Deuteronomy 10

Living Bible

10 “At that time the Lord told me to cut two more stone tablets like the first ones, and to make a wooden Ark to keep them in, and to return to God on the mountain. ² He said he would rewrite on the tablets the same commandments that were on the tablets I had smashed, and that I should place them in the Ark. ³ So I made an Ark of acacia wood and hewed out two stone tablets like the first two, and took the tablets up on the mountain to God. ⁴ He again wrote the Ten Commandments on them and gave them to me. (They were the same commandments he had given you from the heart of the fire on the mountain as you all watched below.) ⁵ Then I came down and placed the tablets in the Ark I had made, where they are to this day, just as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ “The people of Israel then journeyed from Beeroth of Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried. His son Eleazar became the next priest.

⁷ “Then they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from there to Jotbathah, a land of brooks and water. ⁸ It was there that Jehovah set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark containing the Ten Commandments of Jehovah, and to stand before the Lord and to do his work and to bless his name, just as is done today. ⁹ (That is why the tribe of Levi does not have a portion of land reserved for it in the Promised Land, as their brother tribes do; for as the Lord told them, he himself is their inheritance.)

¹⁰ “As I said before, I stayed on the mountain before the Lord for forty days and nights the second time, just as I had the first, and the Lord again yielded to my pleas and didn’t destroy you.

¹¹ “But he said to me, ‘Arise and lead the people to the land I promised their fathers. It is time to go in and possess it.’

^12-13 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to listen carefully to all he says to you, and to obey for your own good the commandments I am giving you today, and to love him, and to worship him with all your hearts and souls? ¹⁴ Earth and highest heaven belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁵ And yet he rejoiced in your fathers and loved them so much that he chose you, their children, to be above every other nation, as is evident today. ¹⁶ Therefore, cleanse your sinful hearts and stop your stubbornness.

¹⁷ “Jehovah your God is God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great and mighty God, the God of terror who shows no partiality and takes no bribes. ¹⁸ He gives justice to the fatherless and widows. He loves foreigners and gives them food and clothing. ¹⁹ (You too must love foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.) ²⁰ You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him, and take oaths by his name alone. ²¹ He is your praise and he is your God, the one who has done mighty miracles you yourselves have seen. ²² When your ancestors went down into Egypt there were only seventy of them, but now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky!