you shall return it to him.

3. "You shall act in the same way toward his donkey, and do the same for his clothing or for any missing item that your brother has lost and you have found; you must not keep it to yourself.

We are indeed our brothers' "keepers".

4. "If you see your countryman's donkey or ox fall down along the road, you shall not hide from them; you shall by all means [help] them up.

Even on the Sabbath (Luk. 14:5), since life comes before the letter, as fullness of life is why the Torah was given--a convention Y'shua used to shame those who would not think twice about doing this but would criticize him for healing on the Sabbath.

5. "A warrior's weapon shall not come to be upon a woman, nor shall a strong man dress himself in a garment of a woman's shape, because it is an abomination to YHWH.

A warrior's weapon: Aramaic interpretation. Alternate rendering: “what pertains to a man"; LXX, "the apparel of a man", to parallel the later phrase. On a deeper level, it can mean "a vessel of strength": This is Shim'on Kefa/Peter's basis for calling a woman "the weaker vessel" (1 Kefa 3:7). Neither is inferior in value, but neither is meant to try to be the other. This is a reminder for the husband to take up his place as the stronger so the wife is not tempted to, since it must be done. It is also a picture of our relationship to Y'shua as our husband, even as he took the "weaker", submissive position in relation to his Father (2 Cor. 13:4). It is...: LXX, "everyone who does these things is...".

6. "If you come across a bird's nest in front of you on the road, in any tree, or on the ground, [with] hatchlings or eggs, and the mother is sitting on the hatchlings or eggs, you may not take the mother along with the young;

Bird: small bird or fowl: tsippor, from a word meaning "to rise early", so the "early bird" is actually a Hebrew concept! This command parallels that of not boiling a kid in its mother's milk, because the whole lineage would be destroyed that way. Yet this verse only says "take", and mentions nothing overtly about eating it. So we must look deeper: When an evangelist of today goes into a church to "hunt out" who is meant to take their place as Israel, we must bring only those who are teachable; those who are "dyed in the wool" and will not allow themselves to be changed, must be taken out of
the picture. We must bring them in as ours, not as children of their mother, or the "mother concepts" will shorten our days.

7. "you shall by all means let the mother go free, and take the young for yourself, so that it may go well with you and you may prolong your days.

8. "When you build a new house, you shall also make a safety railing for your roof, so that you do not bring blood [guilt] upon your household if someone falls from it.

Safety railing: parapet or low wall, from the word for "repress". Flat roofs are common in the Middle East, where it seldom snows. People often spend leisure time there, dry clothes or grain there, have social interaction from roof to roof, or even sleep there in hot weather. YHWH considers it negligence to take no precautions against accidents.

9. "You shall not sow your vineyard with mixed kinds of seed, so that neither the fullness of your produce that you have sown nor the produce of your vineyard will become forbidden.

Forbidden: literally "holy"; LXX, "devoted", i.e., not for ordinary consumption, or in this case, unfit for consumption, and seriously diminished from what it could be, since neither type is given the room to flourish. Hirsch: "kinds which are closed to each other". Y'shua's parable of the wheat and tares illustrates this, and shows that the ultimate meaning is not horticultural as much as it is a picture of how his congregation (which a
vineyard pictures) will bear weakened fruit in the end if haSatan's seed grows along with that sown by the "Son of Adam". Mixing theologies obscures the truth. However, Hirsch points out that "if something was planted or sown, and afterwards other plants or seeds are wrongfully planted there, then what was originally planted or sown remains allowed to be used, and only the additional or subsequent growth is prohibited." The true apostolic doctrine was sown throughout the world before the enemy sowed the tares. Once we realign ourselves with that, we will be fit for the Master's consumption.
When the holy seed was intermingled with the people of Kanaan, both the foreign wives and those born of these forbidden marriages had to be sent away. (Ezra 9:2; 10:3). If the wives had allowed themselves to become Israelite, it would not have been a problem, but since they tried to retain their old identity (as in 21:10ff), they had to be take out of the way like the mother bird above whose heart would not be broken in.

10. "You shall not plow with an ox or a donkey together.

