vendredi 7 septembre 2012

Parsha Ki Tavo – When you come

Parsha Ki Tavo – When you come
D’varim (Deuter.) 26:1 – 29:8, YeshaYahu (Isa.) 60:1-22,
Luke 21:1-4, Rom.11:1-15




In this “Parsha”, Moshe admonish the children of Israel (carnal man) and give them more instruction before is departing. He will warn them with great details about what is to come by disobedience. Here it is Moshe the prophet who speaks reflecting also Yehoshua in his ministry. Prophets are יהוה vessel to speak to the people for encouragement and warning, who ignore the words of the prophets, ignore יהוה words!
Once again, the Torah as different levels and we should strive to scrutinize the different levels if we want to see the deep meaning, called “sod” in Hebrew, the mystery of the Torah.
Deu 26:1  “And it shall be, when you come into the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,
We shall remember that this land has been taken away from other nations who were living there. This nation where idolaters and lived an immoral life. The Hebrew words for “come” and “posses” are respectively the word “bo” and “yarash” which imply to take by force and to occupy.
Deu 9:5 “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wrong of these nations that יהוה your Elohim drives them out from before you, in order to establish the word which יהוה swore to your fathers, to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ.

We see that it is יהוה Elohim who is giving the land to the Children of Israel. Today Palestinians and others people claim this land to be theirs and there is a lot of resistance in Israel with conflicts and violence. We will see that disobedience to יהוה brings a lot of trouble in our life.
In the “sod” we can see that the land is also a picture of the “kingdom of Elohim” a “Qadosh” kingdom where sin has no place.
We too must strive to take the kingdom by force. On one side we do enter the Kingdom of heaven through the blood of Messiah, on the other side we will have to fight against the spiritual forces of darkness in order to withstand them and overcome. All this nations in the promise land represent spiritual entities which must be destroyed.
I have insert a text from somebody (unfortunately I lost his name), who give spiritual explanation concerning the nations which Elohim asked the children of Israel (carnal man) to destroy.

Deu 26:2 that you shall take some of the first of all the fruits of the soil which you bring from your land that יהוה your Elohim is giving you, and shall put it in a basket and go to the place where יהוה your Elohim chooses to make His Name dwell there.
Deu 26:3 “And you shall come to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I shall declare today to יהוה your Elohim that I have come to the land which יהוה swore to our fathers to give us.’
Deu 26:4 “And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and place it before the altar of יהוה your Elohim.

Deu 26:2-4 The principle is simple. The peshat reading gives us the literal meaning what our forefathers were doing. Remember the first fruit is Qadosh to Elohim. The rule was established by the levitical order.
We have seen in Vayyiqra chapter 19 what has been commanded to the children of Israel when they enter the promise land:
Lev 19:23 ‘And when you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall reckon their fruit as uncircumcised. For three years it is as uncircumcised to you, it is not eaten.
Lev 19:24And in the fourth year all its fruit is set-apart – praises to יהוה.
Lev 19:25 ‘And in the fifth year you eat its fruit, so that it increases its yield to you. I am יהוה your Elohim.
In the fourth year are the first fruits to be brought to יהוה. The Jew historian Josephus gives following explanation in the fourth book “Antiquities of the Jews” chapter 8:19
19. He that plants a piece of land, the trees of which produce fruits before the fourth year, is not to bring thence any first-fruits to God, nor is he to make use of that fruit himself, for it is not produced in its proper season; for when nature has a force put upon her at an unseasonable time, the fruit is not proper for God, nor for the master's use; but let the owner gather all that is grown on the fourth car, for then it is in its proper season. And let him that has gathered it carry it to the holy city, and spend that, together with the tithe of his other fruits, in feasting with his friends, with the orphans, and the widows. But on the fifth year the fruit is his, and he may use it as he pleases.
It seems difficult to see the spiritual aspect behind this rule! However we know that the number trees pictures righteous people. Yehoshua uses this euphemism to explain how we should live:
Mat 7:16 “By their fruits you shall know them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Mat 12:33 “Either makes the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit.
Rom 11:16 Now if the first-fruit is set-apart, the lump is also. And if the root is set-apart, so are the branches.
Remember in B’reshit, Elohim created the trees bearing seed after their kind:
Gen 1:11 And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the plant that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth.” And it came to be so.
The earth is commanded to bear fruit according to their kind.

Until this very day, farmers in different countries (I know in particular from France with the vine) apply the rule in planting trees. They will not gather the fruit of a tree (vine) until the first three years are passed. They will remove the fruits by hands and let them decease on the ground. After that the tree or vine will begin to bring fruits in abundance. Unfortunately, they don’t consider the fourth year and use the fruit as the first harvest.
Now, think about this: Three years equal three thousand years. Yehoshua came in the fourth years to restore Israel unto Elohim, He paid the price for our redemption and brought the “first fruits” to Elohim, they were made acceptable unto Elohim by the sacrifice of Yehoshua, the first fruit from among the dead.
1Co 15:20 But now is the Messiah risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Joh 20:16 יהושע said to her, “Miryam!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).
Joh 20:17 יהושע said to her, “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.
Jas 1:18 Having purposed it, He brought us forth by the Word of truth, for us to be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.
Yehoshua went to the father to present himself as the “first fruit” and if this first fruit is accepted, all who will come after him will also be accepted.
We have seen that the “place where יהוה your Elohim chooses to make His name dwell there” is not known before the children of Israel enter the promise land.
The prophet Nathan spoke to King David:
2Sa 7:10 “And I shall appoint a place for my people Yisra’ĕl, and shall plant them, and they shall dwell in a place of their own and no longer be afraid, neither shall the children of wickedness oppress them again, as at the first,
2Sa 7:11 even from the day I appointed rulers over my people Yisra’ĕl, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. And יהוה has declared to you that He would make you a house.
2Sa 7:12 “When your days are filled and you rest with your fathers, I shall raise up your seed after you, who comes from your inward parts, and shall establish his reign.
2Sa 7:13 “He does build a house for My Name, and I shall establish the throne of his reign forever.
In 2nd King we see the fulfilment under King Sh’lomo:

2Ki 21:4 and he built altars in the House of יהוה, of which יהוה had said, “In Yerushalayim I put My Name.”
Yerushalayim has also a spiritual meaning:
Strong’s # H3389 ירוּשׁלים    ירוּשׁלם yerûshâlaim  yerûshâlayim
yer-oo-shaw-lah'-im, yer-oo-shaw-lah'-yim
A dual (in allusion to its two main hills (the true pointing, at least of the former reading, seems to be that of H3390)); probably from (the passive participle of) H3384 and H7999; founded peaceful; Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of Palestine: - Jerusalem.
H3384 ירא    ירהyârâh  yârâ' yaw-raw', yaw-raw'
A primitive root; properly to flow as water (that is, to rain); transitively to lay or throw (especially an arrow, that is, to shoot); figuratively to point out (as if by aiming the finger), to teach: -  (+) archer, cast, direct, inform, instruct, lay, shew, shoot, teach (-er, -ing), through.
H7999 שׁלם shâlam shaw-lam'
A primitive root; to be safe (in mind, body or estate); figuratively to be (causatively make) completed; by implication to be friendly; by extension to reciprocate (in various applications): - make amends, (make an) end, finish, full, give again, make good, (re-) pay (again), (make) (to) (be at) peace (-able), that is perfect, perform, (make) prosper (-ous), recompense, render, requite, make restitution, restore, reward, X surely.

The spiritual meaning of the name Yerushalayim: “in this place I (Elohim) will make restitution”. Yerushalayim was chosen in the day Elohim commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah which is part of the mountain surrounding Yerushalayim.
Moriah, Strong’s # H4179 מוריּה môrı̂yâh 
mo-ree-yaw',
From H7200 and H3050; seen of Yah; Morijah, a hill in Palestine: - Moriah.

To bring the first fruits of the soils, verse 2, We have seen what is to be done when they enter the promise land.
We also one day will enter the promise land physically. We have already entered it spiritually. Are you bringing our first fruits to Elohim, or do we bring fruits when it fits us? Our first fruits are fruits of righteousness
Php 1:11 being filled with the fruit of righteousness,1 through יהושע Messiah, to the glory and praise of Elohim. Footnote: 1Mt. 3:8-10, Rom. 6:22, Rom. 14:17, 2 Cor. 9:10, Eph. 5:9, Gal. 5:22, Col. 1:10, Heb. 12:11, Jam. 3:18.
Rom 6:22 But now, having been set free from sin, and having become servants of Elohim, you have your fruit resulting in set-apartness, and the end, everlasting life.

Mat 3:9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Aḇraham as father.’1 for I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Aḇraham from these stones. Footnote: 1John 8:33-34, Rom. 9:8.
Mat 3:10 “And the axe is already laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, then, which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Yehoshua says in the book of Yochanan that the branches which do not bear fruit, will be thrown into the fire. We should always be aware that our fruits come from the Torah which as a “tree of life” is representing Yehoshua and the life he dedicated to Elohim.

Deu 26:5 “And you shall answer and say before יהוה your Elohim, ‘My father was a perishing Aramean*, and he went down to Mitsrayim and sojourned there with few men. And there he became a nation, great, mighty, and numerous.
Deu 26:6 ‘But the Mitsrites did evil to us, and afflicted us, and imposed hard labour on us.
Deu 26:7 ‘Then we cried out to יהוה Elohim of our fathers, and יהוה heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression.
Deu 26:8 ‘and יהוה brought us out of Mitsrayim with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, with great fear and with signs and wonders.
Deu 26:9 ‘And He brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Verses 26:5-9. Commentary from Keil and Delitzsch:
אָבִי אִבֵד אֲרַמִּי, “a lost (perishing) Aramaean was my father” (not the Aramaean, Laban, wanted to destroy my father, Jacob, as the Chald., Arab., Luther, and others render it). אִבֵד signifies not only going astray, wandering, but perishing, in danger of perishing, as in Job_29:13; Pro_31:6, etc. Jacob is referred to, for it was he who went down to Egypt in few men. He is mentioned as the tribe-father of the nation, because the nation was directly descended from his sons, and also derived its name of Israel from him. Jacob is called in Aramaean, not only because of his long sojourn in Aramaea (Gen 29-31), but also because he got his wives and children there (cf. Hos_12:13); and the relatives of the patriarchs had accompanied Abraham from Chaldaea to Mesopotamia (Aram; see Gen_11:30). מְעַט בִּמְתֵי, consisting of few men (בְּ, the so-called beth essent., as in Deu_10:22; Exo_6:3, etc.; vid., Ewald, §299, q.). Compare Gen_34:30, where Jacob himself describes his family as “few in number.” On the number in the family that migrated into Egypt, reckoned at seventy souls, see the explanation at Gen_46:27. On the multiplication in Egypt into a great and strong people, see Exo_1:7, Exo_1:9; and on the oppression endured there, Exo_1:11-22, and Exo_2:23. - The guidance out of Egypt amidst great signs (Deu_26:8), as in Deu_4:34.
*Others translation give Syrian instead of Aramean.
Deu 26:10 ‘and now, see, I have brought the first-fruits of the land which You, O יהוה, have given me.’ Then you shall place it before יהוה your Elohim, and bow down before יהוה your Elohim,
Deu 26:11 and shall rejoice in all the good which יהוה your Elohim has given to you and your house, you and the Lĕwite and the stranger who is among you.
Elohim is not looking to himself when asking for sacrifices. He always looks for the well being of His children. We always see how Elohim interact between heaven and earth to meet the needs of his people. The Torah is there to bring blessing.

