Deuteronomy 4-12

English Standard Version

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “And now, O Israel, listen to ^(A)the statutes and the rules^[a] that I am teaching you, and do them, ^(B)that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. ^2 (C)You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did ^(D)at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today. ⁵ See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. ^6 (E)Keep them and do them, for ^(F)that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ ⁷ For ^(G)what great nation is there that has ^(H)a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so ^(I)righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

^9 (J)“Only take care, and ^(K)keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. ^(L)Make them known to your children and your children's children— ¹⁰ how on ^(M)the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ^(N)‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, ^(O)so that they may learn to fear ^(P)me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ ¹¹ And ^(Q)you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while ^(R)the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom. ¹² Then ^(S)the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, ^(T)but saw no form; ^(U)there was only a voice. ^13 (V)And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, ^(W)the Ten Commandments,^{[b] (X)}and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And ^(Y)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

Idolatry Forbidden

^15 (Z)“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since ^(AA)you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ beware ^(AB)lest you act corruptly ^(AC)by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, ^(AD)the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. ¹⁹ And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see ^(AE)the sun and the moon and the stars, ^(AF)all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and ^(AG)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, ^(AH)to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore, ^(AI)the Lord was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance. ²² For I must die in this land; ^(AJ)I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of ^(AK)that good land. ^23 (AL)Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and ^(AM)make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(AN)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(AO)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, ^(AP)if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(AQ)by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, ²⁶ I ^(AR)call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(AS)will scatter you among the peoples, ^(AT)and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(AU)there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, ^(AV)that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. ^29 (AW)But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you ^(AX)in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is ^(AY)a merciful God. ^(AZ)He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

The Lord Alone Is God

³² “For ^(BA)ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. ^33 (BB)Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? ³⁴ Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, ^(BC)by signs, by wonders, and ^(BD)by war, ^(BE)by a mighty hand and ^(BF)an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, ^(BG)that you might know that the Lord is God; ^(BH)there is no other besides him. ^36 (BI)Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and ^(BJ)you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(BK)he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them^[c] and brought you out of Egypt ^(BL)with his own presence, by his great power, ^38 (BM)driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, ³⁹ know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that ^(BN)the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; ^(BO)there is no other. ^40 (BP)Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, ^(BQ)that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge

⁴¹ Then Moses ^(BR)set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan, ⁴² that ^(BS)the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life: ^43 (BT)Bezer in the wilderness on the ^(BU)tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to the Law

⁴⁴ This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ beyond the Jordan ^(BV)in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, ^(BW)whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land ^(BX)of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan; ^48 (BY)from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount ^(BZ)Sirion^[d] (that is, ^(CA)Hermon), ⁴⁹ together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as ^(CB)the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments

5 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. ^2 (CC)The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ^3 (CD)Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today. ⁴ The Lord spoke with you ^(CE)face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, ^5 (CF)while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For ^(CG)you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. He said:

^6 (CH)“‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁷ “‘You shall have no other gods before^[e] me.

⁸ “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but showing steadfast love to ^(CI)thousands^[f] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹ “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

¹² “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but ^(CJ)the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, ^(CK)that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. ^15 (CL)You shall remember that you were a slave^[g] in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there ^(CM)with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶ “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, ^(CN)that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

^17 (CO)“‘You shall not murder.^[h]

^18 (CP)“‘And you shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹ “‘And you shall not steal.

²⁰ “‘And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

²¹ “‘And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.’

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly ^(CQ)at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And ^(CR)he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³ And ^(CS)as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders. ²⁴ And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and ^(CT)greatness, and ^(CU)we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man ^(CV)still live. ²⁵ Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. ^(CW)If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, we shall die. ^26 (CX)For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? ²⁷ Go near and hear all that the Lord our God will say, and ^(CY)speak to us all that the Lord our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “And the Lord heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. ^(CZ)They are right in all that they have spoken. ^29 (DA)Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, ^(DB)that it might go well with them and with their descendants^[i] forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But you, stand here by me, and ^(DC)I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ ³² You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. ^(DD)You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ^33 (DE)You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and ^(DF)that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(DG)the commandment—the statutes and the rules^[j]—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ² that ^(DH)you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and ^(DI)that your days may be long. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, ^(DJ)as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: ^(DK)The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[k] 5} You ^(DL)shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And ^(DM)these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ^7 (DN)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^8 (DO)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (DP)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities ^(DQ)that you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, ^12 (DR)then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³ It is ^(DS)the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and ^(DT)by his name you shall swear. ¹⁴ You shall not ^(DU)go after other gods, ^(DV)the gods of the peoples who are around you— ¹⁵ for ^(DW)the Lord your God in your midst ^(DX)is a jealous God—^(DY)lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

