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Deuteronomy 9-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Deuteronomy 9-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Consequences of Rebelling against God
9 “Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens,(A) 2 a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said, ‘Who can stand up to the Anakim?’(B) 3 Know, then, today that the Lord your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.(C)
4 “When the Lord your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to occupy this land’; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.(D) 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the Lord made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.(E)
6 “Know, then, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.(F) 7 Remember; do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the Lord from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.
8 “Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.(G) 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.(H) 10 And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly.(I) 11 At the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up; go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.’(J) 13 Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people.(K) 14 Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven, and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’(L)
15 “So I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was ablaze; the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.(M) 16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image;[a] you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you.(N) 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight.(O) 19 For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.(P) 20 The Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but I interceded also on behalf of Aaron at that same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing you had made, the calf, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly, until it was reduced to dust, and I threw the dust into the stream that runs down the mountain.(Q)
22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.(R) 23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and occupy the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has[b] known you.(S)
25 “Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you,(T) 26 I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy your people, your very own possession, whom you redeemed in your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.(U) 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; pay no attention to the stubbornness of this people, their wickedness and their sin, 28 lest the land from which you have brought us say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land that he promised them and because he hated them, he has brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.” 29 For they are your people, your very own possession, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’(V)
The Second Pair of Tablets
10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.(W) 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.’(X) 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.(Y) 4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments[c] that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly, and the Lord gave them to me.(Z) 5 So I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made, and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”(AA)
6 (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan[d] to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.(AB) 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.(AC) 8 At 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 minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.(AD) 9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)(AE)
10 “I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.(AF) 11 The Lord said to me, ‘Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.’
The Essence of the Law
12 “So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,(AG) 13 and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 14 Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,(AH) 15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.(AI) 16 Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.(AJ) 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe,(AK) 18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.(AL) 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.(AM) 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; him you shall serve; to him you shall hold fast; and by his name you shall swear.(AN) 21 He is your praise; he is your God who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen.(AO) 22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.(AP)
Rewards for Obedience
11 “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.(AQ) 2 Remember today that it was not your children (who have not known or seen the discipline of the Lord your God), but it is you who must acknowledge his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,(AR) 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to their horses and chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea[e] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day;(AS) 5 what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben, how in the midst of all Israel the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households, their tents, and every living being in their company;(AT) 7 for it is your own eyes that have seen every great deed that the Lord did.
8 “Keep, then, the entire commandment that I am commanding you today, so that you may have strength to go in and occupy the land that you are crossing over to occupy(AU) 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.(AV) 10 For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden. 11 But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys watered by rain from the sky,(AW) 12 a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
13 “If you will only heed his every commandment[f] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul(AX)— 14 then he[g] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil,(AY) 15 and he[h] will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.(AZ) 16 Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,(BA) 17 for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield its produce; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.(BB)
18 “You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.(BC) 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up.(BD) 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,(BE) 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
22 “If you will diligently observe this entire commandment that I am commanding you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,(BF) 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.(BG) 24 Every place on which you set foot shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the River Euphrates, to the Western Sea.(BH) 25 No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will put the fear and dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, as he promised you.(BI)
26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:(BJ) 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;(BK) 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.(BL)
29 “When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that you are entering to occupy, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.(BM) 30 As you know, they are beyond the Jordan, some distance to the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak[i] of Moreh.(BN)
31 “When you cross the Jordan to go in to occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you and when you occupy it and live in it,(BO) 32 you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
Deuteronomy 9-11
New International Version
Deuteronomy 9-11
New International Version
Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness
9 Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan(A) to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you,(B) with large cities(C) that have walls up to the sky.(D) 2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”(E) 3 But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you(F) like a devouring fire.(G) He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly,(H) as the Lord has promised you.
4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself,(I) “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness(J) of these nations(K) that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity(L) that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness(M) of these nations,(N) the Lord your God will drive them out(O) before you, to accomplish what he swore(P) to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.(Q) 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.(R)
The Golden Calf
7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the anger(S) of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious(T) against the Lord.(U) 8 At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrath(V) so that he was angry enough to destroy you.(W) 9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant(X) that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days(Y) and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.(Z) 10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.(AA) On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.(AB)
11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights,(AC) the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,(AD) the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.(AE) They have turned away quickly(AF) from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”
13 And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people(AG), and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! 14 Let me alone,(AH) so that I may destroy them and blot out(AI) their name from under heaven.(AJ) And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”
15 So 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.(AK) 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.(AL) You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.
