This week’s parashat is the 2nd parashat in the book of Devarim also called Deuteronomy, and is called Va’etchanan which means ‘And I Besought’.
Bullet Point Summary
- Moshe asked to go over and see the good land but YHWH was angry with him
- YHWH told Moshe to see the land but Yahushua will take them into the land
- Yisra’el is to live out the words of YHWH not adding or taking away from them that they may
live - The nations will say how great is Yisra’el who has Elohim so near to them and such a great
Torah - Keep the Torah and teach it to your children and your children’s children
- When YHWH gave you the Torah you saw no image so you would not make any images to
worship - Moshe tells the people YHWH was angry at him for their sakes and wouldn’t let him enter the
promised land - Don’t forget His covenant and make any graven image or let your children make any images
- Moshe says Yisra’el will perish off the land and be scattered for idolatry
- If scattered Yisra’el seeks Him with their whole heart He will be merciful
- Elohim had chosen Yisra’el and delivered them out of Egypt to keep His commandments
- Moshe set apart the three cities of refuge on this side of Yarden
- Moshe sets before Yisra’el the Torah on this side of Yarden in the land of giants
- Moshe stood between YHWH and the people when YHWH made the covenant with them at
Chorev - YHWH gives Yisra’el the first five commandments
- YHWH gives Yisra’el the second five commandments
- YHWH wrote the ten commandments on two tables of stone
- When the people heard the voice of YHWH they asked Moshe to talk with Him and they
would listen to Moshe - Moshe is told the Torah to teach Yisra’el that they may do them and live
- The Shema is given
- The command to teach the commandments to your children and speak of them during the day
- You shall bind the commandments on your hand for a sign
- You shall post the commandments on the posts of your house and the gates of your city
- Don’t forget YHWH after he has blessed you
- You shall not go after other elohim but diligently keep the commandments
- When your children ask you about the commandments you shall tell them about the plan of
Elohim - Yisra’el shall utterly destroy the nations cast out before them and destroy their idolatry
- YHWH has chosen Yisra’el to be His holy people and He will have mercy on those who keep
His commandments - Haftarah – Don’t compare YHWH to His creation because He is greater than all
Parashat Text with Readers and Daily Portions (Reader 1 Starts on Saturday Evening)
Va’etchanan “And I Besought”
Deu 3:23 – 7:11 , Isaiah 40:1 – 26
Reader 1 (Evening Portion)
Deu 3:23 And I besought YHWH at that time, saying,
Deu 3:24 O YHWH Elohim, You have begun to show * your servant * your greatness, and your
mighty hand: for what Elohim is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to your
works, and according to your might?
Deu 3:25 I pray you, let me go over, and see * the good land that is beyond Yarden, that goodly
mountain, and Levanon.
Deu 3:26 But YHWH was angry with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and YHWH
said unto me, Let it suffice you; speak no more unto me of this matter.
Deu 3:27 Get you up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and
southward, and eastward, and behold it with your eyes: for you shall not go over * this
Yarden.
Deu 3:28 But charge * Yahushua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over
before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit * the land which you shall see.
Deu 3:29 So we abode in the valley over against Beit-Pe’or.
(Morning Portion)
Deu 4:1 Now therefore hearken, O Yisra’el, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I
teach you, for to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess * the land which YHWH
Elohim of your fathers gives you.
Deu 4:2 You shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish
from it, that you may keep * the commandments of YHWH your Elohim which I command
you.
Deu 4:3 Your eyes have seen * what YHWH did because of Ba’al-Pe’or: for all the men that
followed Ba’al-Pe’or, YHWH your Elohim has destroyed them from among you.
Deu 4:4 But you that did cleave unto YHWH your Elohim are alive every one of you this day.
Reader 2 (Evening Portion)
Deu 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as YHWH my Elohim
commanded me, that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it.
Deu 4:6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the
sight of the nations, which shall hear * all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is
a wise and understanding people.
Deu 4:7 For what nation is there so great, who has Elohim so near unto them, as YHWH our
Elohim in all we call upon Him for?
Deu 4:8 And what nation is there so great, that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all
this law, which I set before you this day?
Deu 4:9 Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget * the things
which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life: but
teach them to your sons, and your sons’ sons;
Deu 4:10 Specially the day that you stood before YHWH your Elohim in Chorev, when YHWH
said unto me, Gather me the people together, * and I will make them hear * my words, that
they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may
teach their children.
