Old/New Testament
New Stone Tablets
10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. Then come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. 2 I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Put the new tablets in the ark.”
3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood. And I cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. Then I went up on the mountain. I had the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord wrote the same things on these tablets he had written before. He wrote the Ten Commandments. He had told them to you on the mountain from the fire. This was on the day you were gathered there. And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and came down the mountain. I put the tablets in the ark I had made. That is what the Lord had commanded. The tablets are still there in the ark.
6 (The people of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried. Aaron’s son Eleazar became priest in Aaron’s place. 7 From Moserah they went to Gudgodah. From Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a place with streams of water. 8 At that time the Lord chose the tribe of Levi. They were to carry the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord. They were to serve the Lord. They were to bless the people in the Lord’s name. They still do this today. 9 That is why the Levites did not receive any land to own. Instead, they received the Lord himself as their gift. This is what the Lord your God told them.)
10 I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights just like the first time. And the Lord listened to me this time also. He did not want to destroy you. 11 The Lord said to me, “Go. Lead the people. They will go in and take the land I promised their ancestors.”
What the Lord Wants You to Do
12 Now, Israel, this is what the Lord wants you to do. Respect the Lord your God. Do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being. 13 And obey the Lord’s commands and laws. I am giving them to you today for your own good.
14 The Lord owns the world and everything in it. The heavens, even the highest heavens, are his. 15 But the Lord cared for and loved your ancestors. And he chose you, their descendants. He chose you over all the other nations. And it is this way today. 16 Give yourselves to serving the Lord. Do not be stubborn any longer. 17 The Lord your God is God of all gods. He is the Lord of all lords. He is the great God. He is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides. And he will not be talked into doing evil. 18 He helps orphans and widows. He loves foreigners. He gives them food and clothes. 19 You also must love foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. 20 Respect the Lord your God and serve him. Be loyal to him. Make your promises in his name. 21 You should praise him. He is your God. He has done great and wonderful things for you. You have seen them with your own eyes. 22 There were only 70 of your ancestors when they went down to Egypt. Now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.
Great Things Israel Saw
11 Love the Lord your God. Obey his orders, rules, laws and commands. 2 Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God. They did not see his majesty, his power and his strength. 3 They did not see his signs and the things he did in Egypt to the king and his whole country. 4 They did not see what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots. He drowned them in the Red Sea when they were chasing you. The Lord ruined them forever. 5 They did not see what he did for you in the desert until you arrived here. 6 They did not see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite. The ground opened up and swallowed them, their families and their tents. And it swallowed up everyone who stood with them in Israel. 7 It was you who saw all these great things the Lord has done.
8 So obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will be strong. Then you can go in and take the land you are going to own. 9 Then you will live a long time in that land. The Lord promised to give it to your ancestors and their descendants. It is a land where much food grows. 10 The land you are going to take is not like Egypt, where you were. There you had to plant your seed. Then you had to water it, like a vegetable garden, by using your feet. 11 But you will soon cross the Jordan River and take the land. It is a land of hills and valleys. It drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God loves. His eyes are on it continually. He watches it from the beginning of the year to the end.
13 Carefully obey the commands I am giving you today. Love the Lord your God. Serve him with your whole being. 14 Then he will send rain on your land at the right time, in the fall and spring. You will be able to gather your grain, new wine and oil. 15 He will put grass in the fields for your cattle. You will have plenty to eat.
16 Be careful. Don’t be fooled. Don’t turn away and serve other gods. Don’t worship them. 17 If you do, the Lord will become angry with you. He will shut the heavens so it will not rain. Then the land will not grow crops. And you will soon die in the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Remember my words in your hearts and souls. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your foreheads to remind you. 19 Teach them well to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on your doors and gates. 21 Then both you and your children will live a long time in the land. This is the land the Lord promised your ancestors. You will live there for as long as the skies are above the earth.
22 Be careful to obey every command I am giving you to follow. Love the Lord your God. Do what he has told you to do. And be loyal to him. 23 Then the Lord will force all those nations out of the land ahead of you. And you will take the land from nations that are bigger and stronger than you. 24 Everywhere you step will be yours. Your land will go from the desert to Lebanon. And it will go from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stop you. The Lord your God will do what he promised. He will make the people afraid everywhere you go.
26 See, today I am letting you choose a blessing or a curse. 27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God. I am giving them to you today. 28 But you will be cursed if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God. So do not disobey the commands I am giving you today. Do not worship other gods you do not know. 29 The Lord your God will bring you into the land you will own. Then you are to announce the blessings from Mount Gerizim. Announce the curses from Mount Ebal. 30 These mountains are on the other side of the Jordan River. They are west, toward the sunset. They are near the great trees of Moreh. They are in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley opposite Gilgal. 31 You will soon cross the Jordan River. You will enter and take the land the Lord your God is giving you. You will take it over and live there. 32 Then be careful to obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today.
The Place for Worship
12 These are the commands and laws you must carefully obey in the land the Lord your God is giving you. Obey them as long as you live in the land. 2 You will inherit the lands of these nations. You must completely destroy all the places where they serve their gods. These places are on high mountains and hills and under every green tree. 3 Tear down their altars. Smash their holy stone pillars. Burn their Asherah idols. Cut down their idols. Destroy their names from those places.
4 Don’t worship the Lord your God that way. 5 But look for the place the Lord your God will choose. He will choose a place among your tribes where he is to be worshiped. Go there. 6 Bring to that place your burnt offerings and sacrifices. Bring a tenth of what you gain and your special gifts. Bring what you have promised and the special gifts you want to give the Lord. And bring the first animals born to your herds and flocks.
