Deuteronomy 9–11

Chapter 9

Israel Provoked God

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“Know therefore today that ^ait is the Lord 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 drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴“^aDo not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before ¹you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^bbecause of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord 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 the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm ^bthe ¹oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶“Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^aa ¹stubborn people.

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

⁸“Even ^aat Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord 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 the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^aI neither ate bread nor drank water.

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

¹¹“It came about ^aat the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²“^aThen the Lord 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“The ^aLord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^1bstubborn 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 greater 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 the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.

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

¹⁸“^aI fell down before the Lord, ^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 the Lord to provoke Him to anger.

¹⁹“For ^aI was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, ^bbut the Lord listened to me that time also.

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

²¹“^aI 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 the Lord to wrath.

²³“When the Lord sent you from ^aKadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^bGo up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ¹command of the Lord your God; ^cyou neither believed Him nor listened to His voice.

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

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

²⁶“^aI prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, 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 look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin.

²⁸‘Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “^aBecause the Lord 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 slay them 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 the Lord said to me, ‘^aCut 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‘^aI 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 ^bcut out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

⁴“He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, ^athe Ten ¹Commandments ^bwhich the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^con the day of the assembly; and the Lord 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 the Lord 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 the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord ^bto serve Him and to bless in His name until this day.

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

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

¹¹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, proceed 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.’

¹²“^aNow, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to ¹fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^blove Him, and to serve the Lord your God with ^call your heart and with all your soul,

¹³and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

¹⁴“Behold, ^ato the Lord your God belong heaven and the ¹highest heavens, ^bthe earth and all that is in it.

¹⁵“^aYet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their ¹descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.

¹⁶“^aSo circumcise ¹your heart, and ^bstiffen your neck no longer.

¹⁷“^aFor the Lord your God is the God of gods and the ^bLord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God ^cwho does not show partiality nor ^dtake a bribe.

¹⁸“He executes justice for ^athe orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.

¹⁹“^aSo show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

²⁰“You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and ^acling to Him, and ^byou shall swear by His name.

²¹“He is ^ayour praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

²²“^aYour fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^band now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Chapter 11

Rewards of Obedience

¹“You shall therefore ^alove the Lord your God, and always ^bkeep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

²“Know this day ^athat I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ¹discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm,

³and ^aHis signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land;

⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^awhen He made the water of the ¹Red Sea to ²engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord ³completely destroyed them;

⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

⁶and ^awhat He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and ^bevery living thing that ¹followed them, among all Israel—

⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, ^aso that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;

^9aso that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their ¹descendants, ^ba land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰“For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your ¹foot like a vegetable garden.

¹¹“But ^athe land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,

¹²a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^athe eyes…