Deuteronomy 8–10

Do Not Forget the Lord

8Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live^t and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.^{u 2}Remember how the Lord your God led^v you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test^w you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³He humbled^x you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,^y which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach^z you that man does not live on bread^a alone but on every word that comes from the mouth^b of the Lord.^{c 4}Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.^{d 5}Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.^e

⁶Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him^f and revering him.^{g 7}For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land^h—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;^{i 8}a land with wheat and barley,^j vines^k and fig trees,^l pomegranates, olive oil and honey;^{m 9}a land where breadⁿ will not be scarce and you will lack nothing;^o a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.^p

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied,^q praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget^r the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,^{s 13}and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget^t the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness,^u that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes^v and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.^{w 16}He gave you manna^x to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known,^y to humble and test^z you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷You may say to yourself,^a “My power and the strength of my hands^b have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,^c and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

¹⁹If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods^d and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.^{e 20}Like the nations^f the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.^g

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

9Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan^h to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you,ⁱ with large cities^j that have walls up to the sky.^{k 2}The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”^{l 3}But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you^m like a devouring fire.ⁿ He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly,^o as the Lord has promised you.

⁴After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself,^p “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness^q of these nations^r that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. ⁵It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity^s that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness^t of these nations,^u the Lord your God will drive them out^v before you, to accomplish what he swore^w to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.^{x 6}Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.^y

The Golden Calf

⁷Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger^z of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious^a against the Lord.^{b 8}At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath^c so that he was angry enough to destroy you.^{d 9}When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant^e that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days^f and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.^{g 10}The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.^h On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.ⁱ

¹¹At the end of the forty days and forty nights,^j the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,^k the tablets of the covenant. ¹²Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.^l They have turned away quickly^m from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this peopleⁿ, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴Let me alone,^o so that I may destroy them and blot out^p their name from under heaven.^q And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

¹⁵So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.^{r 16}When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.^s You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

¹⁸Then once again I fell^t prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,^u because of all the sin you had committed,^v doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. ¹⁹I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.^w But again the Lord listened to me.^{x 20}And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. ²¹Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust^y and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.^z

²²You also made the Lord angry^a at Taberah,^b at Massah^c and at Kibroth Hattaavah.^d

²³And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,^e he said, “Go up and take possession^f of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled^g against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust^h him or obey him. ²⁴You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.ⁱ

²⁵I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights^j because the Lord had said he would destroy you.^{k 26}I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,^l your own inheritance^m that you redeemedⁿ by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.^{o 27}Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness^p of this people, their wickedness and their sin. ²⁸Otherwise, the country^q from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them,^r he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’^{s 29}But they are your people,^t your inheritance^u that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.^v”

Tablets Like the First Ones

10At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets^w like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.^{a 2}I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”^x

³So I made the ark out of acacia wood^y and chiseled^z out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments^a he had proclaimed^b to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.^c And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵Then I came back down the mountain^d and put the tablets in the ark^e I had made,^f as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.^g

⁶(The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.^h There Aaron diedⁱ and was buried, and Eleazar^j his son succeeded him as priest.^{k 7}From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.^{l 8}At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi^m to carry the ark of the covenantⁿ of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister^o and to pronounce blessings^p in his name, as they still do today.^{q 9}That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,^r as the Lord your God told them.)

¹⁰Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.^{s 11}“Go,” the Lord said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

Fear the Lord

¹²And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you^t but to fear^u the Lord your God, to walk^v in obedience to him, to love him,^w to serve the Lord^x your God with all your heart^y and with all your soul,^{z 13}and to observe the Lord’s commands^a and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?^b

¹⁴To the Lord your God belong the heavens,^c even the highest heavens,^d the earth and everything in it.^{e 15}Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved^f them, and he chose you,^g their descendants, above all the nations—as it is…