^16 (DZ)“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, ^(EA)as you tested him at Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(EB)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. ^18 (EC)And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers ^19 (ED)by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

^20 (EE)“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son, ^(EF)‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² And ^(EG)the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. ²³ And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, ^(EH)to fear the Lord our God, ^(EI)for our good always, that ^(EJ)he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. ²⁵ And ^(EK)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

A Chosen People

7 “When the ^(EL)Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, ^(EM)the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations ^(EN)more numerous and mightier than you, ^2 (EO)and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must ^(EP)devote them to complete destruction.^{[l] (EQ)}You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. ^3 (ER)You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. ^(ES)Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you ^(ET)quickly. ⁵ But thus shall you deal with them: ^(EU)you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their ^(EV)pillars and chop down their ^(EW)Asherim and ^(EX)burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For ^(EY)you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be ^(EZ)a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷ It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸ but ^(FA)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping ^(FB)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, ^(FC)the faithful God ^(FD)who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ¹⁰ and ^(FE)repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. ^(FF)He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. ^11 (FG)You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

^12 (FH)“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ^(FI)the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. ¹³ He will ^(FJ)love you, bless you, and multiply you. ^(FK)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples. ^(FL)There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil ^(FM)diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. ¹⁶ And ^(FN)you shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. ^(FO)Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(FP)a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ ^18 (FQ)you shall not be afraid of them but you shall ^(FR)remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, ¹⁹ the great trials that your eyes saw, ^(FS)the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰ Moreover, ^(FT)the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is ^(FU)in your midst, ^(FV)a great and awesome God. ^22 (FW)The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,^[m] lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. ^23 (FX)But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(FY)he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall ^(FZ)make their name perish from under heaven. ^(GA)No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ The carved images of their gods ^(GB)you shall burn with fire. You ^(GC)shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ^(GD)ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction^[n] like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ^(GE)for it is devoted to destruction.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “The whole commandment that I command you today ^(GF)you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. ² And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you ^(GG)these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, ^(GH)testing you ^(GI)to know what was in your heart, ^(GJ)whether you would keep his commandments or not. ³ And he humbled you and ^(GK)let you hunger and ^(GL)fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that ^(GM)man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word^[o] that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (GN)Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that, ^(GO)as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. ⁶ So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(GP)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, ^(GQ)of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹ “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, ^12 (GR)lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, ^14 (GS)then your heart be lifted up, and you ^(GT)forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ¹⁵ who ^(GU)led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, ^(GV)with its fiery serpents and scorpions ^(GW)and thirsty ground where there was no water, ^(GX)who brought you water out of the flinty rock, ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(GY)manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, ^(GZ)to do you good in the end. ¹⁷ Beware ^(HA)lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ You shall remember the Lord your God, for ^(HB)it is he who gives you power to get wealth, ^(HC)that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^(HD)I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, ^(HE)so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Not Because of Righteousness

9 “Hear, O Israel: you are ^(HF)to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations ^(HG)greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, ^(HH)the sons of the Anakim, ^(HI)whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that he who ^(HJ)goes over before you ^(HK)as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. ^(HL)So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

^4 (HM)“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is ^(HN)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. ^5 (HO)Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm ^(HP)the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶ “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are ^(HQ)a stubborn people. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(HR)From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(HS)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^9 (HT)When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain ^(HU)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(HV)the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(HW)on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ^(HX)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(HY)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (HZ)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(IA)a stubborn people. ^14 (IB)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(IC)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(ID)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ^15 (IE)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(IF)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(IG)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[p] calf. ^(IH)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I ^(II)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(IJ)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(IK)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(IL)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then ^(IM)I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

