Deuteronomy 10:12-12:10

Amplified Bible

¹²“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being], ¹³and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴Behold, the heavens and the highest of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord ^[a]had a delight in loving your fathers and set His affection on them, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶So circumcise [that is, remove sin from] your heart, and be stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) no longer. ¹⁷For the Lord your ^[b]God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show ^[c]partiality nor take a bribe. ¹⁸He ^[d]executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and ^[e]shows His love for the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹Therefore, show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect]; you shall serve Him and cling to Him [hold tightly to Him, be united with Him], and you shall swear [oaths] by His name. ²¹He is your praise and glory; He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which you have seen with your own eyes. ²²Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy persons [in all], and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His precepts, and His commandments [it is your obligation to Him]. ²Know this day that I am not speaking to your children who have not known [by personal experience] and who have not seen [firsthand] the instruction and discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; ³and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the ^[f]Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how the Lord ^[g]completely destroyed them; ⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that ^[h]followed them, in the midst of all Israel.^(A) ⁷For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸“Therefore, you shall keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess; ⁹so that you may live long on the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land [of great abundance,] ^[i]flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered ^[j]it with your foot like a garden of vegetables. ¹¹But the land into which you are about to cross to possess, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹²a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³“It shall come about, if you listen obediently and pay attention to My commandments which I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being]— ¹⁴that ^[k]He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early [fall] rain and the late [spring] rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil. ¹⁵And ^[l]He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away [from the Lord] and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷or [else] the Lord’s anger will be kindled and burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸“Therefore, you shall impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ^[m]bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead. ¹⁹You shall teach them [diligently] to your ^[n]children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths], speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰You shall write them on the ^[o]doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[p]long as the heavens are above the earth. ²²For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to hold tightly to Him— ²³then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall become yours; your territory shall be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea (the Mediterranean). ²⁵No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the fear and the dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶“Behold, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— ²⁷the blessing, if you listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸and the curse, if you do not listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following (acknowledging, worshiping) other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.^(B) ³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, ³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and judgments (precepts) which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green [leafy] tree. ³You shall tear down their altars and smash their [idolatrous] pillars and burn their ^[q]Asherim in the fire; you shall cut down the carved and sculpted images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to establish His ^[r]Name there for His dwelling [place], and there you shall come [to worship Him]. ⁶There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive (pledged, vowed) offerings, your freewill (voluntary) offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷And there you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all to which you put your hand, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not do at all what we are doing here [in the camp] today, every man doing whatever is right in his [own] eyes. ⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 10:15 Lit strengthened His heart.
Deuteronomy 10:17 Heb Elohim. The primary word translated “God” in the O.T.; the mighty God, the Creator; the great triune God manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Deuteronomy 10:17 Lit lift up faces.
Deuteronomy 10:18 Lit is doing.
Deuteronomy 10:18 Lit is loving.
Deuteronomy 11:4 Lit Sea of Reeds.
Deuteronomy 11:4 Lit to this day.
Deuteronomy 11:6 Lit was at their feet.
Deuteronomy 11:9 This phrase referred to the abundant fertility of the land of Canaan. Milk (typically that of goats and sheep) was associated with abundance; “honey” referred mainly to syrups made from dates or grapes and was the epitome of sweetness. Bees’ honey was very rare and was considered the choicest of foods.
Deuteronomy 11:10 Egyptian crops were watered by irrigation, so this may refer to a simple irrigation device that was operated by the foot, or to the practice of opening and closing small water channels with the foot.
Deuteronomy 11:14 So some ancient versions; MT reads I.
Deuteronomy 11:15 So some ancient versions; MT reads I.
Deuteronomy 11:18 See note 6:8.
Deuteronomy 11:19 Lit sons, also v 21.
Deuteronomy 11:20 See note 6:9.
Deuteronomy 11:21 Lit the days of.
Deuteronomy 12:3 Wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah.
Deuteronomy 12:5 The “Name” of God is equivalent to His gracious presence in passages such as this one. The place where God puts His Name is the place where He chooses to dwell.