earth to be God's treasured people. God chose them not because they were the most numerous of peoples, but because God favored them and kept the oath God made with their fathers. Moses told them to note that only God is God, the steadfast God who keeps God's covenant faithfully to the thousandth generation of those who love God and keep God's commandments, but who instantly requites with destruction those who reject God. The maftir () reading concludes the parashah with , and concludes the sixth open portion. Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to a different schedule. In ancient parallels The parashah has parallels in these ancient sources: Deuteronomy chapter 5 The early third millennium BCE Sumerian wisdom text Instructions of Shuruppak contains maxims that parallel the Ten Commandments, including: Don’t steal anything; don’t kill yourself! . . . My son, don’t commit murder . . . Don’t laugh with a girl if she is married; the slander (arising from it) is strong! . . . Don’t plan lies; it is discrediting . . . Don’t speak fraudulently; in the end it will bind you like a trap. Noting that Sargon of Akkad was the first to use a seven-day week, Professor Gregory S. Aldrete of the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay speculated that the Israelites may have adopted the idea from the Akkadian Empire. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and 17, 13:5, and 33:3, , and 14:8, and , 11:9, 26:9 and 15, 27:3, and 31:20 describe the Land of Israel as a land flowing "with milk and honey." Similarly, the Middle Egyptian (early second millennium BCE) tale of Sinuhe Palestine described the Land of Israel or, as the Egyptian tale called it, the land of Yaa: "It was a good land called Yaa. Figs were in it and grapes. It had more wine than water. Abundant was its honey, plentiful its oil. All kind of fruit were on its trees. Barley was there and emmer, and no end of cattle of all kinds." In inner-Biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources: Deuteronomy chapter 4 and and refer to the Ten Commandments as the “ten words” (, aseret ha-devarim). In , Egypt is described as an "iron furnace". Solomon used the same image in his prayer at the