Deuteronomy 9–11

Chapter 9

Hear, O Israel: Thou shalt go over the Jordan this day; to possess nations very great, and stronger than thyself, cities great, and walled up to the sky,

²A people great and tall, the sons of the Enacims, whom thou hast seen, and heard of, against whom no man is able to stand.

³Thou shalt know therefore this day that the Lord thy God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.

⁴Say not in thy heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my justice hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness.

⁵For it is not for thy justices, and the uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that the Lord might accomplish his word, which he promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices, for thou art a very stiffnecked people.

⁷Remember, and forget not how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou camest out of Egypt unto this place, thou hast always strove against the Lord.

⁸For in Horeb, also thou didst provoke him, and he was angry, and would have destroyed thee,

⁹When I went up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you: and I continued in the mount forty days and nights, neither eating bread, nor drinking water.

¹⁰And the Lord gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and containing all the words that he spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the fire, when the people were assembled together.

¹¹And when forty days were passed, and as many nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant,

¹²And said to me: Arise, and go down from hence quickly: for thy people, which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have quickly forsaken the way that thou hast shewn them, and have made to themselves a molten idol.

¹³And again the Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

¹⁴Let me alone that I may destroy them, and abolish their name from under heaven, and set thee over a nation, that is greater and stronger than this.

¹⁵And when I came down from the burning mount, and held the two tables of the covenant with both hands,

¹⁶And saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewn you:

¹⁷I cast the tables out of my hands, and broke them in your sight.

¹⁸And I fell down before the Lord as before, forty days and nights neither eating bread, nor drinking water, for all your sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath:

¹⁹For I feared his indignation and anger, wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you. And the Lord heard me this time also.

²⁰And he was exceeding angry against Aaron also, and would have destroyed him, and I prayed in like manner for him.

²¹And your sin that you had committed, that is, the calf, I took, and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces, until it was as small as dust, I threw it into the torrent, which cometh down from the mountain.

²²At the burning also, and at the place of temptation, and at the graves of lust you provoked the Lord:

²³And when he sent you from Cadesbarne, saying: Go up, and possess the land that I have given you, and you slighted the commandment of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, neither would you hearken to his voice:

²⁴But were always rebellious from the day that I began to know you.

²⁵And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened:

²⁶And praying, I said: O Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²⁷Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and sin:

²⁸Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the land that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out, that he might kill them in the wilderness,

²⁹Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arm.

Chapter 10

At that time the Lord said to me: Hew thee two tables of stone like the former, and come up to me into the mount: and thou shalt make an ark of wood,

²And I will write on the tables the words that were in them, which thou brokest before, and thou shalt put them in the ark.

³And I made an ark of setim wood. And when I had hewn two tables of stone like the former, I went up into the mount, having them in my hands.

⁴And he wrote in the tables, according as he had written before, the ten words, which the Lord spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the fire, when the people were assembled: and he gave them to me.

⁵And returning from the mount, I came down, and put the tables into the ark, that I had made, and they are there till this present, as the Lord commanded me.

⁶And the children of Israel removed their camp from Beroth, of the children of Jacan into Mosera, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him in the priestly office.

⁷From thence they came to Gadgad, from which place they departed, and camped in Jetebatha, in a land of waters and torrents.

⁸At that time he separated the tribe of Levi, to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to stand before him in the ministry, and to bless in his name until this present day.

⁹Wherefore Levi hath no part nor possession with his brethren: because the Lord himself is his possession, as the Lord thy God promised him.

¹⁰And I stood in the mount, as before, forty days and nights: and the Lord heard me this time also, and would not destroy thee.

¹¹And he said to me: Go, and walk before the people, that they may enter, and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers that I would give them.

¹²And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and love him, and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul:

¹³And keep the commandments of the Lord, and his ceremonies, which I command thee this day, that it may be well with thee?

¹⁴Behold heaven is the Lord’s thy God, and the heaven of heaven, the earth and all things that are therein.

¹⁵And yet the Lord hath been closely joined to thy fathers, and loved them and chose their seed after them, that is to say, you, out of all nations, as this day it is proved.

¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.

¹⁷Because the Lord your God he is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, a great God and mighty and terrible, who accepteth no person nor taketh bribes.

¹⁸He doth judgment to the fatherless and the widow, loveth the stranger, and giveth him food and raiment.

¹⁹And do you therefore love strangers, because you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²⁰Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him only: to him thou shalt adhere, and shalt swear by his name.

²¹He is thy praise, and thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thy eyes have seen.

²²In seventy souls thy fathers went down into Egypt: and behold now the Lord thy God hath multiplied thee as the stars of heaven.

Chapter 11

Therefore love the Lord thy God and observe his precepts and ceremonies, his judgments and commandments at all times.

²Know this day the things that your children know not, who saw not the chastisements of the Lord your God, his great doings and strong hand, and stretched out arm,

³The signs and works which he did in the midst of Egypt to king Pharao, and to all his land,

⁴And to all the host of the Egyptians, and to their horses and chariots: how the waters of the Red Sea covered them, when they pursued you, and how the Lord destroyed them until this present day:

⁵And what he hath done to you in the wilderness, till you came to this place:

⁶And to Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab, who was the son of Ruben: whom the earth, opening her mouth swallowed up with their households and tents, and all their substance, which they had in the midst of Israel.

⁷Your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord, that he hath done,

⁸That you may keep all his commandments, which I command you this day, and may go in, and possess the land, to which you are entering,

⁹And may live in it a long time: which the Lord promised by oath to your fathers, and to their seed, a land which floweth with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land, which thou goest to possess, is not like the land of Egypt, from whence thou camest out, where, when the seed is sown, waters are brought in to water it after the manner of gardens.

¹¹But it is a land of hills and plains, expecting rain from heaven.

¹²And the Lord thy God doth always visit it, and his eyes are on it from the beginning of the year unto the end thereof.

¹³If then you obey my commandments, which I command you this day, that you love the Lord your God, and serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul:

¹⁴He will give to your land the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your wine, and your oil,

¹⁵And your hay out of the fields to feed your cattle, and that you may eat and be filled.

¹⁶Beware lest perhaps your heart be deceived, and you depart from the Lord, and serve strange gods, and adore them:

¹⁷And the Lord being angry shut up heaven, that the rain come not down,…