Indeed, you cannot! This is another forbidden mixture, and is the basis for Sha'ul's command not to be "unequally yoked" with unbelievers. (2 Cor. 6:14) His context is lawlessness, or being without Torah. He says to come out from such and not touch the unclean thing. The ox is a clean animal; the donkey is not. Y'shua speaks of his yoke being easy: it is common to yoke a seasoned plow-ox and a novice together so that the one can train the other, but two different types of animals will want to move at a different pace, and they may start moving in a circle instead of a straight path. This is really the same argument as was given in verse 9, and which will be given in verse 11, since the term for "mixed kinds" can apply to animals or fabrics as well. The point is to teach us about how to live: "How can two walk together unless they are agreed?" (Amos 3:3) The root word for "ox" is "traveller"--one that moves on, while a donkey typically digs in its heels unless coerced by a reward. In rabbinic lore, a donkey (the name of which means "heap" in Hebrew) is associated with the world, so we could read, "do not yoke a sojourner to the world"; it will tie us to one place. The word for "plow" can also mean "keep silent"; there is no peace if you mix clean and unclean,
or try to serve both YHWH and Mammon. It can also mean "devise", for we cannot codesign things with people who are motivated differently.

11. "You shall not wear a garment of mixed fabric--wool and linen together.

The two will react differently to washing, etc., like the new patch that will shrink away from the worn-out wineskin in Y'shua's analogy. But wool is an animal fabric, while linen is from a vegetable. This reminds us of a similar illustration all the way back in the first generation born on earth. Qayin brought a sacrifice that was the work of his hands, the produce of earth, not heaven, since Y'shua tells us that a field represents the world.
Hevel (Abel) brought a living being with blood, which represents a gift from heaven, since life is attributable only to YHWH. Likewise we are forbidden to mix a type of worship appointed by heaven with that which originates on the earth, from men or "the prince of this world".

12. "You shall make for yourself tassels on the four corners of the vesture with which you cover [yourself].

Tassels: "twisted fringes", elsewhere called tsitsiyoth--something to look at and notice so that you will remember who--and whose--you are. It must include a thread of blue in it. (Num. 15:38) The vesture here is the outer garment; the tassels are not to be hidden (Ex. 22:26) like the candle under a basket. Corners: literally, "wings", which gives the background for the reason the woman with an issue of blood wanted to touch the "hem" of Y'shua's garment: he had "healing in his wings". (Malachi 4:2)

13. "If any man should take a wife and go in to her, then despise her,

14. "and bring a fabricated case against her and bring about an evil reputation for her, declaring, ‘I took this woman and when I came near her, I discovered that she was not a virgin!'

15. "Then the girl's father and mother shall fetch and bring forward the tokens of the girl's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate,

16. "and the girl's father shall tell the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he despises her!'

17. "‘And, here, he has brought a fabricated case against her, saying, "I didn't find in your daughter the evidence of virginity." But here are the tokens of my daughter's virginity!' And they shall open up the cloth in the presence of the elders of the city.

Cloth: LXX, "garment"; i.e., the sheet with blood on it from the wedding night.

18. "Then the elders of the city shall take that man out and chastise him,

Chastise: teach by beating. This is what David meant when he said, ‘Let the righteous heap blows on me." (Ps. 141:5) I.e., "Do whatever it takes to make me holy."

19. "and fine him a hundred sheqels of silver, and give it to the girl's father, because he has brought an evil reputation upon a virgin of Israel. Then she shall become his wife, and he may not divorce her all the days of his [life].

Virgin: She is married by this point, but the time in question is when she was still a virgin. Yet on a deeper level, Paul says he is working hard to present those coming back into covenant as a pure, chaste virgin (2 Cor. 11:2), though they did go astray, because YHWH promised to rebuild the virginity of Israel (Yirm./Jer. 31:4). It is Y'shua's blood that serves as the evidence. (cf. v. 17) But the proof is also in whom we are treating as our Husband now.

20. "However, if this accusation is true, and tokens of the girl's virginity are no [where] to be found,

21. "then they shall bring the girl to the door of her father's house, and the men of the city shall pelt her with stones until she dies, because she has brought about a disgraceful folly in Israel--committing fornication [while] in her father's household; this way you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.

