Deuteronomy 9–11

9Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak? ³Know therefore this day, that Jehovah thy God is he who goeth over before thee as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before thee: so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Jehovah hath spoken unto thee. ⁴Speak not thou in thy heart, after that Jehovah thy God hath thrust them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness Jehovah hath brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Jehovah doth drive them out from before thee. ⁵Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Jehovah thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may establish the word which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶Know therefore, that Jehovah thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. ⁷Remember, forget thou not, how thou provokedst Jehovah thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou wentest forth out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against Jehovah. ⁸Also in Horeb ye provoked Jehovah to wrath, and Jehovah was angry with you to destroy you. ⁹When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Jehovah made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. ¹⁰And Jehovah delivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which Jehovah spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. ¹¹And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Jehovah gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. ¹²And Jehovah said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people that thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image. ¹³Furthermore Jehovah spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: ¹⁴let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they. ¹⁵So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against Jehovah your God; ye had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which Jehovah had commanded you. ¹⁷And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes. ¹⁸And I fell down before Jehovah, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith Jehovah was wroth against you to destroy you. But Jehovah hearkened unto me that time also. ²⁰And Jehovah was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.

²²And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked Jehovah to wrath. ²³And when Jehovah sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of Jehovah your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. ²⁴Ye have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you.

²⁵So I fell down before Jehovah the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Jehovah had said he would destroy you. ²⁶And I prayed unto Jehovah, and said, O Lord Jehovah, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, that thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, that thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin, ²⁸lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring them into the land which he promised unto them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. ²⁹Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm.

10At that time Jehovah said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. ²And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. ³So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in my hand. ⁴And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Jehovah spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Jehovah gave them unto me. ⁵And I turned and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Jehovah commanded me. ⁶(And the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead. ⁷From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ⁸At that time Jehovah set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, to stand before Jehovah to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. ⁹Wherefore Levi hath no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; Jehovah is his inheritance, according as Jehovah thy God spake unto him.) ¹⁰And I stayed in the mount, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Jehovah hearkened unto me that time also; Jehovah would not destroy thee. ¹¹And Jehovah said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.

¹²And now, Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee, but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, ¹³to keep the commandments of Jehovah, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? ¹⁴Behold, unto Jehovah thy God belongeth heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. ¹⁵Only Jehovah had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day. ¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. ¹⁷For Jehovah your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. ¹⁸He doth execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loveth the sojourner, in giving him food and raiment. ¹⁹Love ye therefore the sojourner; for ye were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; him shalt thou serve; and to him shalt thou cleave, and by his name shalt thou swear. ²¹He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. ²²Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now Jehovah thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

11Therefore thou shalt love Jehovah thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, alway. ²And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children that have not known, and that have not seen the chastisement of Jehovah 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 unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; ⁴and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Jehovah hath destroyed them unto this day; ⁵and what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place; ⁶and what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel: ⁷but your eyes have seen all the great work of Jehovah which he did.

⁸Therefore shall ye keep all the commandment which I command thee this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go over to possess it; ⁹and that ye may prolong your days in the land, which Jehovah sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; ¹¹but the land, whither ye go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven, ¹²a land which Jehovah thy God careth for: the eyes of Jehovah thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the…