Not Because of Righteousness

9 “Hear, O Israel: you are ^(A)to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations ^(B)greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, ^(C)the sons of the Anakim, ^(D)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 ^(E)goes over before you ^(F)as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. ^(G)So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

^4 (H)“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 ^(I)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. ^5 (J)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 ^(K)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 ^(L)a stubborn people. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(M)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 ^(N)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^9 (O)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 ^(P)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(Q)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 ^(R)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, ^(S)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(T)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (U)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(V)a stubborn people. ^14 (W)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(X)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(Y)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ^15 (Z)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(AA)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(AB)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(AC)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 ^(AD)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(AE)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(AF)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. ^(AG)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 ^(AH)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 ^(AI)Taberah also, and at ^(AJ)Massah and at ^(AK)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ And ^(AL)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 ^(AM)did not believe him or obey his voice. ^24 (AN)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (AO)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ^26 (AP)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, ^(AQ)“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 (AR)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, ^(AS)‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and ^(AT)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 ^(AU)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark ^(AV)of acacia wood, and ^(AW)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And ^(AX)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^{[b] (AY)}that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(AZ)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(BA)came down from the mountain and ^(BB)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(BC)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

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

^10 (BL)“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, ^(BM)and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ^11 (BN)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, ^(BO)what does the Lord your God require of you, but ^(BP)to fear the Lord your God, ^(BQ)to walk in all his ways, ^(BR)to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and ^(BS)to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today ^(BT)for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(BU)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, ^(BV)the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet ^(BW)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 ^(BX)the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer ^(BY)stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(BZ)God of gods and ^(CA)Lord of lords, ^(CB)the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is ^(CC)not partial and takes no bribe. ^18 (CD)He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ^19 (CE)Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ^20 (CF)You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and ^(CG)hold fast to him, and ^(CH)by his name you shall swear. ^21 (CI)He is your praise. He is your God, ^(CJ)who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt ^(CK)seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you ^(CL)as numerous as the stars of heaven.

The Parable of the Sower

^4 (A)And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, ^5 (B)“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶ And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, ^(C)it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷ And some fell among ^(D)thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸ And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded ^(E)a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, ^(F)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

⁹ And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, ¹⁰ he said, ^(G)“To you it has been given to know ^(H)the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so ^(I)that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ ^11 (J)Now the parable is this: The seed is ^(K)the word of God. ¹² The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not ^(L)believe and be saved. ¹³ And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it ^(M)with joy. But these have no root; they ^(N)believe for a while, and in time of testing ^(O)fall away. ¹⁴ And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but ^(P)as they go on their way they are choked by the ^(Q)cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. ¹⁵ As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and ^(R)bear fruit ^(S)with patience.

A Lamp Under a Jar

^16 (T)(U)“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. ^17 (V)For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. ^18 (W)Take care then how you hear, ^(X)for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

Jesus' Mother and Brothers

^19 (Y)Then his mother and ^(Z)his brothers^[a] came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. ²⁰ And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” ²¹ But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those ^(AA)who hear the word of God and do it.”