Father's household: here is where the picture lies for us. Idolatry in Scripture is considered the same as adultery. Slander against the children does come back upon the father, the one in authority over us and from whom we come. A tree is known by its fruit. There remains no protection in the household for those who live the opposite way from what they were taught. Purge: literally, "burn".

22. "If a man is discovered [to be] lying with a woman married to [another] man, then both of them shall die: the man who lay with the woman, and the woman [herself]. This way you shall purge wickedness from Israel.

Y'shua was tested by having a woman caught in this act brought to him for a verdict (Yochanan 8), but since the man was not brought (being, perhaps, even one of the accusers themselves), the case was invalid, and so he used it as evidence against the accusers, just as in the prior case mentioned here. (Compare Yochanan 8 in the context of chapter 7 with Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 17:13ff, his point of reference.)

23. "If a young virgin girl is betrothed to a husband, and a man comes up to her in the city and lies with her,

Betrothed: engaged, but with a stronger legal bond than in our culture. Betrothal is considered marriage in Israel, though there is no consummation yet, so this counts as adultery, since she was promised to him.

24. "then you shall bring both of them out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones so that they die: the girl, because she did not call out for help, [being, after all] in the city, and the man, because he has humiliated his fellow citizen's woman. This way you shall purge away the evil from among yourselves.

25. "However, if a man comes upon a betrothed girl in the open country, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man that lay with shall die,

26. "while to the girl you shall do nothing, because there is no sin [worthy] of death in the girl, because this case is just the same as when as a man rises up against his fellow citizen and murders him,

27. "because he met up with her in the open field, and the betrothed girl cried out for help, but there was no one to rescue her.

Open field: Y'shua likens the whole world to a field, a place outside the protection of the community based on YHWH's instruction, where there is justice available for the needy. "Sin is not counted where there is no law" (Rom. 4:15), but when one knows better, she is judged based on what she did know, not what she could not have known.

28. "If a man comes up to a girl who is not betrothed, and takes hold of her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

29. "then the man who lay with her shall give the girl's father fifty [sheqels] of silver, and she shall become his wife; since he has humiliated her, he may never divorce her all the days of his [life].

This is not adultery; he has simply taken a wife, though without betrothal. But although he has made this all-important choice in a fit of passion, he is still responsible, and must live with this intemperance all his life. He has no right to complain against her as the man in v. 13ff, since her parents were unable to save the token of her virginity (as in v. 15). His payment is a public record that this woman, who is yet an Israelite, is vindicated and can move on past her shame. As with a cured leper, she (and more so, he, by his faithfulness) can be restored to being a vital functioning part of the community.

30. "A man shall not take his father's wife [to bed], so as not to uncover his father's skirt.

His father's skirt: i.e., the one his wife is wearing. Reuven was guilty of this, and for this reason lost his birthright privileges. Aramaic, "his father's shame". But the word used is actually "wing" or "corner"--the same word used in verse 12, which is specifically why the tzitziyoth were to be placed just there (Numbers 15:39)--to remind men not to stray in this particular way. This verse is 23:1 in Hebrew.

CHAPTER 23

1. "No one who has his testicles crushed or his organ of procreation cut off may enter the congregation of YHWH.

May enter: Aramaic, "be considered purified for admission into..." Not that the person in this situation by birth is despised by YHWH; Yeshayahu/Isaiah 56:3 addresses this. Rather, one who has chosen to render himself incapable of obeying the very first command ("Be fruitful and multiply"). This was a common practice among pagans, which in a slightly modified way was brought into the church through the requirement of celibacy for priests. However, a priest in Israel may not deliberately prevent procreation. Cut off: or "severed". This may include a vasectomy. The man
who chooses to have no seed is counted as dead already. Ephrayim means "doubly fruitful", which he must be as he returns to his Land.

2. "An illegitimate child may not enter the congregation of YHWH; all [the way down] to his tenth generation he may not enter the congregation of YHWH.

