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Deuteronomy 10-12
The Message
Deuteronomy 10-12
The Message
10 1-2 God responded. He said, “Shape two slabs of stone similar to the first ones. Climb the mountain and meet me. Also make yourself a wooden chest. I will engrave the stone slabs with the words that were on the first ones, the ones you smashed. Then you will put them in the Chest.”
3-5 So I made a chest out of acacia wood, shaped two slabs of stone, just like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two slabs in my arms. He engraved the stone slabs the same as he had the first ones, the Ten Words that he addressed to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. Then God gave them to me. I turned around and came down the mountain. I put the stone slabs in the Chest that I made and they’ve been there ever since, just as God commanded me.
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6-7 The People of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. From there they went to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.
8-9 That’s when God set apart the tribe of Levi to carry God’s Covenant Chest, to be on duty in the Presence of God, to serve him, and to bless in his name, as they continue to do today. And that’s why Levites don’t have a piece of inherited land as their kinsmen do. God is their inheritance, as God, your God, promised them.
10 I stayed there on the mountain forty days and nights, just as I did the first time. And God listened to me, just as he did the first time: God decided not to destroy you.
11 God told me, “Now get going. Lead your people as they resume the journey to take possession of the land that I promised their ancestors that I’d give to them.”
12-13 So now Israel, what do you think God expects from you? Just this: Live in his presence in holy reverence, follow the road he sets out for you, love him, serve God, your God, with everything you have in you, obey the commandments and regulations of God that I’m commanding you today—live a good life.
14-18 Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.
19-21 You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—
remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.
Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,
back up your promises with the authority of his name.
He’s your praise! He’s your God!
He did all these tremendous, these staggering things
that you saw with your own eyes.
22 When your ancestors entered Egypt, they numbered a mere seventy souls. And now look at you—you look more like the stars in the night skies in number. And your God did it.
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11 So love God, your God;
guard well his rules and regulations;
obey his commandments for the rest of time.
2-7 Today it’s very clear that it isn’t your children who are front and center here: They weren’t in on what God did, didn’t see the acts, didn’t experience the discipline, didn’t marvel at his greatness, the way he displayed his power in the miracle-signs and deeds that he let loose in Egypt on Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land, the way he took care of the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, burying them in the waters of the Red Sea as they pursued you. God drowned them. And you’re standing here today alive. Nor was it your children who saw how God took care of you in the wilderness up until the time you arrived here, what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how the Earth opened its jaws and swallowed them with their families—their tents, and everything around them—right out of the middle of Israel. Yes, it was you—your eyes—that saw every great thing that God did.
8-9 So it’s you who are in charge of keeping the entire commandment that I command you today so that you’ll have the strength to invade and possess the land that you are crossing the river to make your own. Your obedience will give you a long life on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors and their children, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10-12 The land you are entering to take up ownership isn’t like Egypt, the land you left, where you had to plant your own seed and water it yourselves as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are about to cross the river and take for your own is a land of mountains and valleys; it drinks water that rains from the sky. It’s a land that God, your God, personally tends—he’s the gardener—he alone keeps his eye on it all year long.
13-15 From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he’ll take charge of sending the rain at the right time, both autumn and spring rains, so that you’ll be able to harvest your grain, your grapes, your olives. He’ll make sure there’s plenty of grass for your animals. You’ll have plenty to eat.
16-17 But be vigilant, lest you be seduced away and end up serving and worshiping other gods and God erupts in anger and shuts down Heaven so there’s no rain and nothing grows in the fields, and in no time at all you’re starved out—not a trace of you left on the good land that God is giving you.
18-21 Place these words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night. Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you’ll live a long time, and your children with you, on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.
22-25 That’s right. If you diligently keep all this commandment that I command you to obey—love God, your God, do what he tells you, stick close to him—God on his part will drive out all these nations that stand in your way. Yes, he’ll drive out nations much bigger and stronger than you. Every square inch on which you place your foot will be yours. Your borders will stretch from the wilderness to the mountains of Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. No one will be able to stand in your way. Everywhere you go, God-sent fear and trembling will precede you, just as he promised.
26 I’ve brought you today to the crossroads of Blessing and Curse.
27 The Blessing: if you listen obediently to the commandments of God, your God, which I command you today.
28 The Curse: if you don’t pay attention to the commandments of God, your God, but leave the road that I command you today, following other gods of which you know nothing.
29-30 Here’s what comes next: When God, your God, brings you into the land you are going into to make your own, you are to give out the Blessing from Mount Gerizim and the Curse from Mount Ebal. After you cross the Jordan River, follow the road to the west through Canaanite settlements in the valley near Gilgal and the Oaks of Moreh.
31-32 You are crossing the Jordan River to invade and take the land that God, your God, is giving you. Be vigilant. Observe all the regulations and rules I am setting before you today.
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12 These are the rules and regulations that you must diligently observe for as long as you live in this country that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, has given you to possess.
2-3 Ruthlessly demolish all the sacred shrines where the nations that you’re driving out worship their gods—wherever you find them, on hills and mountains or in groves of green trees. Tear apart their altars. Smash their phallic pillars. Burn their sex-and-religion Asherah shrines. Break up their carved gods. Obliterate the names of those god sites.
4 Stay clear of those places—don’t let what went on there contaminate the worship of God, your God.
5-7 Instead find the site that God, your God, will choose and mark it with his name as a common center for all the tribes of Israel. Assemble there. Bring to that place your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and Tribute-Offerings, your Vow-Offerings, your Freewill-Offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Feast there in the Presence of God, your God. Celebrate everything that you and your families have accomplished under the blessing of God, your God.
8-10 Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.
11-12 From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God. Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance.
13-14 Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.