Deu 26:12 “When you have completed tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, and have given it to the Lĕwite, to the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, and they have eaten within your gates and have been satisfied,
The tithe of the third year is the tithe for the poor and the stranger and the widow as we have seen already
Deu 14:28 “At the end of every third year you bring out all the tithe of your increase of that year and store it up within your gates.
Deu 14:29 “And the Lĕwite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that יהוה your Elohim does bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
Keil and delitzsch give us more inside:
Every third year, on the other hand, they were to separate the whole of the tithe from the year's produce (“bring forth,” sc., from the granary), and leaven it in their gates (i.e., their towns), and feed the Levites, the strangers, and the widows and orphans with it. They were not to take it to the sanctuary, therefore; but according to Deu_26:12., after bringing it out, were to make confession to YHWH of what they had done, and pray for His blessing. “At the end of three years:” i.e., when the third year, namely the civil year, which closed with the harvest (see at Exo_23:16), had come to an end. This regulation as to the time was founded upon the observance of the sabbatical year, as we may see from Deu_15:1, where the seventh year is no other than the sabbatical year. Twice, therefore, within the period of a sabbatical year, namely in the third and sixth years, the tithe set apart for a sacrificial meal was not to be eaten at the sanctuary, but to be used in the different towns of the land in providing festal meals for those who had no possessions, viz., the Levites, strangers, widows, and orphans. Consequently this tithe cannot properly be called the “third tithe,” as it is by many of the Rabbies, but rather the “poor tithe,” as it was simply in the way of applying it that it differed from the “second” (see Hottinger, de decimies, exerc. viii. pp. 182ff., and my Archäol. i. p. 339). As an encouragement to carry out these instructions, Moses closes in Deu_14:29 with an allusion to the divine blessing which would follow their observance.
Deu 14:29 and the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that YHWH thy Elohim may bless thee in all the work of thine hands which thou doest.
We remember that the Levites were numerous among the children of Israel
Num 3:39 all that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of YHWH, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand.
When reading the number of the Levites we can easily imagine why יהוה was concerned with their welfare, they were dispersed in the different towns from “Eretz Israel were the children of Israel were living to perform the priestly duty before יהוה. The “poor tithe” was essential for their life, as it was also for the strangers, the widows and the orphans (fatherless).
In the Jubilee year there was no tithe, as the land enjoyed its sabbath. Tobit (Tob_1:7-8) says he gave a third tithe to the poor; Josephus (Ant. 4:8, 8, section 22) also mentions a third tithe; so Jerome too on Ezekiel 45 (Fausset).
Tob 1:7 The first tenth part of all increase I gave to the sons of Aaron, who ministered at Jerusalem: another tenth part I sold away, and went, and spent it every year at Jerusalem:
Tob 1:8 and the third I gave unto them to whom it was meet, as Debora my father's mother had commanded me, because I was left an orphan by my father.

Deu 26:13 then you shall say before יהוה your Elohim, ‘I have put away the set-apart portion from my house, and also have given it to the Lĕwite, and to the stranger, and to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your command which You have commanded me. I have not transgressed Your commands, nor have I forgotten.
Deu 26:14 ‘I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for any unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of יהוה my Elohim, I have done according to all that You have commanded me.
Deu 26:15 ‘Look from Your set-apart dwelling place, from the heavens, and bless Your people Yisra’ĕl and the land which You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
Is it not what Ya’acov wrote?
Jas 1:22 but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Deu 26:16 “Today יהוה your Elohim is commanding you to do these laws and right-rulings. And you shall guard and do them with all your heart and with all your being.
Deu 26:17 “You have today caused יהוה to proclaim to be your Elohim, and to walk in His ways and guard His laws, and His commands, and His right-rulings, and to obey His voice.
Deu 26:18 “and יהוה has caused you to proclaim today to be His people, a treasured possession, as He has spoken to you, and to guard all His commands,
Joh 14:15 “If you love Me, you shall guard My commands.1 Footnote: 1See Ex. 20:6, vv. 21&23, 1 John 5:2-3, 2 John v. 6.

Deu 26:19 so as to set you high above all nations which He has made, for a praise, and for a name, and for esteem, and for you to be a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim, as He has spoken.”
Chapter 27
Deu 27:1 and Mosheh, with the elders of Yisra’ĕl, commanded the people, saying, “Guard all the commands which I am commanding you today.
Deu 27:2 “And it shall be, on the day when you pass over the Yardĕn to the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and plaster them with plaster,

The stones were not to be engraved but covered with lime.
From Keil and Dlitzsch we learn,
Deu_27:2 and Deu_27:3 contain the general instructions; Deu_27:4-8, more minute details. In the appointment of the time, “on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan into the land,” etc., the word “day” must not be pressed, but is to be understood in a broader sense, as signifying the time when Israel should have entered the land and taken possession of it. The stones to be set up were to be covered with lime, or gypsum (whether it signifies lime or gypsum cannot be determined), and all the words of the law were to be written upon them. The writing, therefore, was not to be cut into the stones and then covered with lime (as J. D. Mich., Ros.), but to be inscribed upon the plaistered stones, as was the custom in Egypt, where the walls of buildings, and even monumental stones, which they were about to paint with figures and hieroglyphics, were first of all covered with a coating of lime or gypsum, and then the figures painted upon this (see the testimonies of Minutoli, Heeren, Prokesch in Hengstenberg's Dissertations, i. 433, and Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 90). The object of this writing was not to hand down the law in this manner to posterity without alteration, but, as has already been stated, simply to set forth a public acknowledgement of the law on the part of the people, first of all for the sake of the generation which took possession of the land, and for posterity, only so far as this act was recorded in the book of Joshua and thus transmitted to future generations.

Deu 27:3 and write on them all the Words of this Torah, when you have passed over, so that you go into the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as יהוה Elohim of your fathers has spoken to you.
Lawrence Nathan from Hoshana Rabbah gives an approach concerning the stones on Mount Ebal
Torah-law and then coat them with lime plaster. There they were told to build an altar where burnt and peace offerings were to be made. Why was Torah written on stones on Mount Ebal — the mountain of the cursings? Why not on Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing? Certainly this cannot mean that the Torah is a curse, for Paul calls it Qadosh (holy), just and good in Romans 7:12. What could the stones represent? Who is the Chief Cornerstone, the Stone the builders rejected (Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:22), and the stone cut without hands (Dan. 2:34)? What was the purpose of these offerings and to whom do the burnt and peace offerings point?
Could lime plaster represent robes of righteousness? Who is clothed in robes of righteousness once sins have been atoned for? Who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, had laid on him the iniquities of us all and was made an offering for sin (Isa. 53:5,6,10)? Who was the Living Torah, the Word of Elohim made flesh (John 1:1ff)? Who redeemed us from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), which came upon us as a result of our sinning (sin is the violation of YHVH’s law [1 John 3:4]), bring a death penalty upon us (the wages of sin is death [Rom. 6:23])? Now does this make sense why the Torah and the altar were placed on Mount Ebal? It was another one of the many prophetic shadow pictures in the Torah pointing to the redemptive work of Yeshua at the cross. Does this strengthen your faith that Yeshua (Yehoshua) is indeed the Messiah, the Lamb of Elohim slain from the foundation of the earth? Who else could have fulfilled these prophesies?

Deu 27:4 “And it shall be, when you have passed over the Yardĕn, that on Mount Ěyḇal you set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall plaster them with plaster,

Josephus writes the book 4, chapter 8:44,
44. This was the form of political government which was left us by Moses. Moreover, he had already delivered laws in writing (33) in the fortieth year [after they came out of Egypt], concerning which we will discourse in another book. But now on the following days (for he called them to assemble continually) he delivered blessings to them, and curses upon those that should not live according to the laws, but should transgress the duties that were determined for them to observe. After this, he read to them a poetic song, which was composed in hexameter verse, and left it to them in the holy book: it contained a prediction of what was to come to pass afterward; agreeably whereto all things have happened all along, and do still happen to us; and wherein he has not at all deviated from the truth. Accordingly, he delivered these books to the priest, (34) with the ark; into which he also put the ten commandments, written on two tables. He delivered to them the tabernacle also, and exhorted the people, that when they had conquered the land, and were settled in it, they should not forget the injuries of the Amalekites, but make war against them, and inflict punishment upon them for what mischief they did them when they were in the wilderness; and that when they had got possession of the land of the Canaanites, and when they had destroyed the whole multitude of its inhabitants, as they ought to do, they should erect an altar that should face the rising sun, not far from the city of Shechem, between the two mountains, that of Gerizzim, situate on the right hand, and that called Ebal, on the left; and that the army should be so divided, that six tribes should stand upon each of the two mountains, and with them the Levites and the priests. And that first, those that were upon Mount Gerizzim should pray for the best blessings upon those who were diligent about the worship of God, and the observation of his laws, and who did not reject what Moses had said to them; while the other wished them all manner of happiness also; and when these last put up the like prayers, the former praised them. After this, curses were denounced upon those that should transgress those laws, they ,answering one another alternately, by way of confirmation of what had been said. Moses also wrote their blessings and their curses, that they might learn them so thoroughly, that they might never be forgotten by length of time. And when he was ready to die, he wrote these blessings and curses upon the altar, on each side of it; where he says also the people stood, and then sacrificed and offered burnt-offerings, though after that day they never offered upon it any other sacrifice, for it was not lawful so to do. These are the constitutions of Moses; and the Hebrew nation still live according to them.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown confirm the explanation of Josephus the Jew historian:

“thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law — It might be, as some think, the Decalogue; but a greater probability is that it was “the blessings and curses,” which comprised in fact an epitome of the law (Jos_8:34).
Jos 8:32 and there, in the presence of the children of Yisra’ĕl, he wrote on the stones a copy of the Torah of Mosheh, which he had written.
Jos 8:33 and all Yisra’ĕl – the sojourner as well as the native – with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Lĕwites, who bore the ark of the covenant of יהוה. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ěyḇal, as Mosheh the servant of יהוה had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Yisra’ĕl.
Jos 8:34 and afterward he read all the words of the Torah, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Torah.” Quote end.