Illegitimate: one born of a forbidden marriage which can never be made legal (unlike that of mere fornication as in 22:29), i.e., the result of adultery, incest (Hirsch, "consanguinous parents") or marriage to a pagan. Note also that this only applies to those seeking entrance into Israel, not those already in Israel. Tenth generation: Since it was forbidden for a man to take his son's wife (Lev. 18:15), the offspring of Yehudah and Tamar could not be full members of the congregation for ten generations. Yet the royal line was promised to Yehudah. Thus there could be no legal king from Yehudah
until the tenth generation; before that, but only until that time (for David was the tenth generation), the king could come from another tribe, as was the case with Sha'ul. LXX, "born of a harlot".

3. "Neither an Ammonite nor Moavite shall enter the congregation of YHWH; not even down to their tenth generation they shall not enter the congregation of YHWH, perpetually,

This may apply only to men, since Ruth was called a Moavitess, but the problem may be solved in a different way. Ruth 1:22 also says she "returned" to Beyth Lehem, which suggests that she may have been the descendant of an exiled Israelite rather than a true Moavitess. Perpetually: This is different from the prohibition in v. 2, though Ammonites and Moavites were indeed born of incest. (Gen. 19)

4. "because [respectively] they did not meet you with bread and water on the journey when you came out from Egypt, and because they hired Bilaam the son of Be'or against you, in order to curse you.

Bread and water: not just physical sustenance, because they are symbolic of the message of community ("we who are many are one bread") and truth (the water of the Word). In contrast, Melchitzedek did bring these things to Avraham.

5. ("However, YHWH your Elohim would not listen to Bilaam; rather, YHWH your Elohim turned the curse into a blessing for you, because YHWH your Elohim loved you.)

6. "You shall not ask [YHWH] for their welfare or prosperity for all your days, forever.

Ask for: Aramaic, "advocate for".

7. "You shall not abhor an Edomite, because he is your relative; nor shall you abhor an Egyptian, because you were a guest [alien, sojourner] in his land.

8. "The descendants to which they give birth may enter the congregation of YHWH in their third generation.

They could sojourn with Israel before that, but would not have the same rights as a native Israelite until that time. Compare this with an illegitimate child, Ammonite, or Moavite above.

9. "[Even] when you go [to war] out against your enemies, guard yourself from every evil thing.

The same rules that apply in the camp of all Israel also apply in a war camp. Every evil thing: including covetousness of beautiful plunder you may see when you are conquering a city that YHWH has said to devote to destruction: look what happened to the whole nation because Achan did not so guard himself. (Y'hoshua 7:1ff) The call of Yom Teruah (trumpet-blasts) is to attack, but it also means to defend our gates--which include any entry the enemy could gain into the camp of Israel through weak spots in we cause through allowing our own personal "gates"--eyes, ears, lips, or sexual
organs--to go undefended.

10. "If there is among you a man who is not ritually clean, due to nocturnal accident, then he shall go out to the outside of the camp; he shall not enter into the camp.

11. "But when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and when the sun is gone, he may enter the camp [again].

12. "You shall also have a marked area on the outside for the camp, and you shall go out there,

13. "And you shall have a spike among your equipment, and when you sit down out [there], you shall dig with it and turn around and cover up what comes out of you,

Spike among your equipment: or "on your implement"; LXX, "spade" or "trowel on your belt". What comes out of you: LXX, "your nuisance".

14. "because YHWH your Elohim walks about in the nearest part of your camp to snatch you away and deliver up your enemies in front of you. Therefore your camp shall be dedicated [to purity], so that He will see no shameful thing exposed among you and turn away from being behind you.

From being behind you: Aramaic interprets it "from favoring you".

15. "You shall not turn over to his master a slave who has escaped to you from his master;

Turn over: Hirsch, "extradite". The Aramaic interprets this to refer to slaves from other nations who come as refugees to Israel. We have escaped from Pharaoh, and YHWH has harbored us, as 24:18, 22 repeat for us--so we need to remember to do to others what has been done for us.

16. "he shall live with you--right in your midst--in whatever place he chooses in whichever of your gated cities is most pleasing to him; you shall not expel him.

Most pleasing to him: or "best for him". This is why Paul persuaded Onesimos with reasoning to go back to his master, Filemon; it was his choice. Expel: or oppress.

17. "There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite among the sons of Israel.

Sodomite: or male cult prostitute; both it and "prostitute" here literally read "holy person", i.e., one dedicated wholly to pagan worship involving sexual rituals. The LXX calls the second merely a "fornicator", but adds another meaning, an "idolatress".

