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.’^{(A) 13} Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen that this people is indeed a stubborn people.^{(B) 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.’^(C)

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.^{(D) 16} Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image;^[a] you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you.^{(E) 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.^{(F) 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.^{(G) 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.^(H)

²² “At Taberah also, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked the Lord to wrath.^{(I) 23} And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and occupy the land that I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, neither trusting him nor obeying him. ²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord as long as he has^[b] known you.^(J)

²⁵ “Throughout the forty days and forty nights that I lay prostrate before the Lord when the Lord intended to destroy you,^{(K) 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.^{(L) 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.’^(M)

The Healing of Aeneas

³² Now as Peter went here and there among all the brothers and sisters,^[a] he came down also to the saints living in Lydda.^{(A) 33} There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. ³⁴ Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And immediately he got up.^{(B) 35} And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.^(C)

Peter in Lydda and Joppa

³⁶ Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas.^[b] She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.^{(D) 37} At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs.^{(E) 38} Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.”^{(F) 39} So Peter got up and went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.^{(G) 40} Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.^{(H) 41} He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.^{(I) 42} This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. ⁴³ Meanwhile, he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.^(J)

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)

Peter and Cornelius

10 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. ² He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. ³ One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.”^{(A) 4} He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.^{(B) 5} Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; ⁶ he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.”^{(C) 7} When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, ⁸ and after telling them everything he sent them to Joppa.

⁹ About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.^{(D) 10} He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while it was being prepared he fell into a trance.^{(E) 11} He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners.^{(F) 12} In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. ¹³ Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.”^{(G) 15} The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”^{(H) 16} This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

¹⁷ Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate.^{(I) 18} They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Look, three^[a] men are searching for you.^{(J) 20} Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” ²¹ So Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?” ²² They answered, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous^[b] and God-fearing man who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish people, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.”^{(K) 23} So Peter^[c] invited them in and gave them lodging.

The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers and sisters from Joppa accompanied him.^(L)