Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

New American Standard Bible

Promises of God

¹²“^(A)Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep ^[a]His covenant with you and ^[b]His faithfulness which He swore to your forefathers. ¹³And He will ^(B)love you, bless you, and ^(C)make you numerous; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the newborn of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, ^[c]in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you. ¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no sterile male or ^(D)infertile female among you or among your cattle. ¹⁵And ^(E)the Lord will remove from you all sickness; and He will not inflict upon you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you. ¹⁶You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will turn over to you; ^(F)your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be ^(G)a snare to you.

¹⁷“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I ^(H)dispossess them?’ ¹⁸you are not to be afraid of them; you shall ^(I)remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: ¹⁹^(J)the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders, and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. ²⁰Indeed, the Lord your God will send ^(K)the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. ²¹You are not to be terrified of them, because ^(L)the Lord your God is in your midst, ^(M)a great and awesome God. ²²^(N)And the Lord your God will drive away these nations from you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, otherwise the ^[d]wild animals would become too numerous for you. ²³^(O)But the Lord your God will turn them over to you, and will ^[e]throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴^(P)And He will hand over their kings to you, so that you will eliminate their name from under heaven; ^(Q)no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. ²⁵The carved images of their gods you are to ^(R)burn with fire; you shall ^(S)not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be ^(T)trapped by it; for it is an ^(U)abomination to the Lord your God. ²⁶And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become ^(V)designated for destruction, like it; you are to utterly detest it, and you are to utterly loathe it, for it is something designated for destruction.

God’s Gracious Dealings

8 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you ^(W)may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers. ²^(X)And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has ^(Y)led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, ^(Z)putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you ^[f]understand that ^(AA)man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord. ⁴^(AB)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ⁵^(AC)So you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to ^[g]fear Him. ⁷For ^(AD)the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills; ⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰When ^(AE)you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹“Be careful that you do not ^(AF)forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹²otherwise, ^(AG)when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them, ¹³and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases, ¹⁴then your heart will ^[h]become proud and you will ^(AH)forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[i]slavery; ¹⁵He who led you through ^(AI)the great and terrible wilderness, with its ^(AJ)fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who ^(AK)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna ^(AL)which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to ^(AM)put you to the test, to do good for you ^[j]in the end. ¹⁷Otherwise, ^(AN)you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸But you are to remember the Lord your God, for ^(AO)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹And it shall come about, if you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, ^(AP)I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. ²⁰Like the nations that the Lord eliminates from you, so ^(AQ)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess ^(AR)nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and ^(AS)fortified to heaven, ²a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(AT)Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’ ³So be aware today that ^(AU)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over ahead of you as ^(AV)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(AW)you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴“^(AX)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them away from ^[k]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is ^(AY)because of the ^[l]wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵It is ^(AZ)not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, ^[m]but it is because of the ^[n]wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm ^(BA)the ^[o]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶“Know, 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 ^(BB)a ^[p]stubborn people. ⁷Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to anger in the wilderness; ^(BC)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸Even ^(BD)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to anger, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; ^(BE)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(BF)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹It came about ^(BG)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹²^(BH)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have ^(BI)quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ ¹³The ^(BJ)Lord also said to ^[q]me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[r]^(BK)stubborn people. ¹⁴^(BL)Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(BM)wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵“^(BN)So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes! ¹⁸^(BO)Then I fell down before the Lord ^(BP)like the first time, for forty days and nights; ^(BQ)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(BR)because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹For ^(BS)I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the Lord was angry with you so as to destroy you; ^(BT)but the Lord listened to me that time as well. ²⁰The Lord was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ²¹^(BU)And I took your ^[s]sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²“Then at ^(BV)Taberah, at ^(BW)Massah, and at ^(BX)Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the Lord to anger. ²³And when the Lord sent you from ^(BY)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(BZ)Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the ^[t]command of the Lord your God; ^(CA)you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice. ²⁴^(CB)You have been rebellious toward the Lord since the day I knew you.

