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

Deuteronomy 8


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1'You must keep and put into practice al the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that youmay survive and increase in numbers and enter the country which Yahweh promised on oath to your ancestors,and make it your own.2Remember the long road by which Yahweh your God led you for forty years in the desert, to humbleyou, to test you and know your inmost heart -- whether you would keep his commandments or not.3He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor yourancestors had ever known, to make you understand that human beings live not on bread alone but on everyword that comes from the mouth of Yahweh.4The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet were not swol en, all those forty years.5'Learn from this that Yahweh your God was training you as a man trains his child,6and keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and so follow his ways and fear him.7'But Yahweh your God is bringing you into a fine country, a land of streams and springs, of waters thatwel up from the deep in val eys and hil s,8a land of wheat and barley, of vines, of figs, of pomegranates, a land of olives, of oil, of honey,9a land where you will eat bread without stint, where you wil want nothing, a land where the stones areiron and where the hil s may be quarried for copper.10You wil eat and have al you want and you wil bless Yahweh your God in the fine country which hehas given you.11'Be careful not to forget Yahweh your God, by neglecting his commandments, customs and lawswhich I am laying down for you today.12When you have eaten al you want, when you have built fine houses to live in,13when you have seen your flocks and herds increase, your silver and gold abound and all yourpossessions grow great,14do not become proud of heart. Do not then forget Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, outof the place of slave-labour,15who guided you through this vast and dreadful desert, a land of fiery snakes, scorpions, thirst;16who in this waterless place brought you water out of the flinty rock; who in this desert fed you withmanna unknown to your ancestors, to humble you and test you and so make your future the happier.17'Beware of thinking to yourself, "My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me thepower to act like this."18Remember Yahweh your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this,thus keeping then, as today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors.19Be sure: if you forget Yahweh your God, if you fol ow other gods, if you serve them and bow down tothem -- I testify to you today -- you wil perish.20Like the nations Yahweh is to destroy before you, so you yourselves will perish, for not having listenedto the voice of Yahweh your God.'