15 It’s permissible to slaughter your nonsacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.
16-18 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.
19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.
20-22 When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the nonsacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.
23-25 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God’s eyes.
26-27 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.
28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.
29-31 When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!
32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.
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Deuteronomy 10-12
New International Version
Deuteronomy 10-12
New International Version
Tablets Like the First Ones
10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets(A) like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.[a] 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”(B)
3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood(C) and chiseled(D) out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments(E) he had proclaimed(F) to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.(G) And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountain(H) and put the tablets in the ark(I) I had made,(J) as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.(K)
6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.(L) There Aaron died(M) and was buried, and Eleazar(N) his son succeeded him as priest.(O) 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.(P) 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi(Q) to carry the ark of the covenant(R) of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister(S) and to pronounce blessings(T) in his name, as they still do today.(U) 9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(V) as the Lord your God told them.)
10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.(W) 11 “Go,” the Lord said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”
Fear the Lord
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you(X) but to fear(Y) the Lord your God, to walk(Z) in obedience to him, to love him,(AA) to serve the Lord(AB) your God with all your heart(AC) and with all your soul,(AD) 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands(AE) and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?(AF)
14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens,(AG) even the highest heavens,(AH) the earth and everything in it.(AI) 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved(AJ) them, and he chose you,(AK) their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.(AL) 16 Circumcise(AM) your hearts,(AN) therefore, and do not be stiff-necked(AO) any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods(AP) and Lord of lords,(AQ) the great God, mighty and awesome,(AR) who shows no partiality(AS) and accepts no bribes.(AT) 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow,(AU) and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.(AV) 19 And you are to love(AW) those who are foreigners,(AX) for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.(AY) 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him.(AZ) Hold fast(BA) to him and take your oaths in his name.(BB) 21 He is the one you praise;(BC) he is your God, who performed for you those great(BD) and awesome wonders(BE) you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all,(BF) and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.(BG)
Love and Obey the Lord
11 Love(BH) the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.(BI) 2 Remember today that your children(BJ) were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God:(BK) his majesty,(BL) his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;(BM) 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;(BN) 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots,(BO) how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea[b](BP) as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he did(BQ) to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened(BR) its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.(BS)
8 Observe therefore all the commands(BT) I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,(BU) 9 and so that you may live long(BV) in the land the Lord swore(BW) to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.(BX) 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt,(BY) from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys(BZ) that drinks rain from heaven.(CA) 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes(CB) of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13 So if you faithfully obey(CC) the commands I am giving you today—to love(CD) the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul(CE)— 14 then I will send rain(CF) on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains,(CG) so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass(CH) in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.(CI)
16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.(CJ) 17 Then the Lord’s anger(CK) will burn against you, and he will shut up(CL) the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce,(CM) and you will soon perish(CN) from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.(CO) 19 Teach them to your children,(CP) talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.(CQ) 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,(CR) 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many(CS) in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.(CT)
22 If you carefully observe(CU) all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love(CV) the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast(CW) to him— 23 then the Lord will drive out(CX) all these nations(CY) before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.(CZ) 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours:(DA) Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River(DB) to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror(DC) and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.(DD)
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing(DE) and a curse(DF)— 27 the blessing(DG) if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey(DH) the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods,(DI) which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim(DJ) the blessings, and on Mount Ebal(DK) the curses.(DL) 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh,(DM) in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.(DN) 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession(DO) of the land the Lord your God is giving(DP) you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
The One Place of Worship
12 These are the decrees(DQ) and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.(DR) 2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,(DS) on the hills and under every spreading tree,(DT) where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smash(DU) their sacred stones and burn(DV) their Asherah(DW) poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names(DX) from those places.
4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.(DY) 5 But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name(DZ) there for his dwelling.(EA) To that place you must go; 6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes(EB) and special gifts, what you have vowed(EC) to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.(ED) 7 There, in the presence(EE) of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice(EF) in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,(EG) 9 since you have not yet reached the resting place(EH) and the inheritance(EI) the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving(EJ) you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest(EK) from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. 11 Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name(EL)—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord.(EM) 12 And there rejoice(EN) before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites(EO) from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance(EP) of their own. 13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.(EQ) 14 Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose(ER) in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
15 Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer,(ES) according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. 16 But you must not eat the blood;(ET) pour(EU) it out on the ground like water.(EV) 17 You must not eat in your own towns the tithe(EW) of your grain and new wine and olive oil,(EX) or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give,(EY) or your freewill offerings or special gifts.(EZ) 18 Instead, you are to eat(FA) them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choose(FB)—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoice(FC) before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. 19 Be careful not to neglect the Levites(FD) as long as you live in your land.(FE)
20 When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory(FF) as he promised(FG) you, and you crave meat(FH) and say, “I would like some meat,” then you may eat as much of it as you want. 21 If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his Name(FI) is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.(FJ) 22 Eat them as you would gazelle or deer.(FK) Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat. 23 But be sure you do not eat the blood,(FL) because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.(FM) 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.(FN) 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well(FO) with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right(FP) in the eyes of the Lord.
26 But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give,(FQ) and go to the place the Lord will choose. 27 Present your burnt offerings(FR) on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat(FS) the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well(FT) with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.
29 The Lord your God will cut off(FU) before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,(FV) 30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared(FW) by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”(FX) 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates.(FY) They even burn their sons(FZ) and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.(GA)
32 See that you do all I command you; do not add(GB) to it or take away from it.[c]
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 10:1 That is, a chest
- Deuteronomy 11:4 Or the Sea of Reeds
- Deuteronomy 12:32 In Hebrew texts this verse (12:32) is numbered 13:1.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.