18 Then once again I fell(AM) prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,(AN) because of all the sin you had committed,(AO) doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. 19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.(AP) But again the Lord listened to me.(AQ) 20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. 21 Also 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(AR) and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.(AS)
22 You also made the Lord angry(AT) at Taberah,(AU) at Massah(AV) and at Kibroth Hattaavah.(AW)
23 And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,(AX) he said, “Go up and take possession(AY) of the land I have given you.” But you rebelled(AZ) against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust(BA) him or obey him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.(BB)
25 I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nights(BC) because the Lord had said he would destroy you.(BD) 26 I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,(BE) your own inheritance(BF) that you redeemed(BG) by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.(BH) 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness(BI) of this people, their wickedness and their sin. 28 Otherwise, the country(BJ) 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,(BK) he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’(BL) 29 But they are your people,(BM) your inheritance(BN) that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.(BO)”
Tablets Like the First Ones
10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets(BP) 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.”(BQ)
3 So I made the ark out of acacia wood(BR) and chiseled(BS) out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments(BT) he had proclaimed(BU) to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.(BV) And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountain(BW) and put the tablets in the ark(BX) I had made,(BY) as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.(BZ)
6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.(CA) There Aaron died(CB) and was buried, and Eleazar(CC) his son succeeded him as priest.(CD) 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.(CE) 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi(CF) to carry the ark of the covenant(CG) of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister(CH) and to pronounce blessings(CI) in his name, as they still do today.(CJ) 9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(CK) as the Lord your God told them.)
10 Now 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.(CL) 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
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you(CM) but to fear(CN) the Lord your God, to walk(CO) in obedience to him, to love him,(CP) to serve the Lord(CQ) your God with all your heart(CR) and with all your soul,(CS) 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands(CT) and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?(CU)
14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens,(CV) even the highest heavens,(CW) the earth and everything in it.(CX) 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved(CY) them, and he chose you,(CZ) their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.(DA) 16 Circumcise(DB) your hearts,(DC) therefore, and do not be stiff-necked(DD) any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods(DE) and Lord of lords,(DF) the great God, mighty and awesome,(DG) who shows no partiality(DH) and accepts no bribes.(DI) 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow,(DJ) and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.(DK) 19 And you are to love(DL) those who are foreigners,(DM) for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.(DN) 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him.(DO) Hold fast(DP) to him and take your oaths in his name.(DQ) 21 He is the one you praise;(DR) he is your God, who performed for you those great(DS) and awesome wonders(DT) you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all,(DU) and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.(DV)
Love and Obey the Lord
11 Love(DW) the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.(DX) 2 Remember today that your children(DY) were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God:(DZ) his majesty,(EA) his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;(EB) 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;(EC) 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots,(ED) how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea[b](EE) as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he did(EF) to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened(EG) its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.(EH)
8 Observe therefore all the commands(EI) I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,(EJ) 9 and so that you may live long(EK) in the land the Lord swore(EL) to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.(EM) 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt,(EN) from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys(EO) that drinks rain from heaven.(EP) 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes(EQ) of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13 So if you faithfully obey(ER) the commands I am giving you today—to love(ES) the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul(ET)— 14 then I will send rain(EU) on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains,(EV) so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass(EW) in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.(EX)
16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.(EY) 17 Then the Lord’s anger(EZ) will burn against you, and he will shut up(FA) the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce,(FB) and you will soon perish(FC) from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.(FD) 19 Teach them to your children,(FE) talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.(FF) 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,(FG) 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many(FH) in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.(FI)
22 If you carefully observe(FJ) all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love(FK) the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast(FL) to him— 23 then the Lord will drive out(FM) all these nations(FN) before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.(FO) 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours:(FP) Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River(FQ) to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror(FR) and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.(FS)
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing(FT) and a curse(FU)— 27 the blessing(FV) if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey(FW) the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods,(FX) which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim(FY) the blessings, and on Mount Ebal(FZ) the curses.(GA) 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh,(GB) in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.(GC) 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession(GD) of the land the Lord your God is giving(GE) you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 10:1 That is, a chest
- Deuteronomy 11:4 Or the Sea of Reeds
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