Step 1: Encounter the text.
Read the English or the Hebrew several times, first silently, then aloud to fully experience the sounds and sensations of the text. Pay attention to the repetitions, the tones, and rhythm.
After finishing the reading(s) write down your immediate reactions to the text. This is particularly important!
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| Deuteronomy 29:9-14. You STAND this day, all of you, before the Lord your God – your tribal heads, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, even the stranger within your camp, from woodchopper to water-drawer – to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is concluding with you this day, with its SANCTIONS to the end that He may establish you this day as His people and be your God, as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I make this covenant with its sanctions, not with you alone, but both with those who are standing with here with us this day before the Lord our God and with those who are not with us here this day. |
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| Deuteronomy 30:11-14. Surely, this Instruction which I enjoin upon you this day is not too baffling for you, nor is it beyond reach. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?” No the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it. |
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