²⁵“^(CC)So I fell down before the Lord for the forty days and nights, which I ^[u]did because the Lord said He would destroy you. ²⁶^(CD)And I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand! ²⁷Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin. ²⁸Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “^(CE)Since the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[v]promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!” ²⁹Yet they are Your people, and ^(CF)Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your ^(CG)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘^(CH)Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first two, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^(CI)make an ^[w]ark of wood for yourself. ²Then ^(CJ)I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you smashed to pieces, and ^(CK)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³So ^(CL)I made an ark of acacia wood and ^(CM)cut out two tablets of stone like the first two, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴Then He wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, ^(CN)the Ten ^[x]Commandments ^(CO)which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(CP)on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me. ⁵Then I turned and ^(CQ)came down from the mountain, and I ^(CR)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(CS)and they are there, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶(Now the sons of Israel set out from ^[y]Beeroth ^(CT)Bene-jaakan to Moserah. ^(CU)There Aaron died and there he was buried, and his son Eleazar served as priest in his place. ⁷^(CV)From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water. ⁸^(CW)At that time the Lord singled out the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord ^(CX)to serve Him and to bless in His name, until this day. ⁹^(CY)Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰“^(CZ)I, moreover, stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the Lord listened to me that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

¹²“^(DA)And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to ^[z]fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(DB)love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with ^(DC)all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴Behold, ^(DD)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the ^[aa]highest heavens, ^(DE)the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵^(DF)Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their ^[ab]descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶^(DG)So circumcise ^[ac]your heart, and do not ^(DH)stiffen your neck any longer. ¹⁷^(DI)For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the ^(DJ)Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, ^(DK)who does not show partiality, nor ^(DL)take a bribe. ¹⁸He executes justice for ^(DM)the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹^(DN)So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and ^(DO)cling to Him, and ^(DP)you shall swear by His name. ²¹He is ^(DQ)your glory and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. ²²^(DR)Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^(DS)and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “You shall therefore ^(DT)love the Lord your God, and always ^(DU)keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. ²Know this day ^(DV)that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ^[ad]discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm, ³and ^(DW)His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^(DX)when He made the water of the ^[ae]Red Sea ^[af]engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord ^[ag]completely eliminated them; ⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place; ⁶and ^(DY)what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and ^(DZ)every living thing that ^[ah]followed them, among all Israel— ⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, ^(EA)so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ⁹and ^(EB)so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their ^[ai]descendants, ^(EC)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it ^[aj]by your foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹But ^(ED)the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹²a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(EE)the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it, from the ^[ak]beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³“And it shall come about, ^(EF)if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, ^(EG)to love the Lord your God and to serve Him ^(EH)with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴that ^[al]^(EI)He will provide rain for your land in its season, the ^[am]^(EJ)early and ^[an]late rain, so that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ¹⁵^[ao]^(EK)He will also provide grass in your field for your cattle, and ^(EL)you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶^[ap]^(EM)Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them. ¹⁷Otherwise, ^(EN)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will ^(EO)shut up the sky ^(EP)so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then ^(EQ)you will quickly perish from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸“^(ER)You shall therefore take these words of mine to ^[aq]heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your ^[ar]hand, and they shall be as ^[as]frontlets ^[at]on your forehead. ¹⁹^(ES)You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. ²⁰^(ET)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹so that ^(EU)your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[au]^(EV)long as the heavens are above the earth. ²²For if you are ^(EW)careful to keep all of this commandment which I am commanding you to do, ^(EX)to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(EY)cling to Him, ²³then the Lord will ^[av]^(EZ)dispossess all these nations from you, and you will ^[aw]^(FA)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴^(FB)Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; ^(FC)your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as ^[ax]the western sea. ²⁵^(FD)No one will be able to stand against you; the Lord your God will ^[ay]instill the dread of you and the fear of you in all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.