Deuteronomy 9–11

¹‘Hear, Israel, thou art passing over to-day the Jordan, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself; cities great and fenced in the heavens; ²a people great and tall, sons of Anakim, whom thou—thou hast known, (and thou—thou hast heard: Who doth station himself before sons of Anak?) ³and thou hast known to-day, that Jehovah thy God is He who is passing over before thee—a fire consuming; He doth destroy them, and He doth humble them before thee, and thou hast dispossessed them, and destroyed them hastily, as Jehovah hath spoken to thee.

⁴‘Thou dost not speak in thy heart (in Jehovah thy God’s driving them away from before thee), saying, For my righteousness hath Jehovah brought me in to possess this land, seeing for the wickedness of these nations is Jehovah dispossessing them from thy presence; ⁵not for thy righteousness, and for the uprightness of thy heart, art thou going in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations is Jehovah thy God dispossessing them from before thee; and in order to establish the word which Jehovah hath sworn to thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; ⁶and thou hast known, that not for thy righteousness is Jehovah thy God giving to thee this good land to possess it, for a people stiff of neck thou art.

⁷‘Remember—do not forget—that with which thou hast made Jehovah thy God wroth in the wilderness; even from the day that thou hast come out of the land of Egypt till your coming in unto this place rebels ye have been with Jehovah; ⁸even in Horeb ye have made Jehovah wroth, and Jehovah sheweth Himself angry against you—to destroy you.

⁹‘In my going up into the mount to receive the tables of stone (tables of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you), and I abide in the mount forty days and forty nights; bread I have not eaten, and water I have not drunk; ¹⁰and Jehovah giveth unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and on them according to all the words which Jehovah hath spoken with you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly.

¹¹‘And it cometh to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, Jehovah hath given unto me the two tables of stone—tables of the covenant, ¹²and Jehovah saith unto me, Rise, go down, hasten from this, for thy people hath done corruptly, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt; they have turned aside hastily out of the way which I have commanded them—they have made to themselves a molten thing!

¹³‘And Jehovah speaketh unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and lo, a people stiff of neck it is; ¹⁴desist from Me, and I destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens, and I make thee become a nation more mighty and numerous than it.

¹⁵‘And I turn, and come down from the mount, and the mount is burning with fire, and the two tables of the covenant on my two hands, ¹⁶and I see, and lo, ye have sinned against Jehovah your God; ye have made to yourselves a molten calf; ye have turned aside hastily out of the way which Jehovah hath commanded you.

¹⁷‘And I lay hold on the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and break them before your eyes, ¹⁸and I throw myself before Jehovah, as at first, forty days and forty nights; bread I have not eaten, and water I have not drunk, because of all your sins which ye have sinned, by doing the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to make Him angry.

¹⁹‘For I have been afraid because of the anger and the fury with which Jehovah hath been wroth against you, to destroy you; and Jehovah doth hearken unto me also at this time.

²⁰‘And with Aaron hath Jehovah shewed himself very angry, to destroy him, and I pray also for Aaron at that time; ²¹and your sin, which ye have made—the calf—I have taken, and I burn it with fire, and beat it, grinding well till that it is small as dust, and I cast its dust unto the brook which is going down out of the mount.

²²‘And in Taberah, and in Massah, and in Kibroth-Hattaavah, ye have been making Jehovah wroth: ²³and in Jehovah’s sending you from Kadesh-Barnea, saying, Go up, and possess the land which I have given to you, then ye provoke the mouth of Jehovah your God, and have not given credence to Him, nor hearkened to His voice; ²⁴rebels ye have been with Jehovah from the day of my knowing you.

²⁵‘And I throw myself before Jehovah, the forty days and the forty nights, as I had thrown myself, for Jehovah hath said—to destroy you; ²⁶and I pray unto Jehovah, and say, Lord Jehovah, destroy not Thy people, and Thine inheritance, whom Thou hast ransomed in Thy greatness; whom Thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand; ²⁷be mindful of Thy servants, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, turn not unto the stiffness of this people, and unto its wickedness, and unto its sin; ²⁸lest the land say from which Thou hast brought us out, Because of Jehovah’s want of ability to bring them in unto the land of which He hath spoken to them, and because of His hating them, He brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness; ²⁹and they are Thy people, and Thine inheritance, whom Thou hast brought out by Thy great power, and by Thy stretched-out arm!