Blessing and curses are built on the principle of creation that Elohim established on the first day:
Gen 1:4 And Elohim saw the light, that it was good, and Elohim separated the light from the darkness.
Light and darkness are euphemism for good and evil in Hebrew “yetzer Tov” (good inclination) and “yetzer HaRa” (bad inclination) everything is built on this principle, hot and cold, rich and poor, life and death, righteous and wicked…..
Josephus mentions, of Gerizzim, situate on the right hand, and Ebal, on the left”
If you remember the Tree of life we find “chesed”, mercy or grace on the right side of the tree the place of Abraham, and “gewurah”, strength or judgment on the left side of the tree the place of Isaac and HaSatan (the adversary). The right side is also the place where our master Yehoshua stand “at the right hand of the father” (Acts 7:55)

Deu 27:5 and build an altar to יהוה your Elohim there, an altar of stones – do not use an iron tool on them.
Verses 4-8 Keil and Delitzsch go forth in their study giving us more information,
In the further expansion of this command, Moses first of all fixes the place where the stones were to be set up, namely, upon Mount Ebal (see at Deu_11:29), - not upon Gerizim, according to the reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch; for since the discussion of the question by Verschuir (dissertt. phil. exeg. diss. 3) and Gesenius (de Pent. Samar. p. 61), it may be regarded as an established fact, that this reading is an arbitrary alteration. The following clause, “thou shalt plaister,” etc., is a repetition in the earliest form of historical writing among the Hebrews. To this there are appended in Deu_27:5-7 the new and further instructions, that an altar was to be built upon Ebal, and burnt-offerings and slain-offerings to be sacrificed upon it. The notion that this altar was to be built of the stones with the law written upon them, or even with a portion of them, needs no refutation, as it has not the slightest support in the words of the text. For according to these the altar was to be built of unhewn stones (therefore not of the stones covered with cement), in obedience to the law in Exo_20:22 (see the exposition of this passage, where the reason for this is discussed). The spot selected for the setting up of the stones with the law written upon it, as well as for the altar and the offering of sacrifice, was Ebal, the mountain upon which the curses were to be proclaimed; not Gerizim, which was appointed for the publication of the blessings, for the very same reason for which only the curses to be proclaimed are given in Deu_27:14. and not the blessings, - not, as Schultz supposes, because the law in connection with the curse speaks more forcibly to sinful man than in connection with the blessing, or because the curse, which manifests itself on every hand in human life, sounds more credible than the promise; but, as the Berleburger Bible expresses it, “to show how the law and economy of the Old Testament would denounce the curse which rests upon the whole human race because of sin, to awaken a desire for the Messiah, who was to take away the curse and bring the true blessing instead.” For however remote the allusion to the Messiah may be here, the truth is unquestionably pointed out in these instructions, that the law primarily and chiefly brings a curse upon man because of the sinfulness of his nature, as Moses himself announces to the people in Deu_31:16-17. And for this very reason the book of the law was to be laid by the side of the ark of the covenant as a “testimony against Israel” (Deu_31:26). But the altar was built for the offering of sacrifices, to mould and consecrate the setting up of the law upon the stones into a renewal of the covenant. In the burnt-offerings Israel gave itself up to YHWH with all its life and labour, and in the sacrificial meal it entered into the enjoyment of the blessings of divine grace, to taste of the blessedness of vital communion with its God. By connecting the sacrificial ceremony with the setting up of the law, Israel gave a practical testimony to the fact that its life and blessedness were founded upon its observance of the law. The sacrifices and the sacrificial meal have the same signification here as at the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai (Exo_24:11). - In Deu_27:8 the writing of the law upon the stones is commanded once more, and the further injunction is added, “very plainly.” - The writing of the law is mentioned last, as being the most important, and not because it was to take place after the sacrificial ceremony. The different instructions are arranged according to their character, and not in chronological order.
I don’t agree here with Keil and Delitzsch concerning the law bringing curse  because of the sinful nature of man which is the Roman Catholic doctrine, because those who are in Messiah today have put the garment of Righteousness and so overcome sin which is the transgression of the Torah. If we had a sinful nature, we would have to wait the resurrection to receive the sinless nature. Sin is overcome through Messiah.
D’varim 31:16 tell us that it is the people who will go after other mighty ones:
Deu 31:16 and יהוה said to Mosheh, “See, you are about to sleep with your fathers. And this people shall rise and whore after the mighty ones of the strangers of the land into the midst of which they shall enter, and forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
They will follow people who are already wicked by choice. How it is today? What do people do today? Do they follow the world system or Messiah and the Torah? What is the choice of all this religions? Is it not after its own choice?
To break the covenant and thus the commands was to bring the curse, not the sinful nature.

My opinion:
We read in D’varim (Deut.) 27:2-4:”...... that thou shall set thee up great stones and plaster them with plaster:
Deu 27:3 and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which YHWH thy Elohim giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as YHWH Elohim of thy fathers hath promised thee.
Deu 27:4 Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaister them with plaister.
When reading we should keep in mind that the Mount Ebal is on the left side thus representing the left side of the tree of life the side of “gewurah” the place of judgement. Judgement is directly connected with curse.
Contrary to what Christianity believe the Torah is not a curse but disobedience to the Torah bring curse upon people. Now remember that the Ten Commands on Mont Sinai were to be written on the tablets made of stone representing the “stony heart” of the Children of Israel (Yechezkel 36:26). Here on Mount Ebal the stones were to be plastered with plaster a kind of cement. What is the meaning of it?
The first Ten Commands written in the tablets were engraved in the tablets made out of stone for the stony heart. Here we have stones with plaster bearing the Ten Commands on the Left side the side where the curses will be proclaimed.
When Yehoshua came, he came to remove not the Torah and the Ten Commands, but the curse depending on disobedience to the Torah due to the letter and not faith:
Gal 3:13 Messiah hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree:
How came the curse?
Deu 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, so be it.
Messiah has removed the “plaster” from the stone which remain as a memorial of the curse because of disobedience and have lost their power or effect on those who follow Messiah.
These two mountains still exist in Israel with other names, mount Gerizim (now Jebel-et-Tur) and mount Ebal (now Imad-el-Deen).
But who are these stones?
Kefa write:
1Pe 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of YHWH, and precious,
1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to YHWH by Yehoshua the Messiah.
“Living stones to build a spiritual house”. In order to use this stones (plural) the curse must had to be removed. In mount Ebal, the left side, the curse was plastered on the stones (plural), representing the temporal state of the curse done away by following Messiah Yehoshua!
We are going to see that the Ten Commands written on the plastered stone were bringing curse by disobedience, thus confirming that only in Messiah through obedience, the curse is removed.

Deu 27:6 “Build the altar of יהוה your Elohim with complete stones, and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to יהוה your Elohim,
Deu 27:7 and shall offer peace offerings, and eat there, and rejoice before יהוה your Elohim.
Deu 27:8 “and you shall write all the Words of this Torah on the stones – plainly and well.”
Deu 27:9 and Mosheh and the priests, the Lĕwites, spoke to all Yisra’ĕl, saying, “Be silent and hear, O Yisra’ĕl: This day you have become the people of יהוה your Elohim,
Deu 27:10 and you shall obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, and do His commands and His laws which I command you today.”
The fact to “have become the people of Elohim” implies to obey יהוה and do his commandment as it is written verse 9 and 10. How it is possible that Christianity teaches the opposite?
Deu 27:11 and Mosheh commanded the people on that day, saying,
Deu 27:12 “These are to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have passed over the Yardĕn: Shimʽon, and Lĕwi, and Yehuḏah, and Yissasḵar, and Yosĕph, and Binyamin.
Deu 27:13 “And these are to stand on Mount Ěyḇal to curse: Re’uḇĕn, Gaḏ, and Ashĕr, and Zeḇulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
Deu 27:14 “and the Lĕwites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Yisra’ĕl:

Commentary from Keil and delitzsch:
Deu 27:11-13 
With the solemn erection of the stones with the law written upon them, Israel was to transfer to the land the blessing and curse of the law, as was already commanded in Deu_11:29; that is to say, according to the more minute explanation of the command which is given here, the people themselves were solemnly to give expression to the blessing and the curse: to the former upon Mount Gerizim, and to the latter upon Ebal. On the situation of these mountains, see at Deu_11:29. To this end six tribes were to station themselves upon the top or side of Gerizim, and six upon the top or side of Ebal. The blessing was to be uttered by the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, who sprang from the two wives of Jacob; and the curse by Reuben, with the two sons of Leah's maid Zilpah, and by Zebulun, with Dan and Naphtali, the sons of Rachel's maid Bilhah. It was natural that the utterance of the blessing should be assigned to the tribes which sprang from Jacob's proper wives, since the sons of the wives occupied a higher position than the sons of the maids - just as the blessing had pre-eminence over the curse. But in order to secure the division into two sixes, it was necessary that two of the eight sons of the wives should be associated with those who pronounced the curses. The choice fell upon Reuben, because he had forfeited his right of primogeniture by his incest (Gen_49:4), and upon Zebulun, as the youngest son of Leah. “They shall stand there upon the curse:” i.e., to pronounce the curse.

It is also note worthy to see that Ephraim and Manasseh are in Yosef on the side of the Mount Gerizim the side of blessing!
The mystical aspect of the Tanak has been too long neglected and people have tried to found out their own interpretation. The Brit Chadasha, falsely called “New Testament” cannot in anyway derive from the “Tanak”,
Now let us look at the curse in the number of twelve! Twelve is the number for perfect government on earth, twelve tribes, twelve apostles, twelve month…
We will look at some comments to divide the curses according to the disobedience of the Ten Commands, and thus confirming the fact that curse comes by rejecting the Torah. Just let us read attentively the commentary from Adam Clarke
Deu 27:26 
That confirmeth not all the words of this law - The word כל  col, “all”, is not found in any printed copy of the Hebrew text; but the Samaritan preserves it, and so do six MSS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, besides several copies of the Chaldee Targum. The Septuagint also, and St. Paul in his quotation of this place, Gal_3:10. St. Jerome says that the Jews suppressed the word, that it might not appear that they were bound to fulfill All the precepts in the law of Moses.
1.   Dr. Kennicott, who contends that it was the Decalogue that was written on the stones mentioned in this chapter, says, “If we examine these twelve curses, they will appear to contain a strong enforcement of the ten commands; and it is highly probable that the curses were here proclaimed principally to secure obedience to the commandments, as will be made more clear by the table: -
The first, second, third, and fourth Commandments
(Sh’mot/Ex.20:1-11)
Gal_3:15 - Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, etc.
The fifth Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex. 20:12)
Gal_3:16 - Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother.
The sixth Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex. 20:13)
Gal_3:25 - Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person.
Gal_3:24 - Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbor secretly.
Gal_3:18 - Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.
The seventh Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex.20:14)
Gal_3:20 - Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife.
Gal_3:21 - Cursed be he that lieth with any beast.
Gal_3:22 - Cursed be he that lieth with his sister.
Gal_3:23 - Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law.
The eighth Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex.20:15)
Gal_3:17 - Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s landmark.
The ninth Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex.20:16-17)
Gal_3:19 - Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow.
The tenth Commandment
(Sh’mot/Ex.20:14)
Gal_3:26 - Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.”
Many will think this arrangement fanciful; and the analogy far from being natural.
3.   It is worthy of remark that Moses assigns to the children of Rachel and Leah, the two mothers of the family, the office of blessing the people, as being the most honourable; and these he places on Mount Gerizim. On the contrary, he assigns the office of cursing the people to the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah, as being the least honourable office; but with these he joins Zebulun, the youngest of Leah’s sons, and Reuben, the eldest. As there must be six tribes on each mountain, it was necessary that while six of the sons of Rachel and Leah, the legitimate wives, should be employed in blessing, two tribes descending from the same mothers should be joined to the other four who proceeded from the handmaids in order to make up the number six. The question is, which two of the more honourable tribes should be joined to the four least honourable, in order to complete the number six? Zebulun is chosen, because being the sixth and youngest of all Leah’s sons, he was the least honorable of those who proceeded from the free woman; and Reuben is chosen, who, though the eldest of Jacob’s sons, and entitled to the birthright, had lost it by his transgression. And hence he, in his posterity, was degraded, and was obliged to pronounce the curse, Cursed is he that lieth with his father’s wife. See Gen_49:3-4 (note), and Gen_35:22 (note), and the notes on both places.
4.   It is strange how long the disgrace consequent on some flagrant transaction of a parent may cleave to his posterity! See this exemplified in the posterity of Reuben. Hence, with great propriety we may pray, Remember not, YHWH, our offenses, nor the offenses of our forefathers; neither take thou vengeance of our sins.” - Litany. For the offenses of our forefathers may be so remembered against their posterity, that God, in the course of his providence, may still keep up a controversy in secular matters with the descendants (though even pious) of unholy ancestors; for as all men are seminally (semnece) included in the parents, they come into the world depraved with their depravity, and in some sort liable to their curses, though not so far as to affect their eternal interests without the addition of their own personal offenses. Thus God may be said to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation; as he may have a controversy with the land for the evil which has been done in it (i.e. idolatry), and for which no proper atonement has been made. Why is it that at this moment Spain is suffering the most afflictive and cruel desolations? What has she done to merit all this? Is she more wicked than all the European nations because she suffers such things? Here is the mystery: Nations, as such, can only be punished in this world. Look at the torrents of innocent blood shed by their ancestors in South America 300 years ago; and see now and adore the awful hand of retributive justice! (December, 1811). We often see persons tried and afflicted, for whose distresses we can give no legitimate reason. We find others who, though they rise early, sit up late, work hard, eat the bread of carefulness, and have a full knowledge of their business, yet never get on in life. Who can account for this? Shall we say that some injustice in their ancestors has brought down the displeasure of God upon the earthly possessions that descended in that line, so that the goods ill gotten shall never be permitted to multiply? I knew an honest man, dead many years since, who by great diligence, punctuality, and integrity in his business, had acquired considerable property. Some time before his death, having by will divided his substance among his sons and his daughters, he expressed himself thus: “Children, you need not fear the curse of God on this property; every penny of it was honestly earned.” Many years have since elapsed, and the blessing of God has been in the basket and in the store of all his children. Parents! Leave nothing behind you that you cannot say before your God, with a clear conscience, “This has been honestly earned.” If all bequests of a contrary description were to be deducted from last wills and testaments, the quantum of descending property would be, in many cases, small indeed.
My commentary:
I have been in the Philippines and see the poverty of this country, during almost three years I spent there (before I go back there in 2011 Elohim willing), I have observed how the great majority of this nation follow after idolatry in different forms, the principal been the “cult of maria”. I have spoken with people but they just laugh and keep their old ways. Misery is rampant and the children grow in a system without future for them.
I have observed similar situation in other Asian countries like India, although for this country it is divided as a part of it has access to the wealth of the world, but for the greatest part of the population they live in poverty following idolatry having “gods” many forms. The same can be said for Vietnam, or Madagascar. These countries have been deeply entangled in the snare of the curse of rejecting the living Elohim. The list is not limited to these countries we find such in Africa, in South America and other places. It doesn’t take long to see the judgment that
יהוה brings on those nations, before he will bring judgment on the rich nations who also have rejected the truth.
Deu 27:15 ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to יהוה, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:16 ‘Cursed is he who makes light of his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:17 ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:18 ‘Cursed is he who misleads the blind in the way.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who twists the right-ruling of the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:20 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s bed.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:21 ‘Cursed is he who lies with any beast.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:22 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:23 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:24 ‘Cursed is he who smites his neighbor secretly.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
Deu 27:25 Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, so be it.