18. "You shall not bring the hire-price of a prostitute or the sale price of a dog into the house of YHWH your Elohim for any votive offering, because both of these are indeed disgusting to YHWH your Elohim.

Sale price of a dog: interpreted in Aramaic as "the exchange for a dog", i.e., an animal that was acceptable for sacrifice which a dog had been traded for. Perhaps this is why Y'shua insisted that he could not give the children's food to dogs. (Mat. 15:26) Scripture generally casts dogs in a negative light, as meaning those outside Israel, are and often associated with swine. Is our culture's fascination with dogs a part of the spirit of lawlessness? They are useful in certain contexts, but are not to be treated
as members of the family as humans are. Here, "dog" may also be another allusion to the male cult prostitute of v. 17.

19. "You shall not lend to your brother with interest--interest in [the form of] food, interest [in the form] of money, or interest of anything that is lent at interest.

Interest: literally, a bite.

20. "To a stranger [alien] you may lend at interest, but to your fellow [Israelite] you shall not lend at interest, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in everything yet set your hand to in the Land to which you are going to take possession.

21. "When you make a vow to YHWH your Elohim, you shall not delay to pay it, because YHWH your Elohim will indeed require it from you, and it would be a sin among you.

This links us to the command to bring the firstfruits offering on time, instead of letting a kid grow up on its mother's milk first. (Ex. 23:19; 34:26) A kid will nurse for years if not deliberately weaned away, and this is against the spirit of bringing what one owes to YHWH as quickly as possible.

22. "But if you refrain from making a vow, that is no sin for you.

Y'shua built on this when he told those who were making a distinction between vows sworn to YHWH and vows sworn by the altar, etc., that it was best not to swear at all, if it meant one's ordinary word was to be cheapened thereby. Vows are an added, optional way to express one's love and appreciation for YHWH, and should never be degraded into something one feels obligated to do in order to keep up with his neighbors and thus be respectable to men.

23. "Whatever comes out of your lips you must be careful to carry out; just as you [carry out] a vow to give a freewill offering to YHWH your Elohim, do the same with whatever you have promised with your mouth.

Guard that which has gone forth from your lips: LXX, "Observe the words that proceed from between your lips".

24. "When you come into your fellow countryman's vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes if you wish, but you may not bring any [out] in a container.

Usually if one is in another's vineyard, unless he is passing through and satisfying his hunger, he would be there to help his neighbor with the harvest. The principle is the same as in 25:4--the worker deserves to share in the fruit of his work. There is a certain fellowship and comraderie involved in sharing food together, but one should not take his neighbor's food out of this context, or it becomes a form of stealing and evidences looking to something other than YHWH for one's security as well as thinking
more of oneself than of community.

25. "When you pass through your fellow countryman's standing grain, you may pluck the kernels with your hand, but you may not wield a sickle over your fellow countryman's standing grain.

Thus what Y'shua's disciples were doing (Luk. 6:1) was lawful, and he did not consider this to be work unworthy of the Sabbath.

CHAPTER 24

1. "When a man has taken a wife and married her , and it so happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found something improper in her, then let him write her a document of release, place it in her hand, and send her out from his house,

To "take a wife and marry her" is not redundant. The first stage is the betrothal, which normally takes place a year or two before they actually live together. The betrothal is not mere engagement; it takes a bill of divorce to break it. However, it is not as serious as a divorce after the consummation. (v. 2, 3; Yirm. 2:2ff) Something improper: or "an emptiness"--i.e., she is empty in affection, bringing nothing to the
marriage, but only expecting to receive, or possibly even barrenness.

2. "and after she has left his house, she may go and become another man's wife.

3. "But if the latter husband despises her and writes her a document of divorce, places it in her hand, and sends her out of his house--or if the latter husband, who took her into his household, dies--

4. "her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she is defiled, because that is a disgusting thing to YHWH; you shall not bring guilt upon the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance.

There is special significance to the requirement that both stages of marriage have taken place before it becomes wrong to remarry the same woman, because YHWH Himself divorced Israel (Yirm. 3:8), but it was in the betrothal stage, not after the consummation; therefore He can take her back again, and He will! (Hoshea 1:10) Release: divorce or dismissal.