Chapter 10

¹‘At that time hath Jehovah said unto me, Grave for thee two tables of stone, like the first, and come up unto Me, into the mount, and thou hast made for thee an ark of wood, ²and I write on the tables the words which were on the first tables, which thou hast broken, and thou hast placed them in the ark; ³and I make an ark of shittim wood, and grave two tables of stone like the first, and go up to the mount, and the two tables in my hand.

⁴‘And He writeth on the tables, according to the first writing, the Ten Matters, which Jehovah hath spoken unto you in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly, and Jehovah giveth them unto me, ⁵and I turn and come down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made, and they are there, as Jehovah commanded me.

⁶‘And the sons of Israel have journeyed from Beeroth of the sons of Jaakan to Mosera, there Aaron died, and he is buried there, and Eleazar his son doth act as priest in his stead; ⁷thence they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

⁸‘At that time hath Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, to stand before Jehovah, to serve Him, and to bless in His name, unto this day, ⁹therefore there hath not been to Levi a portion and inheritance with his brethren; Jehovah Himself is his inheritance, as Jehovah thy God hath spoken to him.

¹⁰‘And I—I have stood in the mount, as the former days, forty days and forty nights, and Jehovah hearkeneth unto me also at that time; Jehovah hath not willed to destroy thee.

¹¹‘And Jehovah saith unto me, Rise, go to journey before the people, and they go in and possess the land which I have sworn to their fathers to give to them.

¹²‘And now, Israel, what is Jehovah thy God asking from thee, except 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 commands of Jehovah, and His statutes which I am commanding thee to-day, for good to thee?

¹⁴‘Lo, to Jehovah thy God are the heavens and the heavens of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it; ¹⁵only in thy fathers hath Jehovah delighted—to love them, and He doth fix on their seed after them—on you, out of all the peoples as at this day; ¹⁶and ye have circumcised the foreskin of your heart, and your neck ye do not harden any more; ¹⁷for Jehovah your God—He is God of the gods, and Lord of the lords; God, the great, the mighty, and the fearful; who accepteth not persons, nor taketh a bribe; ¹⁸He is doing the judgment of fatherless and widow, and loving the sojourner, to give to him bread and raiment.

¹⁹‘And ye have loved the sojourner, for sojourners ye were in the land of Egypt.

²⁰‘Jehovah thy God thou dost fear, Him thou dost serve, and to Him thou dost cleave, and by His name thou dost swear. ²¹He is thy praise, and He is thy God, who hath done with thee these great and fearful things which thine eyes have seen: ²²with seventy persons did thy fathers go down to Egypt, and now hath Jehovah thy God made thee as stars of the heavens for multitude.

Chapter 11

¹‘And thou hast loved Jehovah thy God, and kept His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commands, all the days; ²and ye have known to-day—for it is not your sons who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Jehovah your God, His greatness, His strong hand, and His stretched-out arm, ³and His signs, and His doings, which He hath done in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴and that which He hath done to the force of Egypt, to its horses, and to its chariot, when He hath caused the waters of the Red Sea to flow against their faces in their pursuing after them, and Jehovah destroyeth them, unto this day; ⁵and that which He hath done to you in the wilderness, till your coming in unto this place; ⁶and that which He hath done to Dathan, and to Abiram, sons of Eliab, sons of Reuben, when the earth hath opened her mouth and swalloweth them, and their houses, and their tents, and all that liveth, which is at their feet, in the midst of all Israel:

⁷‘—But it is your eyes which are seeing all the great work of Jehovah, which He hath done.

⁸And ye have kept all the command which I am commanding thee to-day, so that ye are strong, and have gone in, and possessed the land whither ye are passing over to possess it, ⁹and so that ye prolong days on the ground which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers to give to them and to their seed—a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰‘For the land whither thou art going in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt whence ye have come out, where thou sowest thy seed, and hast watered with thy foot, as a garden of the green herb; ¹¹but the land whither ye are passing over to possess it, is a…