Deuteronomy 3:13-14

New King James Version

^13 (A)The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh. (All the region of Argob, with all Bashan, was called the land of the ^[a]giants. ^14 (B)Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, ^(C)as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and ^(D)called Bashan after his own name, ^[b]Havoth Jair, to this day.)

¹⁵ “Also I gave ^(E)Gilead to Machir. ¹⁶ And to the Reubenites ^(F)and the Gadites I gave from Gilead as far as the River Arnon, the middle of the river as the border, as far as the River Jabbok, ^(G)the border of the people of Ammon; ¹⁷ the plain also, with the Jordan as the border, from Chinnereth ^(H)as far as the east side of the Sea of the Arabah ^(I)(the Salt Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸ “Then I commanded you at that time, saying: ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. ^(J)All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. ¹⁹ But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock (I know that you have much livestock) shall stay in your cities which I have given you, ²⁰ until the Lord has given ^(K)rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may ^(L)return to his possession which I have given you.’

²¹ “And ^(M)I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings; so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms through which you pass. ²² You must not fear them, for ^(N)the Lord your God Himself fights for you.’

Moses Forbidden to Enter the Land

²³ “Then ^(O)I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying: ²⁴ ‘O Lord God, You have begun to show Your servant ^(P)Your greatness and Your ^[c]mighty hand, for ^(Q)what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? ²⁵ I pray, let me cross over and see ^(R)the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.’

²⁶ “But the Lord ^(S)was angry with me on your account, and would not listen to me. So the Lord said to me: ‘Enough of that! Speak no more to Me of this matter. ^27 (T)Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. ²⁸ But ^(U)command^[d] Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’

²⁹ “So we stayed in ^(V)the valley opposite Beth Peor.

Moses Commands Obedience

4 “Now, O Israel, listen to ^(W)the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and ^[e]possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. ^2 (X)You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. ³ Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at ^(Y)Baal Peor; for the Lord your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you.

⁵ “Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. ⁶ Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is ^(Z)your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

⁷ “For ^(AA)what great nation is there that has ^(AB)God^[f] so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? ⁸ And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? ⁹ Only take heed to yourself, and diligently ^(AC)keep yourself, lest you ^(AD)forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And ^(AE)teach them to your children and your grandchildren, ¹⁰ especially concerning ^(AF)the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

¹¹ “Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. ^12 (AG)And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no ^[g]form; ^(AH)you only heard a voice. ^13 (AI)So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, ^(AJ)the Ten Commandments; and ^(AK)He wrote them on two tablets of stone. ¹⁴ And ^(AL)the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might ^[h]observe them in the land which you cross over to possess.

Beware of Idolatry

^15 (AM)“Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no ^(AN)form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, ¹⁶ lest you ^(AO)act corruptly and ^(AP)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[i]form of any figure: ^(AQ)the likeness of male or female, ¹⁷ the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, ¹⁸ the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. ¹⁹ And take heed, lest you ^(AR)lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, ^(AS)all the host of heaven, you feel driven to ^(AT)worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has ^[j]given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage. ²⁰ But the Lord has taken you and ^(AU)brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be ^(AV)His people, an inheritance, as you are this day. ²¹ Furthermore ^(AW)the Lord was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that ^(AX)I would not cross over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. ²² But ^(AY)I must die in this land, ^(AZ)I must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and ^[k]possess ^(BA)that good land. ²³ Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, ^(BB)and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. ²⁴ For ^(BC)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(BD)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(BE)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ^26 (BF)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not ^[l]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(BG)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(BH)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(BI)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (BJ)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in ^[m]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(BK)latter days, when you ^(BL)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor ^(BM)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “For ^(BN)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(BO)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ^33 (BP)Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴ Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, ^(BQ)by trials, ^(BR)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(BS)by a mighty hand and ^(BT)an outstretched arm, ^(BU)and by great ^[n]terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; ^(BV)there is none other besides Him. ^36 (BW)Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(BX)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[o]descendants after them; and ^(BY)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ^38 (BZ)driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that ^(CA)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ^40 (CB)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[p]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[q]prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Cities of Refuge East of the Jordan

⁴¹ Then Moses ^(CC)set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, ^42 (CD)that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without having hated him in time past, and that by fleeing to one of these cities he might live: ^43 (CE)Bezer in the wilderness on the plateau for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

Introduction to God’s Law

⁴⁴ Now this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. ⁴⁵ These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, ⁴⁶ on this side of the Jordan, ^(CF)in the valley opposite Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel ^(CG)defeated^[r] after they came out of Egypt. ⁴⁷ And they took possession of his land and the land ^(CH)of Og king of Bashan, two kings of the Amorites, who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the ^[s]rising of the sun, ^48 (CI)from Aroer, which is on the bank of the River Arnon, even to Mount ^[t]Sion (that is, ^(CJ)Hermon), ⁴⁹ and all the plain on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the ^(CK)slopes of Pisgah.

