Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Blessings for Obedience
12 “If you heed these ordinances by diligently observing them, the Lord your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;(A) 13 he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.(B) 14 You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.(C) 15 The Lord will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.(D) 16 You shall devour all the peoples that the Lord your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.(E)
17 “If you say to yourself, ‘These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?’ 18 do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,(F) 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and wonders, 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.(G) 20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send swarms of hornets[a] against them until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed.(H) 21 Have no dread of them, for the Lord your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.(I) 22 The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.(J) 23 But the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great panic until they are destroyed. 24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.(K) 25 The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it, for it is abhorrent to the Lord your God.(L) 26 Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.
A Warning Not to Forget God in Prosperity
8 “The entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.(M) 2 Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.(N) 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.(O) 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.(P) 5 Know, then, in your heart that, as a parent disciplines a child, so the Lord your God disciplines you.(Q) 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.(R) 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills,(S) 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.(T)
11 “Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes that I am commanding you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them 13 and when your herds and flocks have multiplied and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery,(U) 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous[b] snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock.(V) 16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good.(W) 17 Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.(X) 19 If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.(Y) 20 Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
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,(Z) 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?’(AA) 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.(AB)
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.(AC) 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.(AD)
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.(AE) 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.(AF) 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.(AG) 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.(AH) 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.’(AI) 13 Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people.(AJ) 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.’(AK)
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.(AL) 16 Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image;[c] you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you.(AM) 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.(AN) 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.(AO) 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.(AP)
22 “At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.(AQ) 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[d] known you.(AR)
25 “Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you,(AS) 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.(AT) 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.’(AU)
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.(AV) 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.’(AW) 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.(AX) 4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments[e] 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.(AY) 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.”(AZ)
6 (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan[f] to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.(BA) 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.(BB) 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.(BC) 9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)(BD)
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.(BE) 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,(BF) 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,(BG) 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.(BH) 16 Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.(BI) 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,(BJ) 18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.(BK) 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.(BL) 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.(BM) 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.(BN) 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.(BO)
Rewards for Obedience
11 “You shall love the Lord your God, therefore, and keep his charge, his decrees, his ordinances, and his commandments always.(BP) 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,(BQ) 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[g] flow over them as they pursued you, so that the Lord has destroyed them to this day;(BR) 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;(BS) 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(BT) 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.(BU) 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,(BV) 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[h] that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul(BW)— 14 then he[i] 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,(BX) 15 and he[j] will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.(BY) 16 Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them,(BZ) 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.(CA)
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.(CB) 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.(CC) 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,(CD) 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,(CE) 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier than you.(CF) 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.(CG) 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.(CH)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.