5. "When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to battle, nor shall any responsibility be passed on to him, but he shall be exempt for one year [to care] for his household and to make his wife, which he has taken, happy.

Compare 20:7. This tells us that Y'shua, who will come back to earth as a warrior (Rev. 19:11ff), must take his bride at least a year prior to this.

6. "No one shall take [either] a lower or an upper millstone as a deposit, because it is a life he is taking as a pledge.

No one can grind grain if he has only one of the two millstones, so what will he eat? Perhaps this is the background Y'shua had in mind when he said that whoever caused on e of "these little ones" to stumble would do better to have a millstone hung around his neck and be thrown into the ocean. (Mat. 18:36; compare the prophecy in Rev. 18:21)

7. "If a man be discovered kidnapping a soul from among his brothers, the descendants of Israel, and places him in bondage or sells him, that robber shall die, and you shall purge out the evil from among yourselves.

Places him in bondage: or "ties him up". No wonder Yoseyf's brothers were so terrified when he revealed his identity. (Gen. 45:3ff)

8. "Take extra measures in the plague of leprosy that you pay close attention to do everything just as the priests (the Levites) shall instruct you. You shall be careful to do just as I ordered them.

There is a connection here with verse 7, because leprosy was a plague sent on those who coveted another's goods or position (as Miryam did, v. 9, cf. Numbers 12:10). There is a connection to v. 7: Yoseyf's brothers were jealous of his status, and that is why they kidnapped him. He was not the firstborn, literally, but he was the firstfruit (same word in Hebrew)--the first of Yaaqov's sons to show signs of actually bearing fruit, which is one reason his second son was named "doubly fruitful"--the firstborn receives a double portion (21:17). The requirements for determining whether or not one has leprosy also have a prophetic connection to events of the last days of this age that will determine whether a person will share in the Messianic Kingdom or not.

9. "Remember what YHWH your Elohim did with Miryam on the way after you had left Egypt.

10. "Any time you loan something to your brother, you may not go into his house to claim the collateral he gives [as a pledge].

11. "You must wait outside, and the man to whom you are lending shall bring the item securing the pledge out to you.

12. "Moreover, if the man is poor, you must not go to sleep with the security pledge [still in your possession].

13. "You must be sure to return the article to him by the time the sun goes down, so he may lie down in his own outer garment, and bless you; this shall constitute justice for you in the presence of YHWH your Elohim.

Outer garment: usually a square with a hole or slit cut in the middle for one's head, but it doubled as a blanket.

14. "Do not exploit a hired worker who is poor and needy, [either] from among your brothers or from the sojourners who are in your Land, within your gates.

Hired worker: Hirsch, "day-laborer".

15. "You shall give him his wage on its [proper] day, and do not let the sun go down on it, because he is impoverished and he pins his expectation on it. Otherwise he may cry out to YHWH against you, and it would constitute guilt for you.

Proper day: perhaps the same day, but, in any case, on the day it is expected or promised.

16. "The parents shall not be executed because of the children, nor shall the children be executed because of the parents; every man shall be executed for his own guilt.

17. "You shall not ‘bend' the court proceedings involving an alien or an orphan, nor shall you take a widow's garment as security [for a loan],

18. "keeping in mind that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt, and YHWH your Elohim rescued you from there; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.

19. "When you reap your harvest in your field, and [realize you] have overlooked a sheaf [omer] in the field, you shall not go back to retrieve it. It shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, so that YHWH your Elohim may bless you in all that your hands [undertake to] do.

Boaz made a special effort to obey this command (Ruth 2:16), as his antitype Y'shua did (see note on v. 22). They both did more than was required. While we were still sinners--not even interested in becoming part of the Israelite covenant we had left--Messiah died for us, then sent messengers out to search and bring us back.

20. "When you beat [the fruit] off your olive tree, you shall not search through the branches behind you; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow,

Beat: Aramaic, "shake".

21. "When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go back and glean it thoroughly; it shall be for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow.

22. "remembering that you [yourself] were a slave in Egypt; that is why I am ordering you to act in this manner.