The Ten Commandments Reviewed^(CL)

5 And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. ^2 (CM)The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³ The Lord ^(CN)did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. ^4 (CO)The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire. ^5 (CP)I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for ^(CQ)you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain. He said:

²² “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And ^(DK)He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

The People Afraid of God’s Presence^(DL)

^23 (DM)“So it was, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders. ²⁴ And you said: ‘Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and ^(DN)we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he ^(DO)still lives. ²⁵ Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; ^(DP)if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die. ^26 (DQ)For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? ²⁷ You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and ^(DR)tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’

²⁸ “Then the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: ‘I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken to you. ^(DS)They are right in all that they have spoken. ^29 (DT)Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and ^(DU)always keep all My commandments, ^(DV)that it might be well with them and with their children forever! ³⁰ Go and say to them, “Return to your tents.” ³¹ But as for you, stand here by Me, ^(DW)and I will speak to you all the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I am giving them to possess.’

³² “Therefore you shall ^[ab]be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; ^(DX)you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³³ You shall walk in ^(DY)all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live ^(DZ)and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

The Greatest Commandment

6 “Now this is ^(EA)the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, ^2 (EB)that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, ^(EC)and that your days may be prolonged. ³ Therefore hear, O Israel, and ^[ac]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may ^(ED)multiply greatly ^(EE)as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—^(EF)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’

^4 (EG)“Hear, O Israel: ^[ad]The Lord our God, the Lord is one! ^5 (EH)You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, ^(EI)with all your soul, and with all your strength.

⁶ “And ^(EJ)these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ^7 (EK)You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^8 (EL)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^9 (EM)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Caution Against Disobedience

¹⁰ “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He ^[ae]swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities ^(EN)which you did not build, ¹¹ houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant—^(EO)when you have eaten and are full— ¹² then beware, lest you forget the ^(EP)Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ You shall ^(EQ)fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and ^(ER)shall take oaths in His name. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, ^(ES)the gods of the peoples who are all around you ¹⁵ (for ^(ET)the Lord your God is a jealous God ^(EU)among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth.

^16 (EV)“You shall not ^[af]tempt the Lord your God ^(EW)as you ^[ag]tempted Him in Massah. ¹⁷ You shall ^(EX)diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. ¹⁸ And you ^(EY)shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land of which the Lord swore to your fathers, ^19 (EZ)to cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

^20 (FA)“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ ²¹ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(FB)with a mighty hand; ²² and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. ²³ Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He ^[ah]swore to our fathers. ²⁴ And the Lord commanded us to ^[ai]observe all these ^[aj]statutes, ^(FC)to fear the Lord our God, ^(FD)for our good always, that ^(FE)He might preserve us alive, as it is ^[ak]this day. ²⁵ Then ^(FF)it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

A Chosen People^(FG)

7 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to ^(FH)possess, and has cast out many ^(FI)nations before you, ^(FJ)the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, ² and when the Lord your God delivers ^(FK)them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. ^(FL)You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. ^3 (FM)Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. ⁴ For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; ^(FN)so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. ⁵ But thus you shall deal with them: you shall ^(FO)destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their ^[al]wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶ “For you are a ^[am]holy people to the Lord your God; ^(FP)the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. ⁷ The Lord did not set His ^(FQ)love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were ^(FR)the least of all peoples; ⁸ but ^(FS)because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep ^(FT)the oath which He swore to your fathers, ^(FU)the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of ^[an]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, ^(FV)the faithful God ^(FW)who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; ¹⁰ and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not ^[ao]be ^(FX)slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face. ¹¹ Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

Blessings of Obedience^(FY)

¹² “Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. ¹³ And He will ^(FZ)love you and bless you and ^[ap]multiply you; ^(GA)He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He ^[aq]swore to your fathers to give you. ¹⁴ You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female ^(GB)barren among you or among your livestock. ¹⁵ And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the ^(GC)terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. ¹⁶ Also you shall ^[ar]destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will ^(GD)be a snare to you.

