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

Deuteronomy 7


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1'When Yahweh your God has brought you into the country which you are going to make your own,many nations wil fal before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves.2Yahweh your God will put them at your mercy and you will conquer them. You must put them under thecurse of destruction. You must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity.3You must not intermarry with them; you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, or take adaughter of theirs for a son of yours,4for your son would be seduced from fol owing me into serving other gods; the wrath of Yahweh wouldblaze out against you and he would instantly destroy you.5Instead, treat them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing-stones, cut down their sacredpoles and burn their idols.6For you are a people consecrated to Yahweh your God; of al the peoples on earth, you have beenchosen by Yahweh your God to be his own people.7'Yahweh set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of al peoples --for indeed you were the smal est of al -8but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was whyYahweh brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the powerof Pharaoh king of Egypt.9From this you can see that Yahweh your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true tohis covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep hiscommandments,10punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay;and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.11Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying downfor you today.12'Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yahweh your God wil betrue to the covenant and love which he promised on oath to your ancestors.13He wil love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he wil bless the fruit of your body and theproduce of your soil, your corn, your new wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in thecountry which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.14You wil be the most blessed of al peoples. None of you, man or woman, will be sterile, no male orfemale of your beasts infertile.15Yahweh wil deflect al il ness from you; he wil not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt whichyou have known, but will inflict them on al who hate you.16'So, devour all the peoples whom Yahweh your God puts at your mercy, show them no pity, do notserve their gods: or you wil be ensnared.17'You may say in your heart, "These nations outnumber me; how shal I be able to dispossess them?"18Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yahweh your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt,19the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand andoutstretched arm with which Yahweh your God brought you out. This is how Yahweh your God will treat al thepeoples whom you fear to face.20And what is more, Yahweh your God wil send hornets to destroy those who are left and who hidefrom you.21'Do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and terrible God.22Little by little, Yahweh your God will clear away these nations before you; you cannot destroy them allat once, or wild animals wil breed and be disastrous for you.23But Yahweh your God wil put them at your mercy, and disaster after disaster wil overtake them untilthey are finally destroyed.24He wil put their kings at your mercy and you wil blot out their names under heaven; no one wil beable to resist you -- until you have destroyed them al .25'You must burn the statues of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it andyou wil be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yahweh your God.26You must not bring any detestable thing into your house: or you, like it, wil come under the curse ofdestruction. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the curse of destruction.'