Considering the imagery of the omer gleaned in the field, olive tree, and the vineyard, compare the statement by the Gentile woman who impressed Y'shua with her faith: "even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master's table". (Mat. 15:27)

DEUT. 25

1. "If there is a dispute between men, and they approach the court, and they have rendered a verdict [for] them (vindicating the righteous and condemning the guilty),

2. "then this is how it shall be: if the guilty man is a [found] worthy of blows, then the judge shall have the man lie prostrate and be punished in his presence, with as many [blows] as his guilt deserves:

Worthy of blows: literally, "a son of beating". In his presence: in the public eye, much like the stocks used outside court houses in the colonial New World--another deterrent to crime.

3. "He may give him [up to] forty blows, but not exceed [this], in case (if he goes too far beyond these and beats him with too many blows) he should be disgraced in your eyes.

Up to forty: the usual practice came to be that only 39 blows were administered in case they should lose count. (2 Corinthians 11:24). This was done to Paul five times (2 Cor. 11:24), but it did not change his resolve, since 40 is the number of transition and change. Adding an extra--making it 41, which symbolizes continuing to punish someone after he repents--humiliates him and breaks his spirit. Disgraced: lightly esteemed, dishonored, seen as vile.

4. "You shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out [the grain].

The theme of disgracing another continues here. Pharaoh did just this by requiring his slaves to provide their own straw for brickmaking. King Shlomo went "back to Egypt" by relying on horses, and his son Rehav'am tried to bring the nation back to Egypt through enslaving them again, which caused the nation to split. Sha'ul (Paul) says this verse really refers to making sure a servant of the Body is being adequately provided for. (1 Corinthians 9:9 ff) In context here, it refers to the one judging his brothers. (Psalm 141:5 makes a similar connection between legal rulings and plowing.) He is a servant to all, so he is to be given special privileges, much like the Levites. Those who rule well are worthy of double honor. (1 Tim. 5:17) They have a right to have their food source come directly from the work they are doing, as the ox would feed from what was at his feet as he ground at the mill. Because so many accused him of being "in it for the money", Paul thought it best not to take advantage of this right. They are not to be silenced either. Treading grain is one form of threshing--separating the
wheat from the chaff, which is the work of the pastor (Eph. 4): calling others to holiness--getting out of their system the remainder of the "world" from which they have been separated by the evangelist. If those they judge learn from their rulings, they will have fewer and fewer rulings to make. But as in v. 3, those who judge are warned not to go beyond what is written. (1 Cor. 4:6)

5. "If brothers dwell together and one of them dies childless, the wife of the dead one shall not marry outside--to a strange man; her husband's brother shall go in upon her and take her to himself as a wife, performing the duty of a husband's brother for her.

This is another form of being "set apart", called the law of levirate ["brother-in-law"] marriage. Strange: or "foreign". But being without a son to carry on one's line is as much a disgrace in Israel as vv. 3-4. Rachel, who after being barren, then having her womb opened, still lost her sons to assimilation with the Gentiles, is told to stop weeping, for her sons will return. (Yeshayahu 49:20ff; 54:1-10; Yirmiyahu 31:15ff).

6. "And this is how it will be: the firstborn to which she gives birth shall establish the name of his dead brother, so his name may not be obliterated from memory in Israel.

Establish: confirm, validate, rise up on; i.e., carry it on and let his lineage "take root". Name: or renown. This continuation of one's seed is why the descendants can also repent for their ancestors, for in a very real way they ARE them (the same genetic line). Note that if the father does not leave seed, his wife's seed, if mingled with one from the same father as her husband, counts as his own, for the genetic similarity is as close as it can be.

7. "Now if the man does not [gladly] agree to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the elders in the gate, and declare, ‘My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my brother-in-law.'

8. "Then the elders of his city shall summon him and threaten him, but if he persists in saying, ‘I do not agree to take her',

9. "then his brother's wife shall approach him in the sight of the elders, remove his shoe from his foot, spit in his face, and testify, saying, ‘This is what will be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.'