Deu 27:26 ‘Cursed is he who does not establish the Words of this Torah.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’
12 different curses are proclaimed. Twelve been the number for divine government; the curses speak for themselves. Do not think that only this twelve bring curses, the last one contain all other in itself. This is the Torah and its entire commandments. We will see that in the next chapter. Without Yehoshua, and following his steps we are not free, brut remain under יהוה wrath.
Chapter 28.Blessings and curses:
Similar as in the last chapter we find again blessings and curses. Blessing for obedience, curse for disobedience. Many have read this chapter, and don’t even realize that we find ourselves under the Torah’s rules and that curses are still present today.
Some will tell you, “We are not under curse, but under grace” this is typical Christian claim. I will say that those who claim to be free from the curse, because they are under “grace” are blind and ignore the truth.
Today those delivered form the curse are those who have accepted the deliverance that is in Messiah Yehoshua and follow his steps in obedience to the Torah. We find the first steps of deliverance in the book of Acts for those who believe in the Name of Yehoshua (Yeshua):
Ya’acov (James) sentence:
Act 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to YHWH:
Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.
The rule is very simple, once somebody come to Messiah he stop from:
A.    Worshiping idols
B.    Fornication. Every form of unchastity is included in the term “fornication.”
C.    Thing strangled. As adjective “strangled,” used of animals deprived of life by choking, and so without the shedding of the blood i.e. strangulation. It is therefore recommended for the disciples of Messiah not to eat the meat from the unbelievers, not knowing if the blood has been drawn or the animal killed by strangulation.
D.    From blood, included during the monthly period for a woman. Many country have in their tradition to eat blood from animals in different form , I have seen it in the Philippines, but I know it also from France or Germany and other countries.
E.     To go toe the Assembly every Shabbat and learn the Torah from Moshe. At this time it was possible for believer to mix themselves with Yehudin in the synagogue.
These are the first and important steps to be practice for those who earnestly wish to follow Messiah Yehoshua. All other commands will be learn when somebody
These four steps (A, B, C, D) through Messiah Yehoshua remove the curse from our life of which speak the prophets:
Hos 4:13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon  the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is  good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall  commit adultery.
Hos 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
Hos 9:3 They shall not dwell in YHWH's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria
Eze 18:3 as I live, saith the Master YHWH, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
Eze 18:4 behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Eze 18:5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,
Eze 18:6 and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,
All this was against the Torah (Vayyiqra 17-18, 20:1-5, 25.
Idolatry = Jealousy of יהוה
Deu 4:23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye 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 thy Elohim hath forbidden thee.
Deu 4:24 for YHWH thy Elohim is a consuming fire, even a jealous El.
Unfortunately many folks today ignore the precepts of יהוה and find themselves under a curse. Many time the curse come from the other generation so that we can’t see it. I remember when I was a naïve believers some twenty years ago, Christians told me that the curse is no more, until one day I read a book from somebody who wrote about the curse in D’varim (Deut.) 28. This made me to think about and I was overwhelm in my heart by these curse, I began to search my heart in order to repent of all the sins, the Ruach HaQodesh (Set Apart Spirit) brought to my remembrance. The process was long it went through many years, again and again in different situation, the Ruach HaQodesh brought back sin which sometime were from my youth, when I was very young. Every time I repented and called the blood of Messiah, peace came in my heart, until I was prompted again with another past sin. Today I am grateful of this process, Aba יהוה brought me so far as to be able to accept the Torah and to follow his precepts, statutes and commands with all my heart.

The Chapter 28 starts with blessing up to the verse 14. great promises for following the Torah and obey the voice of יהוה

Deu 28:1 “And it shall be, if you diligently obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands which I command you today, that יהוה your Elohim shall set you high above all nations of the earth.
Deu 28:2 “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim:
Deu 28:3Blessed are you in the city, and blessed are you in the field.
Deu 28:4Blessed are the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your livestock – the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
Deu 28:5Blessed are your basket and your kneading bowl.
Deu 28:6Blessed are you when you come in, and blessed are you when you go out.
Deu 28:7יהוה causes your enemies who rise against you to be smitten before your face – they come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
Deu 28:8יהוה commands the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and shall bless you in the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you.
Deu 28:9יהוה does establish you as a set-apart people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you guard the commands of יהוה your Elohim and walk in His ways.
Deu 28:10 “And all peoples of the earth shall see that the Name of יהוה is called upon you, and they shall be afraid of you.
Deu 28:11 “and יהוה shall make you to have plenty of what is good, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land of which יהוה swore to your fathers to give you.
Deu 28:12יהוה opens to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. And you shall lend to many nations, but you do not borrow.
Deu 28:13 “And יהוה shall make you the head and not the tail. And you shall be only on top, and not be beneath, if you obey the commands of יהוה your Elohim, which I command you today, to guard and do.
Deu 28:14 “And do not turn aside from any of the Words which I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other mighty ones to serve them.

The first fourteen verses have described what happen to the children of Israel who will follow יהוה’s Torah. The remaining verses from this chapter fifty in all will speak of the curses. Christianity has overseen this chapter by rejecting the Torah. These curses are closely tight to the book of Revelation and do not happen only before Messiah came, meaning right now as we will see.
Before we start we the curse, have we sincerely repented for our sins and the sins of our fathers and our forefathers, have we acknowledge how foolish our ancestors were to follow after idols, have we spend time to search our heart to listen to what the Ruach HaQodesh want us to know?
If not, brothers and sisters it’s time to take time and implore יהוה to help us to repent for all of our household who have brought so much trouble on us. This has nothing to do with your salvation it has to do with life condition.

Hos 12:8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out  substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were  sin.

Hos 13:12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
Hos 13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an  unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of  children.
“Travailing woman = Birth pang before Messiah’s coming)
Dan 9:20 and whiles I (Daniel) was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before YHWH my Elohim for the holy mountain of my Elohim;
Lam 4:6 for the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith YHWH, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:

In verse 15 we see again the principle of day and night, reward and punishment.
Deu 28:15 “And it shall be, if you do not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands and His laws which I command you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:
Moshe is speaking in a prophetic way. Israel will reject Elohim. The House of Israel, Ephraim will go after other mighty ones and the House of Yehuda will transgress the Torah, and later for most of them they will reject Messiah. All this will bring curses until the day of restoration.
Christians boast themselves telling people, “we are blessed”, we are free from the bondage of the law. Many from these so called pastors proclaim material blessing and measure their blessing according to the money they have, saying that if somebody lack of money, he is under a curse, or it is because he/she is under sin not paying tithe to the “church”. Is it true?
What will happen when the plagues from Revelation increase? When the great tribulation will come? The last period before the second coming of Messiah is said to be seven years. What will happen with all these people boasting themselves today?
We are going to see that many of these plagues have already come upon of Elohim’s people and are still coming today in different form.
The error is to believe that because some countries like France, Great Britain, US, Holland, Danemark, Australia, Canada, Spain, have been blessed during many centuries, it will remain so. Remember that Ya’acov prophesied that Ephraim seed shall become a multitude of nations (B’reshit 48:19) and that Abram’s seed will be intermingled with all nations of the world.(B’reshit 19:12:3) Elohim has established His covenant with Abraham and his seed forever (B’reshit 17:19)
Sin call upon judgment (YeshaYahu 50:1)
Yehoshua speaks also of terrible time to come upon the children of Israel.
By reading the curses we should be able to see the weight of them in personal and collective form.
We know that we have been restored to Elohim through Messiah who has made us acceptable unto Him through his sacrifice
2Co 5:19 that is, that Elohim was in Messiah restoring the world to favour unto Himself, not reckoning their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of restoration to favour.
2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a renewed creature – the old matters have passed away, see, all matters have become renewed!1 Footnote: 1Rom. 6:2-22, Gal. 2:20, Eph. 4:22-24, Col. 3:10, 1 John 3:9-10.
2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of Elohim.
Gal 3:13 Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Torah, having become a curse for us – for it has been written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.”1 – Footnote: 1Dt. 21:23.
Gal 3:14 in order that the blessing of Aḇraham might come upon the nations in Messiah יהושע, to receive the promise of the Spirit through belief.
The last completion will be the redemption of the body for which we wait with endurance:
Tovia from Yashanet gives some point concerning the plagues. I’m going to mark them for you to see how they work. At the end I will give some information concerning the plagues from Revelation in our days and see what happen to different groups of people on earth.
Rom 8:23 And not only so, but even we ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24 for in this expectation we were saved, but expectation that is seen is not expectation, for when anyone sees, does he expect it?
Rom 8:25 and if we expect what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with endurance.
THE CURSES:
Deu 28:16 “Cursed are you in the city, and cursed are you in the field.
Deu 28:17 “Cursed is your basket and your kneading bowl.
Deu 28:18 “Cursed is the fruit of your body and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
We see that the curse brings the reverse of the blessing!
Verses 16-18: Read Revelation 6:5-6
Rev 6:5 and when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” And I looked and saw a black horse, and he who sat on it holding a pair of scales in his hand.
Rev 6:6 and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wage, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wage. And do not harm the oil and the wine.
We see here the “price explosion” as it is today all around the world and many cannot afford to pay, but the verse state ‘do not harm the oil and the wine” not the vine” referring to what is Qadosh to יהוה
Hos 2:21 and it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith YHWH, I  will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
Hos 2:22 and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
Hos 2:23 and I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon  her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my  people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my Elohim.
Zec 4:12 and I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

