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Giovedi, 28 marzo 2024 - San Castore di Tarso ( Letture di oggi)

Deuteronomy 4


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1'And now, Israel, listen to the laws and customs which I am teaching you today, so that, by observingthem, you may survive to enter and take possession of the country which Yahweh, God of your ancestors, isgiving you.2You must add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandmentsof Yahweh your God just as I lay them down for you.3You can see for yourselves what Yahweh has done about the Baal of Peor; Yahweh your God hasdestroyed al those of you who fol owed the Baal of Peor;4but those of you who stayed faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today.5Look: as Yahweh my God commanded me, I have taught you laws and customs, for you to observe inthe country of which you are going to take possession.6Keep them, put them into practice, and other peoples will admire your wisdom and prudence. Oncethey know what al these laws are, they wil exclaim, "No other people is as wise and prudent as this greatnation!"7And indeed, what great nation has its gods as near as Yahweh our God is to us whenever we cal tohim?8And what great nation has laws and customs as upright as the entirety of this Law which I am layingdown for you today?9'But take care, as you value your lives! Do not forget the things which you yourselves have seen, or letthem slip from your heart as long as you live; teach them, rather, to your children and to your children's children.10The day you stood at Horeb in the presence of Yahweh your God, Yahweh said to me, "Summon thepeople to me; I want them to hear me speaking, so that they will learn to fear me al the days they live on earth,and teach this to their children."11So you came and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain flamed to the very sky, a skydarkened by cloud, murky and thunderous.12Yahweh then spoke to you from the heart of the fire; you heard the sound of words but saw no shape;there was only a voice.13He revealed his covenant to you and commanded you to observe it, the Ten Words which he inscribedon two tablets of stone.14Yahweh then ordered me to teach you the laws and customs that you were to observe in the countryinto which you are about to cross, to take possession of it.15'Hence, be very careful what you do. Since you saw no shape that day at Horeb when Yahweh spoketo you from the heart of the fire,16see that you do not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the shape of anything whatever: be itstatue of man or of woman,17or of any animal on the earth, or of any bird that flies in the heavens,18or of any reptile that crawls on the ground, or of any fish in the waters under the earth.19When you raise your eyes to heaven, when you see the sun, the moon, the stars -- the entire array ofheaven -- do not be tempted to worship them and serve them. Yahweh your God has al otted these to al theother peoples under heaven,20but Yahweh has chosen you, bringing you out of the iron-foundry, Egypt, to be his own people, hisown people as you stil are today.21'Yahweh is angry with me because of you; he has sworn that I shall not cross the Jordan or enter thefine country which Yahweh your God is giving you as your heritage.22Yes, I am to die in this country; I shal not cross this Jordan; you wil go over and take possession ofthat rich land.23Be careful not to forget the covenant which Yahweh your God has made with you, by sculpting animage or making a statue of anything, since Yahweh your God has forbidden this;24for Yahweh your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.25'When you have fathered children and grandchildren and have grown old in the country, when youhave grown corrupt and made some image, doing what Yahweh regards as wrong and so provoking his anger-26today I cal heaven and earth to witness against you -- you wil quickly vanish from the country whichyou are crossing the Jordan to possess. Your days will not be prolonged there, for you wil be utterly destroyed.27Yahweh wil scatter you among the peoples, and only a smal number of you wil remain among thenations where Yahweh wil have driven you.28There you wil serve gods made by human hand, of wood and of stone, that cannot see or hear, eat orsmel .29'If, however, from there you start searching once more for Yahweh your God, and if you search for himhonestly and sincerely, you will find him.30You wil suffer; everything I have said wil befal you, but in the final days you wil return to Yahwehyour God and listen to his voice.31For Yahweh your God is a merciful God and wil not desert or destroy you or forget the covenantwhich he made on oath with your ancestors.32'Put this question, then, to the ages that are past, that have gone before you, from when God createdthe human race on earth: Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Wasanything like it ever heard?33Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you haveheard it, and remain alive?34Has it ever been known before that any god took action himself to bring one nation out of another one,by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors -- al of which thingsYahweh your God has done for you before your eyes in Egypt?35'This he showed you, so that you might know that Yahweh is the true God and that there is no other.36To instruct you, he made you hear his voice from heaven, and on earth he let you see his great fire,and from the heart of the fire you heard his words.37Because he loved your ancestors and, after them, chose their descendants, he has brought you out ofEgypt, displaying his presence and mighty power,38dispossessing for you nations who were larger and stronger than you, to make way for you and to giveyou their country as your heritage, as it still is today.39'Hence, grasp this today and meditate on it careful y: Yahweh is the true God, in heaven above as onearth beneath, he and no other.40Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today, so that you and your children afteryou may prosper and live long in the country that Yahweh your God is giving you for ever.'41Moses then set aside three towns in the east, beyond the Jordan,42to which any kil er might flee who had accidental y, without any previous feud, killed his fel ow; by taking refuge in one of these towns he could save his life.43These were, for the Reubenites, Bezer in the desert on the tableland; for the Gadites, Ramoth inGilead; for the Manassehites, Golan in Bashan.44This is the Law which Moses presented to the Israelites.45These are the stipulations, the laws and the customs which Moses gave the Israelites after they hadleft Egypt,46beyond the Jordan in the val ey near Beth-Peor, in the country of Sihon the Amorite king who hadlived at Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had defeated him when they left Egypt,47and had taken possession of his country, as wel as that of Og king of Bashan -- two Amorite kings tothe east beyond the Jordan,48from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Val ey, al the way to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon) -49and of the whole Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopesof Pisgah.