Deuteronomy 9-12

1Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

2The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?”

3But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you.

4When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

5It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6Understand, 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.

7Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

8At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

9When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

10Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.

11And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

12And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

13The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

14Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

15So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.

16And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. 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, shattering them before your eyes.

18Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.

19For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

20The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron.

21And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

23And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.” But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.

24You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

25So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

26And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

27Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.

28Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

29But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

1At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.”

3So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

4And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me,

5and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.

6The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest.

7From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

8At 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 to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.

9That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.

10I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

11Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

12And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good?

14Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

15Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.

16Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.

17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

19So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

21He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen.

22Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

1You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

2Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm;

3the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land;

4what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

5what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place;

6and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them.

7For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done.

8You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,

9and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden.

11But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven.

12It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year.

13So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

15And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.

16But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

17or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you.

18Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

20Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates,

21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers.

22For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

23then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you.

24Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.

25No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you.

26See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse—

27a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,

28but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

29When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?

31For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it,

32be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

1These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess.

2Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.

3Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

4You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way.

5Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.

6To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

7There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you.

8You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

9For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

10When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely,

11then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.

12And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.

13Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

14you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,

16but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

17Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.

18Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do,

19and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.

20When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want.

21If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want.

22Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it.

23Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

24You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.

25Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

26But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose.

27Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat.

28Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

29When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land,

30be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

31You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.