Deu 4:11 And you came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire
unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.
Deu 4:12 And YHWH spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of the
words, but saw no similitude; only a voice.
Deu 4:13 And He declared * unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, ten
commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.
Deu 4:14 And YHWH commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that
you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.
Deu 4:15 Take you therefore good heed unto yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude
on the day YHWH spoke unto you in Chorev out of the midst of the fire:
Deu 4:16 Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any
figure, the likeness of male or female,
Deu 4:17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies
in the air,
Deu 4:18 The likeness of any thing that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in
the waters beneath the earth:
Deu 4:19 And lest you lift up your eyes unto heaven, and when you see * the sun, and the moon,
and the stars, all the host of heaven, and should be driven to worship them, and serve them,
which YHWH your Elohim has divided * unto all nations under the whole heaven.
Deu 4:20 But YHWH has taken you, and brought you forth * out of the iron furnace, out of
Mitzrayim, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as you are this day.
Deu 4:21 Furthermore YHWH was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go
over * Yarden, and that I should not go in unto that good land, which YHWH your Elohim
gives you for an inheritance:
Deu 4:22 But I must die in this land, I must not go over * Yarden: but you shall go over, and
possess * that good land.
Deu 4:23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest you forget * the covenant of YHWH your Elohim,
which He made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which
YHWH your Elohim has forbid you.
Deu 4:24 For YHWH your Elohim is a consuming fire, a jealous Elohim.
Deu 4:25 When you shall beget children, and children’s children, and you shall have remained
long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of
any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of YHWH your Elohim, to provoke Him to anger:
(Morning Portion)
Deu 4:26 I call * heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly
perish from off the land whereunto you go over * Yarden to possess it; you shall not prolong
your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.
Deu 4:27 And YHWH shall scatter you among the nations, and you shall be left few in number
among the heathen, where YHWH shall lead you.
Deu 4:28 And there you shall serve elohim, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which
neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
Deu 4:29 But if from there you shall seek YHWH your Elohim, you shall find him, if you seek
Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 4:30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things are come upon you, in the latter
days, if you turn to YHWH your Elohim, and shall be obedient unto His voice;
Deu 4:31 (For YHWH your Elohim is a merciful Elohim;) He will not forsake you, neither
destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore unto them.
Deu 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that
Elohim created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other,
whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
Deu 4:33 Did ever people hear the voice of Elohim speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you
have heard, and live?
Deu 4:34 Or has Elohim attempted to go and take him a nation from the midst of another
nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by
a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that YHWH your Elohim did for
you in Mitzrayim before your eyes?
Deu 4:35 Unto you it was showed, that you might know that YHWH He is Elohim; none else
beside Him.
Deu 4:36 Out of heaven He made you to hear His voice, that He might instruct you: and upon
earth He showed you His great fire; and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
Deu 4:37 And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and
brought you out in His sight with His mighty power out of Mitzrayim;
Deu 4:38 To drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in,
to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.
Deu 4:39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that YHWH He is Elohim in
heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: none else.
Deu 4:40 You shall keep therefore His statutes, and His commandments, which I command
you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you
may prolong your days upon the earth, which YHWH your Elohim gives you, forever.
Reader 3 (Evening Portion)
Deu 4:41 Then Moshe severed three cities on this side Yarden toward the sunrising;
Deu 4:42 That the slayer might flee there, which should kill his neighbor unawares, and hated
him not in times past; and that fleeing unto one of these cities he might live:
Deu 4:43 Namely, Betzer in the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Re’uveni; and Ramot in
Gil’ad, of the Gadi; and Galon in Bashan, of the Manashi.
(Morning Portion)
Deu 4:44 And this is the law which Moshe set before the children of Yisra’el:
Deu 4:45 These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which Moshe spoke
unto the children of Yisra’el, after they came forth out of Mitzrayim,
Deu 4:46 On this side Yarden, in the valley over against Beit-Pe’or, in the land of Sichon king of
the Amori, who dwelt at Cheshbon, whom Moshe and the children of Yisra’el smote, after
they were come forth out of Mitzrayim:
Deu 4:47 And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the
Amori, which were on this side Yarden toward the sunrising;
Deu 4:48 From Aro’er, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Tzion, which
is Chermon,
Deu 4:49 And all the plain on this side Yarden eastward, even unto the sea of the plain, under
the springs of Pisgah.