Black, in the Scriptures, is the image of fear, of famine, of death. Lam_5:10; “our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.” Jer_14:2; “because of the drought Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are in deep mourning (literally, black) for the land.” Joe_2:6; “all faces shall gather blackness.” Nah_2:10; “the knees smite together, and there is great pain in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.” Compare Rev_6:12; Eze_32:7. See also Bochart, Hieroz. P. i. lib. ii. c. vii. pp. 106, 107. From the color of the horse here introduced we should naturally look for some dire calamity, though the nature of the calamity would not be designated by the mere use of the word “black.” What the calamity was to be must be determined by what follows in the symbol. Famine, pestilence, oppression, heavy taxation, tyranny, invasion - any of these might be denoted by the colour of the horse.
(c) The balances: “and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.” The original word rendered here as “a pair of balances,” is ζυγὸν  zugon. This word properly means a yoke, serving to couple anything together, as a yoke for cattle. Hence it is used to denote the beam of a balance, or of a pair of scales - and is evidently so used here. The idea is, that something was to be weighed, in order to ascertain either its quantity or its value. Scales or balances are the emblems of justice or equity (compare Job_31:6; Psa_62:9; Pro_11:1; Pro_16:11); and when joined with symbols that denote the sale of grain and fruit by weight, become the symbol of scarcity. Thus, “bread by weight” Lev_26:26 denotes scarcity. So in Eze_4:16, “And they shall eat bread by weight.” The use of balances here as a symbol would signify that something was to be accurately and carefully weighed out.
The connection leads us to suppose that this would pertain to the necessaries of life, and that it would occur either in consequence of scarcity, or because there would be an accurate or severe exaction, as in collecting a revenue on these articles. The balance was commonly the symbol of equity and justice; but it was also, sometimes, the symbol of exaction and oppression, as in Hos_12:7; “The balance of deceit is in his hands; he loveth to oppress.” If the balances stood alone, and there were no proclamation as to what was to occur, we should look, under this seal, to a time of the exact administration of justice, as scales or balances are now used as emblems of the rigid application of the laws and of the principles of justice in courts, or in public affairs. If this representation stood alone, or if the black horse and the scales constituted the whole of the symbol, we should look for some severe administration, or perhaps some heavy calamity under a rigorous administration of laws. The reference, however, to the “wheat and barley,” and to the price for which they were to be weighed out, serves still further to limit and define the meaning of the symbol as having reference to the necessaries of life - to the productions of the land - to the actual capital of the country. Whether this refers to scarcity, or to taxation, or both, must be determined by the other parts of the symbol.
(d) The proclamation: And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say. That is, from the throne, Rev_4:6. The voice was not that of one of the four beasts, but it seemed to come from among them. As the rider went forth, this was the proclamation that was made in regard to him; or this is what is symbolized in his going forth, to wit, that there would be such a state of things that a measure of wheat would be sold for a penny, etc. The proclamation consists essentially of two things - what refers to the price or value of wheat and barley, and what requires that care shall be taken not to injure the oil and the wine. Each of these demands explanation. (Albert barnes)

Deu 28:19 “Cursed are you when you come in, and cursed are you when you go out.
Deu 28:20יהוה sends on you the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken Me.
Deu 28:21יהוה makes the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess.
Deu 28:22יהוה smites you with wasting disease, and with inflammation, and with burning, and with extreme heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.
Verse 22. Seven sicknesses only in this verse. Seven being the number for divine perfection on Earth; this is for the last days, the days we are living now.
Verses 21-22: compare Revelation 6:7-8.
Rev 6:7 and when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.”
Rev 6:8 And I looked and saw a pale horse. And he who sat on it had the name Death, and the grave followed with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
What does Yehoshua told his disciples,
Mat 24:7 for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Have you ever inquired concerning the last one hundred years? There was no peace on the earth, even today while the “great nations” boast to be at peace, war is everywhere, millions of people die every day in anyplace of the world.
יהוה remind the children of Israel what he spoke to them in Vayyqra 26:16 for disobedience.
Lev 26:15 and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
Lev 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Do you know that during the last WWII, more than fifty millions people die? During the Spanish influenza millions of people die.
“By the beats of the earth”. It is good to remember the symbolic, the “beast of the earth” a euphemism for brutal people. I don’t believe that it is to be taken in the literal. Like we read the following verse your heavens shall be bronze, and the earth iron”, this is in metaphor for heaviness as we know that bronze and iron are heavy metals.
Deu 28:23 “And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you iron.
Deu 28:24יהוה makes the rain of your land powder and dust; from the heavens it comes down on you until you are destroyed.
Verses 23-24: Read Revelation 6:12-17
Rev 6:12 And I looked when He opened the sixth seal and saw a great earthquake came to be. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.
Rev 6:13 And the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs, being shaken by a strong wind.
Rev 6:14 and heaven departed like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Rev 6:15 and the sovereigns of the earth, and the great ones, and the rich ones, and the commanders, and the mighty, and every slave and every free one, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
Rev 6:16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb,
Rev 6:17 because the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Rev. Verse 12-13 we compare with Yehoshua’s words:
Mat 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Concerning the sun and the moon we can understand that it will be a total eclipse so that the sun will not give its light and the moon will be covered with red colour during the eclipse. It could be that יהוה will let the sun and the moon in this state during a certain period in order for the all world to be under this sign, has he not stop the sun in the days of Yohushua? It will be supernatural events which men have not seen before!
Jos 10:13 and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
“The stars shall fall from heaven”. Today astronomy science explain that many comets are running throughout the universe, some been many kilometres wide and travel in the space at light speed. They also say that according to their calculation, which of course cannot be rely on some of these comets could hit the earth and bring great damage.
The Greek word used for “star” is “aster” known to us as “aster” in this category could also be a “comet” mean.

Deu 28:25יהוה causes you to be defeated before your enemies – you go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall become a horror to all the reigns of the earth.
Deu 28:26 “And your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth, with no one to frighten them away.
Deu 28:27יהוה shall smite you with the boils of Mitsrayim, with tumours, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you are unable to be healed.
Deu 28:28יהוה shall smite you with madness and blindness and bewilderment of heart.
Verses 26-28, read Revelation 6:7-8

Rev 6:7 and when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see.
Rev 6:8 and I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Deu 28:29 “And you shall be groping at noon, as a blind man gropes in darkness, and not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and plundered all the days, with no one to save you.
Deu 28:30 “You become engaged to a wife, but another man does lie with her. You build a house, but do not dwell in it. You plant a vineyard, but do not use its fruit.
Deu 28:31 “Your ox is slaughtered before your eyes, but you do not eat of it. Your donkey is violently taken from before you, and it is not given back to you. Your sheep are given to your enemies, with no one to save them.
Deu 28:32 “Your sons and your daughters are given to another people, and your eyes look and fail for them all day long, and your hand powerless.
Deu 28:33A people whom you have not known eat the fruit of your land and all your labours. And you shall be only oppressed and crushed all the days.
Deu 28:34 “And you shall be maddened because of the sight which your eyes see.
Deu 28:35יהוה smites you in the knees and on the legs with evil boils of which you are unable to be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
Deu 28:36יהוה brings you and the sovereign whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other mighty ones, wood and stone.
Deu 28:37 “Thus you shall become an astonishmen, a proverb, and a mockery among all the peoples to which יהוה drives you.
Verse 33-34. Today countries like France, UK, Germany, and other European countries are invaded with people coming from African and north African countries, and from the Eastern countries and also from Afghanistan not in a small number but by thousands upon thousands entering without legal papers and working with documents. The governments try to protect from this illegal entry but the flux never stop!
Verse 37
Jer 24:9 ‘And I shall make them a horror to all the reigns of the earth, for evil, to be a reproach and a byword, a mockery and a curse, in all the places to which I drive them.

Zec 8:13 ‘And it shall be, as you were a curse among the gentiles, O house of Yehuḏah and house of Yisra’ĕl, so I shall save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, let your hands be strong.’
Verses 38-39 compare Mattityahu 24: 7b what Yehoshua says and read Revelation 6:5-6.
Mat 24:7 “For nation shall rise against nation, and reign against reign. And there shall be scarcities of food, and deadly diseases, and earthquakes in places.

Deu 28:38 “You take much seed out into the field but gather little in, for the locust consumes it.
Deu 28:39 “You plant vineyards, and shall labour, but you neither drink of the wine nor gather, for the worm eats it.
Deu 28:40 “You have olive trees in all your border, but do not anoint with oil, for your olives drop off.
Deu 28:41 “You bring forth sons and daughters, but they are not with you, for they go into captivity.
Deu 28:42 “Locusts possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground.
Deu 28:43 “The sojourner who is among you rises higher and higher above you, but you come down lower and lower.
43. How it is today? Are not the Palestinians founding favor before all the nations of the earth? Who is the “bad guy” today? Is not Israel threatening the Palestinians? How many nations try to enforce the splitting of the land in Israel to make two nations? Is it not tolerate before the UN a man like Ahmanijemad to speak evil against Israel as to proclaim that Israel shall be “eradicate from the world”?

Verses 44 is the reverse of verses 12 and 13:
Do you know that France has a debt of One thousand seven hundred billions of euro, the US more than seven or eight trillions of US dollars, not forgetting all other countries among the so called “rich nations” who are unable to pay their debt and lay taxes upon taxes on the inhabitants?
Deu 28:44 “He lends to you, but you do not lend to him. He is the head, and you are the tail.
Deu 28:45 “And all these curses shall come upon you, and they shall pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim, to guard His commands and His laws which He commanded you.
Deu 28:46 “And they shall be upon you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed, forever.
Deu 28:47 “Because you did not serve יהוה your Elohim with joy and gladness of heart for all the plenty,
Deu 28:48 you shall serve your enemies whom יהוה sends against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in need of all. And he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.
Verse 49. Rome has since Constantine (4 century C.E.) been a Hellenistic-Greek culture
49-57. Read Revelation 6:3-4
Rev 6:3 and when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.”
Rev 6:4 and another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was given to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another. And a great sword was given to him.
In the year 135 C.E. during the revolt lead by Bar Kochba the Romans destroyed Yerushalayim and the Yehudin ate their own children, because there was no more food. Yehoshua spoke of the coming destruction of the Temple in Marc 13:2
Mar 13:1 and as He went out of the Set-apart Place(Temple), one of His taught ones said to Him, “Teacher, see what stones! and what buildings!”
Mar 13:2 and יהושע answering, said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another at all, which shall not be thrown down

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown write: Titus ordered the whole city and temple to be demolished [Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 7.1.1]; Eleazar wished they had all died before seeing that holy city destroyed by enemies’ hands, and before the temple was so profanely dug up [Wars of the Jews, 7.8.7].

