Deuteronomy 8–10

CHAPTER 8

Do Not Forget Yahweh Your God

¹“The entire commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you ^amay live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers.

²“^aAnd you shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has ^bled you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ^ctesting you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

³“And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that ^aman does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.

⁴“^aYour clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

⁵“^aThus you shall know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

⁶“So you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways and to ¹fear Him.

⁷“For ^aYahweh your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

⁹a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

¹⁰“And so ^ayou will eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹“¹Beware lest you ^aforget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today;

¹²lest ^ayou eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them,

¹³and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,

¹⁴and your heart becomes ¹lifted up and you ^aforget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ²slavery.

¹⁵“He led you through ^athe great and fearsome wilderness, with its ^bfiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He ^cbrought water for you out of the rock of flint.

¹⁶“In the wilderness He fed you manna ^awhich your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might ^btest you, to do good for you ¹in the end,

¹⁷lest ^ayou say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.’

¹⁸“But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for ^ait is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

¹⁹“Now it will be, if you ever forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^aI testify against you today that you will surely perish.

²⁰“Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so ^ayou shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

CHAPTER 9

Israel Provoked Yahweh

¹“Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^anations greater and mightier than you, great cities ^1bfortified to heaven,

²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^aWho can stand before the sons of Anak?’

³“So you shall know today that ^ait is Yahweh your God who is crossing over before you as ^ba consuming fire. He will destroy them, and He will subdue them before you, so that ^cyou may dispossess them and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.

⁴“^aDo not say in your heart when Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^bbecause of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is dispossessing them before you.

⁵“It is ^anot for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to confirm ^bthe ¹oath which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶“So you shall know it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^aa ¹stiff-necked people.

⁷“Remember, do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^afrom the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

⁸“Even ^aat Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you.

⁹“When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh had cut with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^aI neither ate bread nor drank water.

¹⁰“And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone ^awritten by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which Yahweh had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

¹¹“Now it happened ^aat the end of forty days and nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²“^aThen Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^bquickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’

¹³“^aYahweh spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, ¹they are a ^2bstiff-necked people.

¹⁴‘^aLet Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^bblot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’

¹⁵“^aSo I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶“And I saw that you had indeed sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which Yahweh had commanded you.

¹⁷“And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and shattered them before your eyes.

¹⁸“^aAnd I fell down before Yahweh, ^bas at the first, forty days and nights; ^cI neither ate bread nor drank water ^dbecause of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke Him to anger.

¹⁹“For ^aI was afraid of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was provoked against you in order to destroy you, ^bbut Yahweh listened to me that time also.

²⁰“And Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

²¹“^aNow I took your ¹sinful thing, the calf which 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 its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

²²“Again at ^aTaberah and at ^bMassah and at ^cKibroth-hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath.

²³“When Yahweh sent you from ^aKadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^bGo up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh your God; ^cyou did not believe Him, and you did not listen to His voice.

²⁴“^aYou have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you.

²⁵“^aSo I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and the forty nights, which I ¹did because Yahweh had said He would destroy you.

²⁶“^aAnd I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘O Lord Yahweh, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²⁷‘Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stiff-neck of this people or at their wickedness or their sin,

²⁸lest the land from which You brought us say, “^aBecause Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which He had ¹promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.”

²⁹‘Yet they are Your people, even ^aYour inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^bgreat power and Your outstretched arm.’

CHAPTER 10

The Tablets Rewritten

¹“At that time Yahweh said to me, ‘^aCarve out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^bmake an ark of wood for yourself.

²‘^aAnd I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and ^byou shall put them in the ark.’

³“So ^aI made an ark of acacia wood and ^bcarved out two tablets of stone like the former ones and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

⁴“And He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, ^athe Ten ¹Commandments ^bwhich Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^con the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me.

⁵“Then I turned and ^acame down from the mountain and ^bput the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^cand there they are, as Yahweh commanded me.”

⁶(Now the sons of Israel set out from ¹Beeroth ^aBene-jaakan to Moserah. ^bThere Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place.

^7aFrom there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

^8aAt that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh ^bto minister for Him and to bless in His name to this day.

^9aTherefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, just as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰“^aI, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you.

¹¹“Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹²“^aSo now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you, but to ¹fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and ^blove Him, and to serve Yahweh your God…