Parashat Ekev

Adonai Desires to Bless

¹² “Then it will happen, as a result of your listening to these ordinances, when you keep and do them, that Adonai your God will keep with you the covenant kindness that He swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will love you, bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your soil, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ From all peoples, you will be blessed—there will not be male or female barren among you or your livestock. ¹⁵ Adonai will remove all sickness from you, and He will not inflict on you any of the terrible diseases of Egypt that you knew, but will inflict them on all who hate you.

¹⁶ “You will devour all the peoples Adonai your God gives over to you. Your eye is not to pity them. You are not to serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. ¹⁷ Suppose you say in your heart, ‘These nations are more numerous than I—how can I drive them out?’ ¹⁸ You are not to be afraid of them. You are to be sure to remember what Adonai your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹ the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm^[a] by which Adonai your God brought you out. So will Adonai your God do to all the peoples you fear.

²⁰ “Moreover, Adonai your God will send the hornet against them, until the survivors and those in hiding perish before you. ²¹ You should not be terrified of them, since Adonai your God is in your midst—a great and awesome God. ²² Adonai your God will drive away those nations before you little by little—you will not be able to put an end to them all at once, or else the beasts of the field will multiply on you. ²³ But Adonai your God will give them over to you, and He will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will hand over their kings to you, and you will blot out their name from under the heavens. No man will stand up to you, until you have destroyed them all.

²⁵ “The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire. You are not to covet the silver or gold on them or take it for yourself—or you could be snared by it, for it is an abomination to Adonai your God. ²⁶ You are not to bring an abomination into your house—for you, like it, will be a banned thing. You must utterly detest and utterly abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

Not By Bread Alone

8 “You are to take care to do the whole mitzvah that I am commanding you today, so that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that Adonai swore to your fathers. ² You are to remember all the way that Adonai your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness—in order to humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His mitzvot or not. ³ He afflicted you and let you hunger, then He fed you manna—which neither you nor your fathers had known—in order to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai. ⁴ Neither did your clothing wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. ⁵ Now you know in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so Adonai your God disciplines you. ⁶ So you are to keep the mitzvot of Adonai your God—to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For Adonai your God is bringing you into a good land—a land of wadis with water, of springs and fountains flowing out in the valleys and hills, ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, ⁹ a land where you will eat bread with no poverty, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ So you will eat and be full, and you will bless Adonai your God for the good land He has given you.