7 There you will be together with the Lord your God. There you and your families will eat. And you will enjoy all the good things for which you have worked. The Lord your God has blessed you.
8 Do not worship the way we have been doing today. Each person does what he thinks is right. 9 You have not yet come to a resting place. The Lord your God will give you your own land. 10 But you will soon cross the Jordan River. And you will live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to own. And he will give you rest from all your enemies. You will live in safety. 11 Then the Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. To that place you must bring everything I tell you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your offerings of a tenth of what you gain, your special gifts and all your best things you promised to the Lord. 12 There rejoice before the Lord your God. Everyone should rejoice: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns, who have no land of their own. 13 Be careful. Don’t sacrifice your burnt offerings just anywhere you please. 14 Offer them only in the place the Lord will choose. He will choose a place in one of your tribes. And there you must do everything I am commanding you.
15 But you may kill your animals in any of your towns. And you may eat as much of the meat as you want. Eat it as if it were a deer or a gazelle. This is the blessing the Lord your God is giving you. Anyone, clean or unclean, may eat this meat. 16 But do not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. 17 Do not eat in your own towns what belongs to the Lord: one-tenth of your grain, new wine or oil; the first animals born to your herds or flocks; whatever you have promised to give; the special gifts you want to give to the Lord, or any other gifts. 18 Eat these things when you are together with the Lord. Eat them in the place the Lord your God chooses to be worshiped. Everyone must do this: you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns. Rejoice in the Lord’s presence about the things you have worked for. 19 Be careful not to forget the Levites as long as you live in the land.
20 The Lord your God will enlarge your country as he has promised. And you will want some meat. You will say, “I want some meat.” Eat as much meat as you want. 21 The Lord your God will choose a place where he is to be worshiped. But it may be too far away from you. If it is, you may kill animals from your herds and flocks. The Lord has given them to you. I have commanded that you may do this. You may eat as much of them as you want in your own towns. 22 Eat them as you would eat gazelle or deer meat. Both clean and unclean people may eat this meat. 23 But be sure you don’t eat the blood. The life is in the blood. Don’t eat the life with the meat. 24 Don’t eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water. 25 Don’t eat it. Then things will go well for you and your children. You will be doing what the Lord says is right.
26 Take your holy things and the things you have promised to give. And go to the place the Lord will choose. 27 Present your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. Offer both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices should be poured beside the altar. But you may eat the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all the rules I am giving you. Then things will always go well for you and your children. You will be doing what the Lord your God says is good and right.
29 You will enter the land and take it away from the nations there. The Lord your God will destroy those nations ahead of you. You will force them out and live in their land. 30 They will be destroyed for you. Be careful not to be trapped by asking about their gods. Don’t say, “How do these nations worship? I will do the same.” 31 Don’t worship the Lord your God that way. The Lord hates the evil ways they worship their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods!
32 Be sure to do everything I have commanded you. Do not add anything to it. And do not take anything away from it.
God Sends His Son
12 Jesus used stories to teach the people. He said, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it and dug a hole for a winepress. Then he built a tower. He leased the vineyard to some farmers and left for a trip. 2 Later, it was time for the grapes to be picked. So the man sent a servant to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. 3 But the farmers grabbed the servant and beat him. They sent him away with nothing. 4 Then the man sent another servant. They hit him on the head and showed no respect for him. 5 So the man sent another servant. They killed this servant. The man sent many other servants. The farmers beat some of them and killed others.
6 “The man had one person left to send, his son whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘The farmers will respect my son.’
7 “But they said to each other, ‘This is the owner’s son. This vineyard will be his. If we kill him, then it will be ours.’ 8 So they took the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “So what will the man who owns the vineyard do? He will go to the vineyard and kill those farmers. Then he will give the vineyard to other farmers. 10 Surely you have read this Scripture:
‘The stone that the builders did not want
became the cornerstone.
11 The Lord did this,
and it is wonderful to us.’” Psalm 118:22-23
12 The Jewish leaders knew that the story was about them. So they wanted to find a way to arrest Jesus, but they were afraid of the people. So the leaders left him and went away.
The Leaders Try to Trap Jesus
13 Later, the Jewish leaders sent some Pharisees and some men from the group called Herodians[a] to Jesus. They wanted to catch Jesus saying something wrong. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are an honest man. You are not afraid of what other people think about you. All men are the same to you. And you teach the truth about God’s way. Tell us: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them, or not?”
15 But Jesus knew what these men were really trying to do. He said, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a silver coin. Let me see it.” 16 They gave Jesus a coin, and he asked, “Whose picture is on the coin? And whose name is written on it?”
They answered, “Caesar’s.”
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. And give to God the things that are God’s.” The men were amazed at what Jesus said.
Sadducees Try to Trick Jesus
18 Then some Sadducees came to Jesus. (Sadducees believe that no person will rise from death.) The Sadducees asked Jesus a question. 19 They said, “Teacher, Moses wrote that a man’s brother might die. He leaves a wife but no children. Then that man must marry the widow and have children for the dead brother. 20 There were seven brothers. The first brother married but died. He had no children. 21 So the second brother married the widow. But he also died and had no children. The same thing happened with the third brother. 22 All seven brothers married her and died. None of the brothers had any children. The woman was last to die. 23 But all seven brothers had married her. So at the time people rise from death, whose wife will the woman be?”
24 Jesus answered, “Why did you make this mistake? Is it because you don’t know what the Scriptures say? Or is it because you don’t know about the power of God? 25 When people rise from death, there will be no marriage. People will not be married to each other but will be like angels in heaven. 26 Surely you have read what God said about people rising from death. In the book in which Moses wrote about the burning bush,[b] it says that God told Moses this: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[c] 27 God is the God of living people, not dead people. You Sadducees are wrong!”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.