Deu 28:49יהוה brings a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you shall not understand,
Deu 28:50 a fierce-looking nation, which shows no regard for the elderly nor show favour to the young,
Deu 28:51 and they shall eat the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. They leave you no grain, nor new wine, nor oil, nor the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
Deu 28:52 “And they shall besiege you at all your gates till your high and fenced walls, in which you are trusting, come down in all your land. And they shall besiege you at all your gates in all your land which יהוה your Elohim has given you.
Deu 28:53 “And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom יהוה your Elohim has given you, in the siege and distress in which your enemies distress you.
Deu 28:54 “The man among you who is tender, and who is very delicate, his eye is evil against his brother, against the wife of his bosom, and against the rest of his children whom he leaves behind,
Deu 28:55 against giving any of them the flesh of his children that he eats, because it is all that has been left to him in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you in all your gates.
Deu 28:56 “The tender and the delicate woman among you, who have not tried to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, her eye is evil against the husband of her bosom, and against her son, and against her daughter,
Deu 28:57 and against her seed which comes out from between her feet, and her children whom she bears, for she eats them in secret for lack of all, in the siege and distress with which your enemy distresses you in all your gates.
Verses 49-57. This already happened during the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. by Vespasian and Titus. The “Jew” Historian Josephus, mention with details what happened during this terrible period, I encourage each of you to read this excerpt from Josephus to see how precise יהוה is when speaking by the mouth of his prophets, and acts according to what is spoken:
Isa 55:10 for as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
Isa 55:11 so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Wars of the Jews
Book 2 Chapter 3….. 3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both these circumstances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were works to be admired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness. Whereupon those that were above them were presently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished therein; as many of them also were destroyed by the enemy, who came suddenly upon them; some of them also threw themselves down from the walls backward, and some there were who, from the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire, by killing themselves with their own swords; but so many of them as crept out from the walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily mastere by them, by reason of the astonishment they were under; until at last some of the Jews being destroyed, and others dispersed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell upon the treasure of God, which w now deserted, and plundered about four hundred talents, Of which sum Sabinus got together all that was not carried away by the soldiers.
Book 3 Chapter 1:
VESPASIAN IS SENT INTO SYRIA BY NERO IN ORDER TO MAKE WAR WITH THE JEWS.
1. WHEN Nero was informed of the Romans' ill success in Judea, a concealed consternation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell upon him; although he openly looked very big, and was very angry, and said that what had happened was rather owing to the negligence of the commander, than to any valor of the enemy: and as he thought it fit for him, who bare the burden of the whole empire, to despise such misfortunes, he now pretended so to do, and to have a soul superior to all such sad accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance that was in his soul plainly appear by the solicitude he was in [how to recover his affairs again].
2. And as he was deliberating to whom he should commit the care of the East, now it was in so great a commotion, and who might be best able to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might prevent the same distemper from seizing upon the neighboring nations also, - he found no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergo the great burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old man already in the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlike exploits: he was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, and made it subject to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by the Germans; he had also recovered to them Britain by his arms, which had been little known before (1) whereby he procured to his father Claudius to have a triumph bestowed on him without any sweat or labor of his own.
3. So Nero esteemed these circumstances as favorable omens, and saw that Vespasian's age gave him sure experience, and great skill, and that he had his sons as hostages for his fidelity to himself, and that the flourishing age they were in would make them fit instruments under their father's prudence. Perhaps also there was some interposition of Providence, which was paving the way for Vespasian's being himself emperor afterwards. Upon the whole, he sent this man to take upon him the command of the armies that were in Syria; but this not without great encomiums and flattering compellations, such as necessity required, and such as might mollify him into complaisance. So Vespasian sent his son Titus from Achaia, where he had been with Nero, to Alexandria, to bring back with him from thence the fifth and. the tenth legions, while he himself, when he had passed over the Hellespont, came by land into Syria, where he gathered together the Roman forces, with a considerable number of auxiliaries from the kings in that neighborhood.
Book 5 CHAPTER 1
CONCERNING THE SEDITIONS AT JERUSALEM AND WHAT TERRIBLE MISERIES AFFLICTED THE CITY BY THEIR MEANS.
1. WHEN therefore Titus had marched over that desert which lies between Egypt and Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came to Cesarea, having resolved to set his forces in order at that place, before he began the war. Nay, indeed, while he was assisting his father at Alexandria, in settling that government which had been newly conferred upon them by God, it so happened that the sedition at Jerusalem was revived, and parted into three factions, and that one faction fought against the other; which partition in such evil cases may be said to be a good thing, and the effect of Divine justice. Now as to the attack the zealots made upon the people, and which I esteem the beginning of the city's destruction, it hath been already explained after an accurate manner; as also whence it arose, and to how great a mischief it was increased. But for the present sedition, one should not mistake if he called it a sedition begotten by another sedition, and to be like a wild beast grown mad, which, for want of food from abroad, fell now upon eating its own flesh……………
Whereby it came to pass that John did both receive and inflict great damage, and that easily, as he was fought against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party had over him, since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by his higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelled the attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their darts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he did not only defend himself from such as fought against him, but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court, were yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came with that force, that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon the priests, and those (2) that were about the sacred offices; insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, "O must wretched city, what misery so great as this didst thou suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thy intestine hatred! 'For thou couldst be no longer a place fit for God, nor couldst thou long continue in being, after thou hadst been a sepulcher for the bodies of thy own people, and hadst made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of thine. Yet mayst thou again grow better, if perchance thou wilt hereafter appease the anger of that God who is the author of thy destruction." But I must restrain myself from these passions by the rules of history, since this is not a proper time for domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations; I therefore return to the operations that follow in this sedition. (3)
Chapter 3:
2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city than Scopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thought sufficient opposite to the Jews, to prevent their sallying out upon them, while he gave orders for the whole army to level the distance, as far as the wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.
CHAPTER 4
THE DESCRIPTION OF JERUSALEM.
1. THE city of Jerusalem was fortified with three walls, on such parts as were not encompassed with unpassable valleys; for in such places it had but one wall. The city was built upon two hills, which are opposite to one another, and have a valley to divide them asunder; at which valley the corresponding rows of houses on both hills end. Of these hills, that which contains the upper city is much higher, and in length more direct. Accordingly, it was called the "Citadel," by king David; he was the father of that Solomon who built this temple at the first; but it is by us called the "Upper Market-place." But the other hill, which was called "Acra," and sustains the lower city, is of the shape of a moon when she is horned; over against this there was a third hill, but naturally lower than Acra, and parted formerly from the other by a broad valley. However, in those times when the Asamoneans reigned, they filled up that valley with earth, and had a mind to join the city to the temple. They then took off part of the height of Acra, and reduced it to be of less elevation than it was before, that the temple might be superior to it. Now the Valley of the Cheesemongers, as it was called, and was that which we told you before distinguished the hill of the upper city from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam; for that is the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and this in great plenty also. But on the outsides, these hills are surrounded by deep valleys, and by reason of the precipices to them belonging on both sides they are every where unpassable.
Chapter 11:
1. SO now Titus's banks were advanced a great way, notwithstanding his soldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent a party of horsemen, and ordered they should lay ambushes for those that went out into the valleys to gather food. Some of these were indeed fighting men, who were not contented with what they got by rapine; but the greater part of them were poor people, who were deterred from deserting by the concern they were under for their own relations; for they could not hope to escape away, together with their wives and children, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor could they think of leaving these relations to be slain by the robbers on their account; nay, the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers, they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken, they were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished; as after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.
Chapter 12:
Titus began the wall from the camp of the Assyrians, where his own camp was pitched, and drew it down to the lower parts of Cenopolis; thence it went along the valley of Cedron, to the Mount of Olives; it then bent towards the south, and encompassed the mountain as far as the rock called Peristereon, and that other hill which lies next it, and is over the valley which reaches to Siloam; whence it bended again to the west, and went down to the valley of the Fountain, beyond which it went up again at the monument of Ananus the high priest, and encompassing that mountain where Pompey had formerly pitched his camp, it returned back to the north side of the city, and was carried on as far as a certain village called "The House of the Erebinthi;" after which it encompassed Herod's monument, and there, on the east, was joined to Titus's own camp, where it began. Now the length of this wall was forty furlongs, one only abated. Now at this wall without were erected thirteen places to keep garrison in, whose circumferences, put together, amounted to ten furlongs; the whole was completed in three days; so that what would naturally have required some months was done in so short an interval as is incredible. When Titus had therefore encompassed the city with this wall, and put garrisons into proper places, be went round the wall, at the first watch of the night, and observed how the guard was kept; the second watch he allotted to Alexander; the commanders of legions took the third watch. They also cast lots among themselves who should be upon the watch in the night time, and who should go all night long round the spaces that were interposed between the garrisons.
3. So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine, and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the children also and the young men wandered about the market-places like shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead, wheresoever their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it; and those that were hearty and well were deterred from doing it by the great multitude of those dead bodies, and by the uncertainty there was how soon they should die themselves; for many died as they were burying others, and many went to their coffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentations made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints; but the famine confounded all natural passions; for those who were just going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them with dry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the city; while yet the robbers were still more terrible than these miseries were themselves; for they brake open those houses which were no other than graves of dead bodies, and plundered them of what they had; and carrying off the coverings of their bodies, went out laughing, and tried the points of their swords in their dead bodies; and, in order to prove what metal they were made of they thrust some of those through that still lay alive upon the ground; but for those that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their sword to despatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and left them to be consumed by the famine. Now every one of these died with their eyes fixed upon the temple, and left the seditious alive behind them. Now the seditious at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury, as not enduring the stench of their dead bodies. But afterwards, when they could not do that, they had them cast down from the walls into the valleys beneath.
4. However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing; and such was the sad case of the city itself. But the Romans were very joyful, since none of the seditious could now make sallies out of the city, because they were themselves disconsolate, and the famine already touched them also. These Romans besides had great plenty of corn and other necessaries out of Syria, and out of the neighboring provinces; many of whom would stand near to the wall of the city, and show the people what great quantities of provisions they had, and so make the enemy more sensible of their famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety, which they had themselves.
Chapter 13
7. and, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities? while Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time, and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate, which was intrusted to his care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies (150 880), in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthieus, [Nisan,] when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus [Tamuz]. This was itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man was not himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their relations; though all their burial was but this, to bring them away, and cast them out of the city. After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; and they told him further, that when they were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was not possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled about, some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there; and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now used for food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they commiserated their case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did not repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon themselves; for they were blinded by that fate which was already coming upon the city, and upon themselves also.
Book 6 Chapter 3:
3. Now of those that perished by famine in the city, the number was prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if so much as the shadow of any kind of food did any where appear, a war was commenced presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting one with another about it, snatching from each other the most miserable supports of life. Nor would men believe that those who were dying had no food, but the robbers would search them when they were expiring, lest any one should have concealed food in their bosoms, and counterfeited dying; nay, these robbers gaped for want, and ran about stumbling and staggering along like mad dogs, and reeling against the doors of the houses like drunken men; they would also, in the great distress they were in, rush into the very same houses two or three times in one and the same day. Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew every thing, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic [drachmae]. But why do I describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in their eating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of fact, the like to which no history relates, (15) either among the Greeks or Barbarians? It is horrible to speak of it, and incredible when heard. I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours, that I might not seem to deliver what is so portentous to posterity, but that I have innumerable witnesses to it in my own age; and besides, my country would have had little reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that she underwent at this time.
4. There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies the house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had been already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose. This put the poor woman into a very great passion, and by the frequent reproaches and imprecations she east at these rapacious villains, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with any thing but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews." As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, "This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also." After which those men went out trembling, being never so much aftrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.
5. This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom could not believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, he excused himself before God as to this matter, and said that he had proposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of all their former insolent practices; but that they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and before satiety and abundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore they deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon the habitable earth to be seen by the sun, wherein mothers are thus fed, although such food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of, since it is they that continue still in a state of war against us, after they have undergone such miseries as these. And at the same time that he said this, he reflected on the desperate condition these men must be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to sobriety of mind, after they had endured those very sufferings, for the avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repented.
Chapter 6:9 The number of those who died:
3. Now the number (32) of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand (1 100 000), the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation [with the citizens of Jerusalem], but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many people in it, is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten (33) belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy; for as to those that have the leprosy, or the gonorrhea, or women that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of this sacrifice; nor indeed for any foreigners neither, who come hither to worship.
Book 7 Chapter 1 the destruction of Jerusalem
1. NOW as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done,) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison, as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valour had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.

