Who Wrote the Torah? Part 2 D & P

(14) So the priest Hilkiah, and Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah—the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe—who was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and they spoke to her. (15) She responded: “Thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel: Say to the one who sent you to me: (16) Thus said GOD: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants, in accordance with all the words of the scroll that the king of Judah has read. (17) Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods and provoked My anger with all their deeds, My wrath is kindled against this place and it shall not be quenched. (18) But say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of GOD: Thus said the ETERNAL, the God of Israel: As for the words that you have heard— (19) because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before GOD when you heard what I decreed against this place and its inhabitants—that it will become a desolation and a curse—and because you rent your clothes and wept before Me, I for My part have listened—declares GOD. (20) Assuredly, I will gather you to your ancestors and you will be laid in your tomb in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.” So they brought back the reply to the king.

(1) At the king’s summons, all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him. (2) The king went up to the House of GOD, together with the entire citizenry of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and prophets—all the people, young and old. And he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll that had been found in the House of GOD. (3) The king stood by the pillar and solemnized the covenant before GOD: that they would follow GOD and observe God’s commandments, injunctions, and laws with all their heart and soul; that they would fulfill all the terms of this covenant as inscribed upon the scroll. And all the people entered into the covenant. (4) Then the king ordered the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second rank, and the guards of the threshold to bring out of the Temple of GOD all the objects made for Baal and Asherah and all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and he removed the ashes to Bethel. (5) He suppressed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to make offerings at the shrines in the towns of Judah and in the environs of Jerusalem, and those who made offerings to Baal, to the sun and moon and constellations—all the host of heaven.

(15) As for the altar in Bethel [and] the shrine made by Jeroboam son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin—that altar, too, and the shrine as well, he tore down. He burned down the shrine and beat it to dust, and he burned the sacred post.

(1) And this is the Instruction—the laws and the rules—that your God יקוק has commanded [me] to impart to you, to be observed in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, (2) so that you, your children, and your children’s children may revere your God יקוק and follow, as long as you live, all the divine laws and commandments that I enjoin upon you, to the end that you may long endure. (3) Obey, O Israel, willingly and faithfully, that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly [in] a land flowing with milk and honey, as יקוק, the God of your ancestors, spoke to you. (4) Hear, O Israel! יקוק is our God, יקוק alone. (5) You shall love your God יקוק with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. (7) Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. (8) Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; (9) inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(1) These are the laws and rules that you must carefully observe in the land that יקוק, God of your ancestors, is giving you to possess, as long as you live on earth. (2) You must destroy all the sites at which the nations you are to dispossess worshiped their gods, whether on lofty mountains and on hills or under any luxuriant tree. (3) Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site. (4) Do not worship your God יקוק in like manner, (5) but look only to the site that your God יקוק will choose amidst all your tribes as God’s habitation, to establish the divine name there. There you are to go, (6) and there you are to bring your burnt offerings and other sacrifices, your tithes and contributions, your votive and freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.

(21) And later generations will ask—the children who succeed you, and foreigners who come from distant lands and see the plagues and diseases that יקוק has inflicted upon that land, (22) all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt, beyond sowing and producing, no grass growing in it, just like the upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which יקוק overthrew in fierce anger— (23) all nations will ask, “Why did יקוק do thus to this land? Wherefore that awful wrath?” (24) They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that יקוק, God of their ancestors, made with them upon freeing them from the land of Egypt; (25) they turned to the service of other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not experienced and whom [God] had not allotted to them. (26) So יקוק was incensed at that land and brought upon it all the curses recorded in this book. (27) יקוק uprooted them from their soil in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is still the case.”

(1) When God began to create heaven and earth— (2) the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water— (3) God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (4) God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day and called the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.

(1) The heaven and the earth were finished, and all their array. (2) On the seventh day God finished the work that had been undertaken: [God] ceased on the seventh day from doing any of the work. (3) And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy—having ceased on it from all the work of creation that God had done.

(1) Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things that יקוק has commanded you to do: (2) On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to יקוק; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. (3) You shall kindle no fire throughout your settlements on the sabbath day. (4) Moses said further to the whole community of Israelites: This is what יקוק has commanded: (5) Take from among you gifts to יקוק; everyone whose heart is so moved shall bring them—gifts for יקוק: gold, silver, and copper; (6) blue, purple, and crimson yarns, fine linen, and goats’ hair...

(1) This is the record of Adam’s line.—When God created humankind, it was made in the likeness of God; (2) male and female were they created. And when they were created, [God] blessed them and called them Humankind. — (3) When Adam had lived 130 years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth. (4) After the birth of Seth, Adam lived 800 years and begot sons and daughters. (5) All the days that Adam lived came to 930 years; then he died.