¹⁷ “If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’— ¹⁸ you shall not be afraid of them, but you shall ^(GE)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ^19 (GF)the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ^20 (GG)Moreover the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. ²¹ You shall not be terrified of them; for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. ²² And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you ^(GH)little by little; you will be unable to ^[as]destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. ²⁴ And ^(GI)He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven; ^(GJ)no one shall be able to stand ^[at]against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵ You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not ^(GK)covet^[au] the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶ Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, ^(GL)for it is an ^[av]accursed thing.

Remember the Lord Your God

8 “Every commandment which I command you today ^(GM)you must ^[aw]be careful to observe, that you may live and ^(GN)multiply,^[ax] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord ^[ay]swore to your fathers. ² And you shall remember that the Lord your God ^(GO)led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and ^(GP)test you, ^(GQ)to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ So He humbled you, ^(GR)allowed you to hunger, and ^(GS)fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall ^(GT)not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. ^4 (GU)Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (GV)You should ^[az]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, ^(GW)to walk in His ways and to fear Him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(GX)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ^10 (GY)When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ^12 (GZ)lest—when you have eaten and are ^[ba]full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are ^[bb]multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ^14 (HA)when your heart ^[bc]is lifted up, and you ^(HB)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who ^(HC)led you through that great and terrible wilderness, ^(HD)in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; ^(HE)who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with ^(HF)manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, ^(HG)to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, ^(HH)for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, ^(HI)that He may ^[bd]establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, ^(HJ)I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, ^(HK)so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel’s Rebellions Reviewed^(HL)

9 “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the ^(HM)descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ ³ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who ^(HN)goes over before you as a ^(HO)consuming fire. ^(HP)He will destroy them and bring them down before you; ^(HQ)so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.

^4 (HR)“Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is ^(HS)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. ^5 (HT)It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may ^[be]fulfill the ^(HU)word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a ^(HV)stiff-necked^[bf] people.

⁷ “Remember! Do not forget how you ^(HW)provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(HX)From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Also ^(HY)in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you. ^9 (HZ)When I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and ^(IA)forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ^10 (IB)Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(IC)in^[bg] the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord said to me, ^(ID)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have ^(IE)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made themselves a molded image.’

¹³ “Furthermore ^(IF)the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed ^(IG)they are a ^[bh]stiff-necked people. ^14 (IH)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(II)blot out their name from under heaven; ^(IJ)and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

^15 (IK)“So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(IL)the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(IM)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and ^(IN)broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ And I ^(IO)fell^[bi] down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ^19 (IP)For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was angry with you, to destroy you. ^(IQ)But the Lord listened to me at that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I ^(IR)threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²² “Also at ^(IS)Taberah and ^(IT)Massah and ^(IU)Kibroth Hattaavah you ^[bj]provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ Likewise, ^(IV)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ^(IW)you did not believe Him nor obey His voice. ^24 (IX)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (IY)“Thus I ^[bk]prostrated myself before the Lord; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ Therefore I prayed to the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people and ^(IZ)Your inheritance whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

The Second Pair of Tablets^(JA)

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^[bl]‘Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain and make yourself an ^(JB)ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and ^(JC)you shall put them in the ark.’

³ “So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten ^[bm]Commandments, ^(JD)which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(JE)came down from the mountain, and ^(JF)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(JG)and there they are, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron ^(JH)died, and where he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his ^[bn]stead. ^7 (JI)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of ^[bo]rivers of water. ⁸ At that time ^(JJ)the Lord ^[bp]separated the tribe of Levi ^(JK)to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, ^(JL)to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and ^(JM)to bless in His name, to this day. ^9 (JN)Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “As at the first time, ^(JO)I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; ^(JP)the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. ^11 (JQ)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(JR)what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to ^(JS)love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today ^(JT)for your ^[bq]good? ¹⁴ Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the ^(JU)Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their ^[br]descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your ^(JV)heart, and be ^(JW)stiff-necked^[bs] no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(JX)God of gods and ^(JY)Lord of lords, the great God, ^(JZ)mighty and awesome, who ^(KA)shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. ^18 (KB)He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ^20 (KC)You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. ²¹ He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Love and Obedience Rewarded

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. ² Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the ^[bt]chastening of the Lord your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— ³ His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: ^(KD)how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day; ⁵ what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(KE)what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was ^[bu]in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— ⁷ but your eyes have ^(KF)seen every great ^[bv]act of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(KG)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(KH)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(KI)which the Lord ^[bw]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(KJ)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (KK)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(KL)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[bx]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then ^(KM)I^[by] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(KN)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (KO)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(KP)eat and be ^[bz]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(KQ)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(KR)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(KS)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(KT)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(KU)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore ^(KV)you shall ^[ca]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your ^(KW)soul, and ^(KX)bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19 (KY)You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^20 (KZ)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that ^(LA)your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like ^(LB)the days of the heavens above the earth.