²² “At ^(IN)Taberah also, and at ^(IO)Massah and at ^(IP)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ And ^(IQ)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and ^(IR)did not believe him or obey his voice. ^24 (IS)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (IT)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ^26 (IU)And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, whom you have redeemed through your greatness, whom you have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which you brought us say, ^(IV)“Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” ^29 (IW)For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’

New Tablets of Stone

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^(IX)‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and ^(IY)make an ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and ^(IZ)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark ^(JA)of acacia wood, and ^(JB)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And ^(JC)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^{[q] (JD)}that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(JE)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(JF)came down from the mountain and ^(JG)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(JH)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (The people of Israel ^(JI)journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan^[r] to Moserah. ^(JJ)There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. ^7 (JK)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. ⁸ At that time ^(JL)the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ^(JM)to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord ^(JN)to stand before the Lord to minister to him and ^(JO)to bless in his name, to this day. ^9 (JP)Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)

^10 (JQ)“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, ^(JR)and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ^11 (JS)And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(JT)what does the Lord your God require of you, but ^(JU)to fear the Lord your God, ^(JV)to walk in all his ways, ^(JW)to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and ^(JX)to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today ^(JY)for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(JZ)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, ^(KA)the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet ^(KB)the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore ^(KC)the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer ^(KD)stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(KE)God of gods and ^(KF)Lord of lords, ^(KG)the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is ^(KH)not partial and takes no bribe. ^18 (KI)He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ^19 (KJ)Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ^20 (KK)You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and ^(KL)hold fast to him, and ^(KM)by his name you shall swear. ^21 (KN)He is your praise. He is your God, ^(KO)who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt ^(KP)seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you ^(KQ)as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Love and Serve the Lord

11 ^(KR)“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and ^(KS)keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. ² And consider today (since I am not speaking to ^(KT)your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline^[s] of the Lord your God, ^(KU)his greatness, ^(KV)his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ^3 (KW)his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, ⁴ and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, ^(KX)how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, ⁵ and ^(KY)what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, ⁶ and ^(KZ)what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. ⁷ For your eyes have seen ^(LA)all the great work of the Lord that he did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may ^(LB)be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, ⁹ and ^(LC)that you may live long in the land ^(LD)that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ^(LE)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,^[t] like a garden of vegetables. ^11 (LF)But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, ¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. ^(LG)The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, ^(LH)to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ^14 (LI)he^[u] will give the rain for your land in its season, ^(LJ)the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. ^15 (LK)And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and ^(LL)you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶ Take care ^(LM)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(LN)serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷ then ^(LO)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he ^(LP)will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and ^(LQ)you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

^18 (LR)“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and ^(LS)you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^20 (LT)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ^21 (LU)that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ^(LV)as long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² For if ^(LW)you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and ^(LX)holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord ^(LY)will drive out all these nations before you, and you will ^(LZ)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (MA)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ^(MB)from the wilderness to^[v] the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. ^25 (MC)No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay ^(MD)the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ^(ME)as he promised you.

^26 (MF)“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (MG)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, ²⁸ and ^(MH)the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, ^(MI)to go after other gods that you have not known. ²⁹ And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^(MJ)the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^(MK)Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^(ML)the oak^[w] of Moreh? ³¹ For you are ^(MM)to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, ³² you shall be careful ^(MN)to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship

12 ^(MO)“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, ^(MP)all the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (MQ)You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(MR)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^(MS)their pillars and burn their ^(MT)Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^(MU)destroy their name out of that place. ^4 (MV)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. ⁵ But you shall seek ^(MW)the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation^[x] there. There you shall go, ⁶ and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(MX)your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(MY)firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And ^(MZ)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(NA)you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ^(NB)everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, ⁹ for you have not as yet come to ^(NC)the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when ^(ND)you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^(NE)and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, ¹¹ then to ^(NF)the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^(NG)your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. ¹² And ^(NH)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since ^(NI)he has no portion or inheritance with you. ^13 (NJ)Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, ¹⁴ but at ^(NK)the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.