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.^{(A) 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.’^{(B) 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.^{(C) 4} Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments^[a] 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.^{(D) 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.”^(E)

⁶ (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan^[b] to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.^{(F) 7} From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.^{(G) 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.^{(H) 9} Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)^(I)

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.^{(J) 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,^{(K) 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,^{(L) 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.^{(M) 16} Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.^{(N) 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,^{(O) 18} who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.^{(P) 19} You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.^{(Q) 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.^{(R) 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.^{(S) 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.^(T)

Rewards for Obedience

11 “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.^{(U) 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,^{(V) 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^[c] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day;^{(W) 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;^{(X) 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^{(Y) 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.^{(Z) 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,^{(AA) 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^[d] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul^(AB)— ¹⁴ then he^[e] 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,^{(AC) 15} and he^[f] will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.^{(AD) 16} Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,^{(AE) 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.^(AF)

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.^{(AG) 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.^{(AH) 20} Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,^{(AI) 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,^{(AJ) 23} then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.^{(AK) 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.^{(AL) 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.^(AM)

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:^{(AN) 27} the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today;^{(AO) 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.^(AP)

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.^{(AQ) 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^[g] of Moreh.^(AR)

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,^{(AS) 32} you must diligently observe all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.^(AT)

² “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^[h] with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.^{(AU) 4} You shall not serve the Lord your God in such ways. ⁵ But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there,^{(AV) 6} bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.^(AW)

⁸ “You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹ for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety,^{(AX) 11} then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.^{(AY) 12} And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).^(AZ)

A Prescribed Place of Worship

¹³ “Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. ¹⁴ But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything I command you.^(BA)

¹⁵ “Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.^{(BB) 16} The blood, however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.^{(BC) 17} Nor may you eat within your towns the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; ¹⁸ these you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that the Lord your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God in all your undertakings.^{(BD) 19} Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.^(BE)

²⁰ “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I am going to eat some meat,’ because you wish to eat meat, you may eat meat whenever you have the desire.^{(BF) 21} If the place where the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you, and you slaughter as I have commanded you any of your herd or flock that the Lord has given you, then you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. ²² Indeed, just as gazelle or deer is eaten, so you may eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it.^{(BG) 23} Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the meat.^{(BH) 24} Do not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.^{(BI) 26} But the sacred donations that are due from you and your votive gifts you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.^{(BJ) 27} You shall present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; the blood of your other sacrifices shall be poured out beside^[i] the altar of the Lord your God, but the meat you may eat.

²⁸ “Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.^(BK)

Warning against Idolatry

²⁹ “When the Lord your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, ³⁰ take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you; do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also want to do the same.’ ³¹ You must not do the same for the Lord your God, because every abhorrent thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.^{(BL) 32 [j]}You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.^(BM)