First reading
Moses spoke to the people: “You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
“It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you — for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, and who directly repays with destruction the one who rejects him. He does not delay but repays directly the one who rejects him.
“Therefore, observe diligently the commandment — the statutes, and the ordinances — that I am commanding you today.”