First Thought

לֹא־שָׁמְר֤וּ אֲבוֹתֵ֙ינוּ֙ אֶת־דְּבַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה

Our fathers did not keep the word of Adonai (2 Chronicles 34:21)

שָׁמַר means to guard or keep, in the sense of obeying. It is a verb that frequently occurs in the Hebrew Bible.

In לֹא־שָׁמְרוּ, the word לֹא serves to negate the verb it precedes. Literally, this might be “not they kept”, but we would say “they did not keep” in English.

Every day, and frequently throughout each day, we have two choices. We can keep His word, or we can ignore His word.

Let us strive to have it be told of all of us, שָׁמְרוּ אֶת־דְּבַר יְהוָה , “they KEPT the word of Adonai.”

Figure 13.1: Mt Gerezim, Shechem, Mt. Ebal from east. In Deuteronomy 11, Moses instructs that when Israel enters the land, she is to read the blessings from Mt. Gerezim and the curses from not following His word from Mt. Ebal. Today, Shechem is also known as the Arab city of Nablus. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands