he taught me, and he said to me: “Let your heart lay hold of my words; keep my commands so that you will live.

The watchman replies, “Morning is coming, but then night. If you want to ask, ask; come back again.”

But you must return to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting for your God to return to you.

Jacob fled to the country of Aram, then Israel worked to acquire a wife; he tended sheep to pay for her.

Do not rely on a friend; do not trust a companion! Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms!

He purchased the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver. He launched a construction project there and named the city he built after Shemer, the former owner of the hill of Samaria.

“Obey what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today.

Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Pay attention to all the commandments I am giving you today.

and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. But he did not obey the Lord’s command.

Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example.

So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord and did not obey the Lord’s instructions; he even tried to conjure up underworld spirits.

and prayed: “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty to your servants who obey you with sincerity.

Then I said, “Please, O LORD God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his loving covenant with those who love him and obey his commandments,

After them Zadok son of Immer worked opposite his house, and after him Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, guard at the East Gate, worked.

The people who do this will be blessed, the people who commit themselves to obedience, who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, who refrain from doing anything that is wrong.

and follows my statutes and observes my regulations by carrying them out. That man is righteous; he will certainly live, declares the sovereign Lord.

I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way: “O Lord, great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant with those who love him and keep his commandments,

For if you carefully observe all of these commandments I am giving you and love the Lord your God, live according to his standards, and remain loyal to him,