²² “For if ^(LC)you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and ^(LD)to hold fast to Him— ²³ then the Lord will ^(LE)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(LF)dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. ^24 (LG)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: ^(LH)from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the ^[cb]Western Sea, shall be your territory. ²⁵ No man shall be able to ^(LI)stand ^[cc]against you; the Lord your God will put the ^(LJ)dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

^26 (LK)“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (LL)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸ and the ^(LM)curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. ²⁹ Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the ^(LN)blessing on Mount Gerizim and the ^(LO)curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, ^(LP)beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? ³¹ For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. ³² And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

A Prescribed Place of Worship

12 “These ^(LQ)are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, ^(LR)all^[cd] the days that you live on the earth. ^2 (LS)You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, ^(LT)on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. ³ And ^(LU)you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their ^[ce]wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. ⁴ You shall not ^(LV)worship the Lord your God with such things.

⁵ “But you shall seek the ^(LW)place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His ^(LX)dwelling^[cf] place; and there you shall go. ^6 (LY)There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^(LZ)firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ And ^(MA)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(MB)you shall rejoice in ^[cg]all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—^(MC)every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— ⁹ for as yet you have not come to the ^(MD)rest^[ch] and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you ^(ME)rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, ¹¹ then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And ^(MF)you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the ^(MG)Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. ¹³ Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; ¹⁴ but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵ “However, ^(MH)you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; ^(MI)the unclean and the clean may eat of it, ^(MJ)of the gazelle and the deer alike. ^16 (MK)Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ¹⁷ You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the ^[ci]heave offering of your hand. ¹⁸ But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in ^[cj]all to which you put your hands. ^19 [ck]Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God ^(ML)enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. ²¹ If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from ^(MM)you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. ²² Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, ^(MN)for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, ^(MO)that it may go well with you and your children after you, ^(MP)when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ Only the ^(MQ)holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. ²⁷ And ^(MR)you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. ²⁸ Observe and obey all these words which I command you, ^(MS)that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Beware of False Gods

²⁹ “When ^(MT)the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, ³⁰ take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ ^31 (MU)You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every ^[cl]abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for ^(MV)they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³² “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; ^(MW)you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Punishment of Apostates

13 “If there arises among you a prophet or a ^(MX)dreamer of dreams, ^(MY)and he gives you a sign or a wonder, ² and ^(MZ)the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ ³ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God ^(NA)is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ⁴ You shall ^(NB)walk^[cm] after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and ^(NC)hold fast to Him. ⁵ But ^(ND)that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^(NE)So you shall ^[cn]put away the evil from your midst.

^6 (NF)“If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, ^(NG)the wife ^[co]of your bosom, or your friend ^(NH)who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, ⁷ of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, ⁸ you shall ^(NI)not ^[cp]consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; ⁹ but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to ^(NJ)death, and afterward the hand of all the people. ¹⁰ And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹¹ So all Israel shall hear and ^(NK)fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you.

^12 (NL)“If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell in, saying, ^13 [cq]‘Corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let us go and serve other gods” ’—which you have not known— ¹⁴ then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[cr]abomination was committed among you, ¹⁵ you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword. ¹⁶ And you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street, and ^[cs]completely ^(NM)burn with fire the city and all its plunder, for the Lord your God. It shall be ^(NN)a ^[ct]heap forever; it shall not be built again. ^17 (NO)So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may ^(NP)turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you and ^[cu]multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers, ¹⁸ because you have listened to the voice of the Lord your God, ^(NQ)to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

Improper Mourning

14 “You are ^(NR)the children of the Lord your God; ^(NS)you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[cv]shave the front of your head for the dead. ^2 (NT)For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Clean and Unclean Meat^(NU)

^3 (NV)“You shall not eat any ^[cw]detestable thing. ^4 (NW)These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ⁵ the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ^[cx]mountain goat, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. ⁶ And you may eat every animal with cloven hooves, having the hoof split into two parts, and that chews the cud, among the animals. ⁷ Nevertheless, of those that chew the cud or have cloven hooves, you shall not eat, such as these: the camel, the hare, and the rock hyrax; for they chew the cud but do not have cloven hooves; they are unclean for you. ⁸ Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh ^(NX)or touch their dead carcasses.

^9 (NY)“These you may eat of all that are in the waters: you may eat all that have fins and scales. ¹⁰ And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “All clean birds you may eat. ^12 (NZ)But these you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, ¹³ the red kite, the falcon, and the kite after their kinds;