Deu 28:58 “If you do not guard to do all the Words of this Torah that are written in this book, to fear this esteemed and awesome Name, יהוה your Elohim,
Deu 28:59 then יהוה shall bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, great and lasting plagues, and grievous and lasting sicknesses.
Deu 28:60 “And He shall bring back on you all the diseases of Mitsrayim, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you,
Deu 28:61 also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this Torah, יהוה does bring upon you until you are destroyed.
Have we not these last centuries seen the development of new sicknesses and diseases? (Aids, bird flue, cancer, …..) Today is not the all world giving vaccine against the H1N1 bird flue pandemic?
Deu 28:62 “And you shall be left with few men, although you had become as numerous as the stars of the heavens, because you did not obey the voice of יהוה your Elohim.
Remember only a remnant shall be saved:
Remnant: Strong’s # 7611 שׁארית she'êrîyth sheh-ay-reeth'
From H7604; a remainder or residual (surviving, final) portion: - that had escaped, be left, posterity, remain (-der), remnant, residue, rest.

Isa 1:9 Unless יהוה of hosts had left to us a small remnant, we would have become like Seḏom, we would have been made like Amorah (Gomorah).
Isa 10:20 And in that day it shall be that the remnant of Yisra’ĕl, and those who have escaped of the house of Yaʽaqoḇ, never again lean upon him who defeated them, but shall lean upon יהוה, the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, in truth.
Isa 10:21 A remnant shall return, the remnant of Yaʽaqoḇ, to the Mighty Ěl.
Jer 23:3 “Therefore I shall gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and shall bring them back to their fold. And they shall bear and increase.
Jer 42:2 and said to Yirmeyahu the prophet, “We beg you, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to יהוה your Elohim, for all this remnant, for we are few left of many, as your eyes see us.
Joe 2:32 “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה shall be delivered1. For on Mount Tsiyon and in Yerushalayim there shall be a remnant as יהוה has said, and among the survivors whom יהוה calls. Footnotes: 1Acts 2:21, Rom. 10:13. 2Isa. 4:2-3, Obad. v. 17, Rev. 14:1.
Amo 5:15 Hate evil and love good, and set up right-ruling in the gate. It might be that יהוה Elohim of hosts shows favour to the remnant of Yosĕph.
Mic 2:12 “I shall certainly gather all of you, O Yaʽaqoḇ, I shall bring together the remnant of Yisra’ĕl, put them together like sheep of the fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture, they being noisy because of men.
Mic 5:7 And the remnant of Yaʽaqoḇ shall be in the midst of many peoples, as dew from יהוה, as showers on the grass, which do not wait for man nor delay for the sons of men.
Mic 5:8 And the remnant of Yaʽaqoḇ shall be among the gentiles, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of a forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, who, if he passes through, shall both tread down and shall tear, and there is no one to deliver.
Rom 9:27 And Yeshayahu cries out on behalf of Yisra’ĕl, “Though the number of the children of Yisra’ĕl be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to fight with the remnant of her seed, those guarding the commands of Elohim and possessing the witness of יהושע Messiah.

Deu 28:63 “And it shall be, that as יהוה rejoiced over you to do you good and increase you, so יהוה does rejoice over you to destroy you and lay you waste. And you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
Deu 28:64 “And יהוה shall scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other mighty ones, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.
Deu 28:65 “And among those nations you are to find no rest, nor have a resting place for the sole of your foot. But there יהוה shall give you a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and sorrow of being.
Deu 28:66 “And your life shall be hanging in suspense before you, and you shall fear day and night, and not be certain of your life.
Deu 28:67 “In the morning you say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear of your heart, with which you fear, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
Deu 28:68 “And יהוה shall bring you back to Mitsrayim in ships, by a way of which I said to you, ‘You are never to see it again.’ And there you shall be sold to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one to buy.”

We shall remember that everything that has been, it is what shall be. As it was it will be (Eccl. 1:9), and this will goes on until Messiah will return to establish the Kingdom of Elohim.
The cycle of life is according to the moon which is set for season/signs, for appointed time, for days and years.
Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, “Let lights come to be in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and appointed times, and for days and years,
The shemita cycle is a period of seven years. The Yovel (Jubilee) is a seven time seven years (49 years), the fiftieth been the Yovel year, the year of release.
The life of man (understand in this form on earth) shall be 120 years or time of age.
If we take the age of Moshe which represent the length of man on earth before the establishment of Elohim’s Kingdom we have 120 cycle of each 50 years, actually as Joseph Dumond write in his document “The sign, the seal and the secret” 49 years because the fiftieth is the year of the Yovel itself but also the first year of the next cycle. Further he writes: The word for years is Strong’s Word # 08141 spelled hnX and pronounced Shaneh (Shaw-neh). It has four meanings which are: a)as division of time ; b) as measure of time ; c) as indication of age ; d) a lifetime (of years of life).

So we have 49 X 120 cycle equals: 5880 years.
According to his calculation the last Yovel (the 120th) has been in the year 1996. It means it remains 37 years from the 49 years today as I write in the year 2008 (updated 09/2009) , before the coming of Messiah Yehoshua.
Because the shemita is in a seven years rhythm, we still have more then five shemita cycle remaining. The next one will be the year 2008 because the year 1996 was the Yovel’s year but it was also part of the seven time period, so 2002 was the stating of the next shemita cycle which will end in 2008.As Joseph Dumond explain, the last year of the seven time period of the shemita is also the first of the next one. So that the next cycle start in the year 2008 and will end on 2014
The plagues from Revelation which will come upon the earth as we see today will increase in every last shemita cycle. Mankind will suffer until the end in an increasing form. When a shemita cycle comes to the end, this will not bring the end of a plague which will remain. A new plague will be added to the last one in increasing form. This is known under the term: “Ya’acov trouble” also “great tribulation”
Jer 30:7 ‘Oh! For great is that day, there is none like it. And it is the time of Yaʽaqoḇ’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
What will happen with the faithful one?
Mat 24:21 “For then there shall be great distress,1 such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. Footnote:1Or great pressure, or great affliction
Psa 20:1 יהוה does answer you in the day of distress (trouble)! The Name of the Elohim of Yaʽaqoḇ does set you on high!
Psa 20:2 He does send you help from the set-apart place, and does uphold you from Tsiyon!
Psa 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psa 91:2 He is saying of יהוה, “My refuge and my stronghold, My Elohim, in whom I trust!”
Psa 91:3 For He delivers you from the snare of a trapper, From the destructive pestilence.
Psa 91:4 He covers you with His feathers, and under His wings you take refuge; His truth is a shield and armour.
Psa 91:5 You are not afraid of the dread by night, Of the arrow that flies by day,
Psa 91:6 Of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Of destruction that ravages at midday.
Psa 91:7 a thousand fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it does not come near you.
Psa 91:8 Only with your eyes you look on, and see the reward of the wrong ones(wicked).
Psa 91:9 Because you have made יהוה – My refuge, the Most High – your dwelling place,
Psa 91:10 No evil befalls you, And a plague does not come near your tent;
Psa 91:11 For He commands His messengers concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.
Psa 91:12 They bear you up in their hands, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Psa 91:13 You tread upon lion and cobra, Young lion and serpent you trample under foot.
Psa 91:14 “Because he cleaves to Me in love, Therefore I deliver him; I set him on high, Because he has known My Name.
Psa 91:15When he calls on Me, I answer him; I am with him in distress; I deliver him and esteem him.
Psa 91:16With long life I satisfy him, and show him My deliverance.”
Are you dwelling in the secret place of the Most High Elohim, has he become your refuge and your fortress?
Zep 2:3 Seek יהוה, all you meek ones of the earth, who have done His right-ruling. Seek righteousness, seek meekness, if so be that you are hidden in the day of wrath of יהוה.
Eze 9:4 and יהוה said to him, “Pass on into the midst of the city, into the midst of Yerushalayim, and you shall put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
Eze 9:5 and to the others He said in my hearing, “Pass on into the city after him and smite, do not let your eye pardon nor spare.
Eze 9:6 “Slay to destruction old, young men, maidens and children and women, but do not come near anyone upon whom is the mark, and begin at My set-apart place.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the House.

Rev 9:4 And it was said to them that they shall not harm the grass of the earth, or any green matter, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of Elohim upon their foreheads.
Do you have the MARK of יהוה it is the Shabbat and the Commands of יהוה or have you still the mark of the world? To walk in the light is not an easy task it demands patience, perseverance and humility of heart. To crucify the flesh take devotion to the one who has call us.
 Deu 29:1 These are the words of the covenant which יהוה commanded Mosheh to make with the children of Yisra’ĕl in the land of Mo’aḇ, besides the covenant which He made with them in Ḥorĕḇ.
Conclusion of the covenant which יהוה commanded Moshe to make with the children of Israel. Many commandments have been repeated because most of the remnant of the children of Israel where not at Mount Sinai in the day יהוה made His first covenant with those who came out of Egypt, and died in the wilderness.
Deu 29:2 And Mosheh called all Yisra’ĕl and said to them, “You yourselves saw all that יהוה did before your eyes in the land of Mitsrayim, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land.
Deu 29:3 “Your eyes saw the great trials, the signs, and those great wonders.
Deu 29:4 “But יהוה has not given you a heart to know and eyes to see and ears to hear, till this day.
Deu 29:5 “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your garments have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet.
Deu 29:6 “You ate no bread and drank no wine nor strong drink, so that you might know that I am יהוה your Elohim.
Deu 29:7 “And when you came to this place, Siḥon sovereign of Ḥeshbon and Oḡ sovereign of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we smote them,
Deu 29:8 and took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Re’uḇĕnites, and to the Gaḏites, and to half the tribe of Menashsheh.