Remove (or loose) his shoe: This was carried out by Ruth toward the kinsman who was nearer than Boaz, and is an awesome picture of how haSatan refuses to let the house of Israel (who were defiled, having forsaken their covenant) ruin his inheritance, while Y'shua did accept the task of leaving the faithful sons and going after the "lost sheep of the House of Israel". But remember Yochanan the Immerser's statement that he was not worthy to loosen the sandal-thong of the One who came after him. In the context of calling himself "the friend of the bridegroom", rather than the one on whom
the attention was to focus, he strengthened the imagery of Y'shua being the One who did fulfill the Torah's intent of building up/re-establishing the house (or temple) of his brother, the northern Kingdom (since Y'shua was from the still-established house of Yehudah), while they were "dead" to the covenant, in exile, and far from "worthy" of this honor.

10. "Then his infamy will be proclaimed throughout Israel [as] ‘the household of him who had his shoe taken off'.

11. "If some men are struggling with each other, and the wife of one comes close to [try to] pull her husband away from the hand of his assailant, and she stretches out her hand and catches him by the private parts,

12. "then you shall chop off her hand; your eye shall not have any compassion on her.

She was trying to prevent the man from having descendants, thus obliterating his name forever. (See v. 6.) It is not so much due to the vulgarity of touching him; placing one's hand on another's genitals (as in the vow of Avraham's servant, Gen. 24:2) showed the utmost in trust, and this woman is breaching the trust that there has to be among the fellow members of the nation of Israel. One who does that must bear severe consequences.

13. "You shall not keep in your money-bag [both] a large weight and a small weight.

Weight: literally, "a stone and a stone, great and small". LXX, "diverse weights"; Aram., "alternate weights".

14. "You shall not keep in your household [both] a large measuring-basket and a small measuring-basket.

The idea is not something like we have today in the transition from English weights to metric. Rather, there were two similar measuring vessels, both of which were called, for example, an "ephah". The merchant would select the slightly-bigger one when buying, so he could weigh out a larger amount of a product to his advantage, and select the slightly-smaller one when selling, so he would still have the advantage. There must be justice at every level in Israel for us to be able to remain as tenants on YHWH's Land.

15. "Rather, you shall have an impartial, just weight; an untainted, just measuring-basket you shall have [also] so that your lifetime may be long on the Land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you,

The two houses of Israel must be judged by the same standard, whether for better or for worse. Both need rebuke in many areas, and neither is to be given more weight than the other, except in tyhe specific areas each has been specially gifted, and this too is only so each can be a servant to the rest. Most of the Temple complex is in Yehudah's tribal territory, but part of it is on Binyamin's land, giving claim to it to both northern and southern kingdoms, as well as to both Rachel's and Leah's children. Disobedience to this command may have been one of the reasons Y'shua overturned the tables of the moneychangers there.

16. "because all who do such things and all who deal unrighteously are a stench to YHWH your Elohim.

Stench: We need to regain the recognition that YHWH does recoil in disgust from some people.

17. "Remember what Amaleq did to you when you were on the journey, having come out of Egypt

18. "--how he met you by the roadside and attacked your rear--all the feeble ones at the back of your [caravan], when you were fainting and exhausted--while not respecting YHWH.

Attacking someone when he is already weakened rouses the justice in YHWH, and He sets His face against this kind of action forever. The connection to the previous verses is seen in one taking advantage of those who are trustingly ignorant of the deceitful technique that is resulting in their loss of a just price.

19. "So when YHWH your Elohim grants you a respite from all the enemies round about you in the Land which YHWH your Elohim is giving to you as a property to take possession of, [then] obliterate the memory of Amaleq from under heaven. Don't forget!

Don't forget to not remember them! It is so important that he almost sounds contradictory. But the point is that you may be no means let the duty to fight Amaleq in every generation be forgotten. He actually perpetuates their name by mere virtue of this reminder, but it is in order to ultimately blot it out completely. (Compare Psalm 92:7) King Agag and Haman were both descendants of Amaleq (Esau's son), and when King Sha'ul spared the former, it allowed the latter to be born, but thankfully Mordechai obeyed. Note the contrast: though the punishment for some is to die childless (Lev. 20:20-21), YHWH makes provision for an Israelite's line to be carried on by a roundabout way so his name (as part of Israel, even if not in good standing) is not
blotted out. But Amaleq is the one whose name is to be obliterated.

	D'VARIM (Deuteronomy) 1-25
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