Reader 4 (Evening Portion)
Deu 5:1 And Moshe called all Yisra’el, and said unto them, Hear, O Yisra’el, the statutes and
judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and keep, and do
them.
Deu 5:2 YHWH our Elohim made a covenant with us in Chorev.
Deu 5:3 YHWH made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, us, who are all of us here
alive this day.
Deu 5:4 YHWH talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
Deu 5:5 (I stood between YHWH and you at that time, to show you the word of YHWH: for you
were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying,
(Morning Portion)
Deu 5:6 I am YHWH your Elohim, which brought you out of the land of Mitzrayim, from the
house of bondage.
Deu 5:7 You shall have none other elohim before me.
Deu 5:8 You shall not make to you any graven image, or any likeness that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Deu 5:9 You shall not bow down yourself unto them, nor serve them: for I YHWH your Elohim
am a jealous Elohim, visiting the lawlessness of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me,
Deu 5:10 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my
commandments.
Deu 5:11 You shall not take the name of YHWH your Elohim in vain: for YHWH will not hold
him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
Deu 5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you.
Deu 5:13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work:
Deu 5:14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of YHWH your Elohim: in it you shall not do any
work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant,
nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your
gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.
Deu 5:15 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Mitzrayim, and that YHWH your
Elohim brought you out of there through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
therefore YHWH your Elohim commanded you to keep the sabbath day.
Deu 5:16 Honor your father and you mother, as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you; that
your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which YHWH
your Elohim gives you.
Reader 5 (Evening Portion)
Deu 5:17 You shall not murder.
Deu 5:18 Neither shall you commit adultery.
Deu 5:19 Neither shall you steal.
Deu 5:20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
Deu 5:21 Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s wife, neither shall you covet your neighbor’s
house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his donkey, or any thing
that is your neighbor’s.
Deu 5:22 These words YHWH spoke unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of
the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and He added no more.
And He wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Deu 5:23 And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, (for
the mountain did burn with fire,) that you came near unto me, all the heads of your tribes,
and your elders;
Deu 5:24 And you said, Behold, YHWH our Elohim has showed us His glory and His greatness,
and we have heard His voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that Elohim
does talk with man, and he lives.
Deu 5:25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the
voice of YHWH our Elohim any more, then we shall die.
Deu 5:26 For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living Elohim speaking out
of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?
Deu 5:27 Go you near, and hear all that YHWH our Elohim shall say: and speak you unto us all
that YHWH our Elohim shall speak unto you; and we will hear it, and do it.
(Morning Portion)
Deu 5:28 And YHWH heard the voice of your words, when you spoke unto me; and YHWH said
unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto
you: they have well said all that they have spoken.
Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!
Deu 5:30 Go say to them, Get you into your tents again.
Deu 5:31 But as for you, stand you here by me, and I will speak unto you all the
commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they
may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.
Deu 5:32 You shall observe to do therefore as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you: you
shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
Deu 5:33 You shall walk in all the ways which YHWH your Elohim has commanded you, that
you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the
land which you shall possess.
Deu 6:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which YHWH
your Elohim commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to
possess it:
Deu 6:2 That you might fear YHWH your Elohim, to keep all His statutes and His
commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days
of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
Deu 6:3 Hear therefore, O Yisra’el, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that
you may increase mightily, as YHWH Elohim of your fathers has promised you, in the land
that flows with milk and honey.
Reader 6 (Evening Portion)
Deu 6:4 Hear, O Yisra’el: YHWH our Elohim is one YHWH:
Deu 6:5 And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your might.
Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart:
Deu 6:7 And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when
you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you
rise up.
Deu 6:8 And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes.
Deu 6:9 And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.
Deu 6:10 And it shall be, when YHWH your Elohim shall have brought you into the land which
He swore unto your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya’akov, to give you great and
goodly cities, which you built not,
Deu 6:11 And houses full of all good things, which you filled not, and wells digged, which you
dug not, vineyards and olive trees, which you planted not; when you shall have eaten and be
full;
Deu 6:12 Then beware lest you forget YHWH, which brought you forth out of the land of
Mitzrayim, from the house of bondage.