Haftorah

The words of the prophet YeshaYahu are words of reconciliation and restoration. There is hope with Elohim. יהוה has punished, but judgment will turn unto righteousness for the remnant of Ya’acov. “Your light has come”, the promise of Messiah for the nations!
Isa 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come! And the esteem of יהוה has risen upon you.
Isa 60:2 “For look, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But יהוה arises over you, and His esteem is seen upon you.
Isa 60:3 “And the gentiles shall come to your light1, and sovereigns to the brightness of your rising. Footnote: 1Isa. 60:19,20, Rev. 21:23,24.
Isa 60:4 “Lift up your eyes all around and see: all of them have gathered, they have come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are supported on the side.
Isa 60:5 “Then you shall see and be bright, and your heart shall throb and swell, for the wealth of the sea is turned to you, the riches of the gentiles come to you.
Isa 60:6 “A stream of camels cover your land, the dromedaries of Miḏyan and Ěphah; all those from Sheḇa come, bearing gold and incense, and proclaiming the praises of יהוה.
Isa 60:7 “All the flocks of Qĕḏar are gathered to you, the rams of Neḇayoth serve you; they come up for acceptance on My altar, and I embellish My esteemed House.
Isa 60:8 “Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?
Isa 60:9 “Because the coastlands wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the Name of יהוה your Elohim, and to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, because He has adorned you.
Isa 60:10 “And the sons of foreigners shall build your walls, and their sovereigns serve you. For in My wrath I have smitten you, but in My delight I shall have compassion on you.
Isa 60:11 “And your gates shall be open continually, they are not shut day or night, to bring to you the wealth of the gentiles, and their sovereigns in procession.
Isa 60:12 “For the nation and the reign that do not serve you shall perish, and those gentiles shall be utterly laid waste.
Isa 60:13 “The esteem of Leḇanon shall come to you, cypress, pine, and the box tree together, to embellish the place of My set-apart place. And I shall make the place of My feet esteemed.
Isa 60:14 “And the sons of those who afflicted you come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall bow themselves at the soles of your feet. And they shall call you: City of יהוה, Tsiyon of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
Isa 60:15 “Instead of you being forsaken and hated, so that no one passes through you, I shall make you an everlasting excellence, a joy of many generations.
Isa 60:16 “And you shall drink dry the milk of the gentiles, and shall milk the breast of sovereigns. And you shall know that I, יהוה, your Saviour and your Redeemer, am the Elohim of Yaʽaqoḇ.
Isa 60:17 “Instead of bronze I bring gold, and instead of iron I bring silver, and bronze instead of wood, and iron instead of stones. And I shall make your officers peace, and your magistrates righteousness.
Isa 60:18 “Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor ruin within your borders. And you shall call your walls Deliverance, and your gates Praise.
Isa 60:19 “No longer is the sun your light by day, nor does the moon give light to you for brightness, but יהוה shall be to you an everlasting light, and your Elohim your comeliness.
Isa 60:20 “No longer does your sun go down, nor your moon withdraw itself, for יהוה shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.
Isa 60:21 “And your people, all of them righteous, shall inherit the earth forever – a branch of My planting, a work of My hands, to be adorned.
Isa 60:22 “The little shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation1. I, יהוה, shall hasten it in its time.” Footnote: 1See 41:14, Dan. 2:34-44.

Luk 21:1 and looking up He saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,
Luk 21:2 and He saw a certain poor widow putting in two mites.
Luk 21:3 And He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all.
Luk 21:4 “For all these out of their excess have put in offerings for Elohim, but she out of her poverty has put in all that she had to live on.”

Rom 11:1 I say then, has Elohim rejected His people? Let it not be! For I also am a Yisra’ĕlite, of the seed of Aḇraham, of the tribe of Binyamin.
Rom 11:2 Elohim has not rejected His people whom He knew beforehand.1 Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Ěliyahu, how he pleads with Elohim against Yisra’ĕl, saying, Footnote: 1Ps. 94:14.
Rom 11:3יהוה, they have killed Your prophets and overthrown Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”?
Rom 11:4 but what does the answer of Elohim say to him? “I have left for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baʽal.”
Rom 11:5 So therefore also, at this present time a remnant according to the choice of favour has come to be.
Rom 11:6 and if by favour, it is no longer of works, otherwise favour is no longer favour. And if it is of works, it is no longer favour, otherwise work is no longer work.
Rom 11:7 What then? Yisra’ĕl has not obtained what it seeks, but the chosen did obtain it, and the rest were hardened.
Rom 11:8 as it has been written, “יהוה has given them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, unto this day.”(D’varim 29:4)
Rom 11:9 Dawiḏ also says, “Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block and  recompense to them,
Rom 11:10 let their eyes be darkened, not to see, and bow down their back always.”
Rom 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Let it not be! But by their fall deliverance has come to the gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
Rom 11:12 and if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the gentiles, how much more their completeness!
Rom 11:13 for I speak to you, the gentiles, inasmuch as I am an emissary to the gentiles, I esteem my service,
Rom 11:14 if somehow I might provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
Rom 11:15 for if their casting away is the restoration to favour of the world, what is their acceptance but life from the dead?

The Enemy in the Land
The Canaanites speak of the influence of the world upon our faith. The name Canaanite means ‘merchant, or trafficker’ and this is exactly what they were. Harpers Bible dictionary states that ‘the Canaanites enjoyed a reputation as traders.’ They lived within the land and were happy to remain there just so long as the trading and profit were good! Do we not see this Canaanite principle all around us in western Christianity? The principle of looking ‘religious’ or going to church, simply for what you can get out of it! This may be for monetary gain[1], or social gain… it is Canaanites within the land! How many ‘Christians’, while they would never say it, simply treat God like a Father Christmas to satisfy their every want? How can the ‘name it and claim it, blab it and grab it theology’ take such a hold upon so many believers? Or how could the self-centered ‘Prayer of Jabez’[2] pass itself off as biblical Christianity, and draw in ‘millions of followers’, if you believe the hype, unless the Canaanites are still very much a strong enemy within the hearts of believers?
Compare:2 Kefa 2:1-3, Revelation 18:11-15

The word Amorite means ‘a talker, to say, speak’. It is also interesting to see that it is derived from a word that can be used in the sense of self-boasting or commanding. So the Amorites speak of words without action[3]. It is the very principle that Yehoshua warned His disciples against when He spoke of the Pharisees saying ‘obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. (Matt 23:3) James spoke about these dangers as well saying ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ (James 1:22) Paul reminds us that the goal of all instruction is love, from which, some have wandered away from, turning aside to meaningless talk. (1 Tim 1:5-6) Is not this something we can all be guilty of? When you read the Bible or listen to a sermon, are you merely after head knowledge or are you looking to how the word can be applied in your life? True understanding is important but it should always have a practical outworking[4]. (Psalm 119:34) All knowledge and speech is but a clanging bell is you do not have love. Beware of allowing the Amorites to settle and live in your life!

The name Hittite is derived from the name ‘Heth’ and means ‘sons of terror’. It is the principle, or spirit, of fear that seeks to dominate our lives. Now the Hittite empire may have come and gone, but its principle of fear certainly hasn’t. How many Christian lives are still held captive, and controlled by the Hittite enemy?
Compare: Psalm 34:4, 2nd Timot. 1:7

The names Hivites and Perizzites have the same meaning. Hivites means ‘a villager’, and Perizzites means ‘rustic or belonging to a village’. In the Amorites you had a talker, someone who liked to command and thought very highly of himself. The Hivites and Perizzites represent the other side of the coin – the villager or commoner mentality. Someone who constantly downplays him or herself to the point where they do not think God can use them. Now, some boast of self, some downplay self, but sure enough, self is still the focus! Into this category of the villager mentality we could put two great ‘stars’ of the Old Testament – namely Moses[5] and Gideon[6]. But both overcame this attitude and were greatly used of YHWH

Jebusite means ‘to trample, tread down’ and speaks of the desired end result of our combined enemies. The Jebusites dwelt around and in Jerusalem and there is evidence that Jebus was the pre-Davidic name for Jerusalem.[7] So from this we see that just as the Jebusites desired to rule in the center of Israel, where God’s rule should be established, so our enemies desire to rule from the very center and heart of our lives. Think about your life for a sec… have you been giving the enemy a place that should be reserved for God?
Compare: 2 Timot. 2:15, Hebr.6:4-6, 10:38-39
[1]  You probably know the story but please read Exodus 3:10-12 and right through chapter 4 if you are really keen. Here is a loose, and I mean loose, paraphrase… In verses 10-12 God tells Moses that He will send him to deliver Israel. Moses responds with ‘oh, but who am I? I am nothing, a nobody, how can I go?’ With Moses’ eyes firmly upon himself, God simply says ‘I will go with you! Isn’t that enough? Do you really need to know anymore?’ Moses carries on in 4:10 saying ‘Please YHWH, I have never been this, and never been that… I don’t have what it takes! Send someone else.’ At this point YHWH anger burns against Moses because his lowly opinion of himself was becoming his reason for disobedience to God! Moses is known for his humility, this is not humility! It is the flip side of pride and shows that at this stage Moses still very much had his eyes on himself.  

[1]  The same attitude is found initially in Gideon in Judges 6:11-16 although he did overcome it and was, after great assurances by the Lord, obedient to God.

[1]  See (Josh. 15:8; 18:28; Judg 19:10, 2 Sam. 5:6-9, 24:18-25)


[1] Have a look at 2 Cor 2:17, 1 Tim 6:5, Jude 11.

[2] I Went into a Christian bookshop the other day and found a new book on the life of Jabez. Someone had written a 200-300 page novel on the life of this man who is only mentioned in three verses in the Bible. Wow! What insight that author must have had! Or maybe, just maybe, it was a desperate attempt to make money out of the latest ‘Christian’ cash cow! I smell Canaanites!!! Or for that matter, while I’m having a rant, when will the ‘Left Behind’ series ever come to an end? I’m not against the content of these books but is it just me or does each new book seem to occupy a smaller time frame of the tribulation? You don’t think they could possibly be squeezing it for all that its worth do you?
[3]  This cracks me up. You may remember that Christian and Faithful (Pilgrims Progress) met Talkative on their journey to the Celestial City. John Bunyan writes of Talkative saying ‘He was a tall man and somewhat better looking at a distance than close up.’ You probably all know someone like that! Someone who has all the right words, and when you meet them you think ‘wow, that person is spiritual!’ But a close up inspection of their life shows it to largely be a facade. They can talk the walk but are somewhat lacking walking the talk! YHWH save us all from that hypocrisy!

[4]  Good old Faithful (in Pilgrims Progress) makes another interesting comment about understanding and words without action (the Amorites)… ‘Faithful then said, “This reminds me of the words of Moses when he described the animal that is ceremonially clean. It is the animal that has a split hoof and chews it’s cud, not the one that has a split hoof only, or the one that only chews its cud. The rabbit chews its cud but it’s still unclean because it doesn’t have a split hoof. This resembles talkative. He chews the cud – that is, he seeks knowledge and chews on the word – but he doesn’t have a separated hoof; he doesn’t separate himself from the way of sinners. Like the rabbit, he retains the foot of a dog or bear, and so he’s unclean.”








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