Deu 6:13 You shall fear YHWH your Elohim, and serve Him, and shall swear by His name.
Deu 6:14 You shall not go after other elohim, of the elohim of the people which are round about
you;
Deu 6:15 (For YHWH your Elohim is a jealous Elohim among you) lest the anger of YHWH
your Elohim be kindled against you, and destroy you from off the face of the earth.
Deu 6:16 You shall not tempt YHWH your Elohim, as you tempted him in Massah.
Deu 6:17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of YHWH your Elohim, and His
testimonies, and His statutes, which He has commanded you.
Deu 6:18 And you shall do that which is right and good in the sight of YHWH: that it may be
well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which YHWH swore unto
your fathers,
Deu 6:19 To cast out all your enemies from before you, as YHWH has spoken.
Deu 6:20 And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and
the statutes, and the judgments, which YHWH our Elohim has commanded you?
Deu 6:21 Then you shall say unto your son, We were Par’oh’s bondmen in Mitzrayim; and
YHWH brought us out of Mitzrayim with a mighty hand:
Deu 6:22 And YHWH showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Mitzrayim, upon
Par’oh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:
Deu 6:23 And He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land
which He swore unto our fathers.
Deu 6:24 And YHWH commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear YHWH our Elohim, for
our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
Deu 6:25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before
YHWH our Elohim, as He has commanded us.
Reader 7 (6th Day Morning Portion)
Deu 7:1 When YHWH your Elohim shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and
has cast out many nations before you, the Chitti, and the Girgashi, and the Amori, and the
Kena’ani, and the Perizzi, and the Chivi, and the Yevusi, seven nations greater and mightier
than you;
Deu 7:2 And when YHWH your Elohim shall deliver them before you; you shall smite them,
and utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto
them:
Deu 7:3 Neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give unto his
son, nor his daughter shall you take unto your son.
Deu 7:4 For they will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other elohim:
so will the anger of YHWH be kindled against you, and destroy you suddenly.
Deu 7:5 But thus shall you deal with them; you shall destroy their altars, and break down their
images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people unto YHWH your Elohim: YHWH your Elohim has chosen
you to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
Deu 7:7 YHWH did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in
number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people:
Deu 7:8 But because YHWH loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had
sworn unto your fathers, has YHWH brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed
you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Par’oh king of Mitzrayim.
Deu 7:9 Know therefore that YHWH your Elohim, He is Elohim, the faithful Elohim, which
keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a
thousand generations;
Deu 7:10 And repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them: He will not be slack to
him that hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
Deu 7:11 You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments,
which I command you this day, to do them.
Haftarah (Shabbat Evening Portion)
Isa 40:1 Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your Elohim.
Isa 40:2 Speak you comfortably to Yahrushalayim, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her lawlessness is pardoned: for she has received of YHWH’S hand
double for all her sins.
Isa 40:3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of YHWH, make
straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.
Isa 40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
Isa 40:5 And the glory of YHWH shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the
mouth of YHWH has spoken it.
Isa 40:6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
Isa 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades: because the spirit of YHWH blows upon it: surely
the people is grass.
Isa 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our Elohim shall stand forever.
Isa 40:9 O Tziyon, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O
Yahrushalayim, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not
afraid; say unto the cities of Yahudah, Behold your Elohim!
Isa 40:10 Behold, YHWH Elohim will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him:
behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
Isa 40:11 He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and
carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Isa 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with
the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains
in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Isa 40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of YHWH, or being His counsellor has taught Him?
Isa 40:14 With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of
judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?
Isa 40:15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the
balance: behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing.
Isa 40:16 And Levanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt
offering.
Isa 40:17 All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing,
and vanity.
Isa 40:18 To whom then will you liken Elohim? or what likeness will you compare unto Him?
Isa 40:19 The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and
casts silver chains.
Isa 40:20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he
seeks unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
Isa 40:21 Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the
beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isa 40:22 It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as
grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to
dwell in:
Isa 40:23 That brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
Isa 40:24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not
take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the
whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
Isa 40:25 To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
Isa 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out
their host by number: He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He
is strong in power; not one fails.
Review Torah Summaries (Shabbat Morning Portion)