Not Because of Righteousness

9 “Hear, O Israel: you are ^(A)to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations ^(B)greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ² a people great and tall, ^(C)the sons of the Anakim, ^(D)whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that he who ^(E)goes over before you ^(F)as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. ^(G)So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

^4 (H)“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is ^(I)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. ^5 (J)Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm ^(K)the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶ “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are ^(L)a stubborn people. ⁷ Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. ^(M)From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(N)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. ^9 (O)When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain ^(P)forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And ^(Q)the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(R)on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ^(S)‘Arise, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(T)turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them; they have made themselves a metal image.’

The Golden Calf

^13 (U)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(V)a stubborn people. ^14 (W)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(X)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(Y)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ^15 (Z)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(AA)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And ^(AB)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(AC)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸ Then I ^(AD)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(AE)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(AF)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(AG)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹ Then ^(AH)I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.

²² “At ^(AI)Taberah also, and at ^(AJ)Massah and at ^(AK)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ And ^(AL)when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God and ^(AM)did not believe him or obey his voice. ^24 (AN)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

^25 (AO)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ^26 (AP)And I prayed to the Lord, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy your people and your heritage, 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 regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which you brought us say, ^(AQ)“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 put them to death in the wilderness.” ^29 (AR)For they are your people and your heritage, whom you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.’

New Tablets of Stone

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ^(AS)‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and ^(AT)make an ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and ^(AU)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark ^(AV)of acacia wood, and ^(AW)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And ^(AX)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^{[b] (AY)}that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(AZ)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(BA)came down from the mountain and ^(BB)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(BC)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (The people of Israel ^(BD)journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan^[c] to Moserah. ^(BE)There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. ^7 (BF)From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. ⁸ At that time ^(BG)the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ^(BH)to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord ^(BI)to stand before the Lord to minister to him and ^(BJ)to bless in his name, to this day. ^9 (BK)Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)

^10 (BL)“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, ^(BM)and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ^11 (BN)And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹² “And now, Israel, ^(BO)what does the Lord your God require of you, but ^(BP)to fear the Lord your God, ^(BQ)to walk in all his ways, ^(BR)to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and ^(BS)to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today ^(BT)for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(BU)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, ^(BV)the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet ^(BW)the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶ Circumcise therefore ^(BX)the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer ^(BY)stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is ^(BZ)God of gods and ^(CA)Lord of lords, ^(CB)the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is ^(CC)not partial and takes no bribe. ^18 (CD)He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ^19 (CE)Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ^20 (CF)You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and ^(CG)hold fast to him, and ^(CH)by his name you shall swear. ^21 (CI)He is your praise. He is your God, ^(CJ)who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt ^(CK)seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you ^(CL)as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Love and Serve the Lord

11 ^(CM)“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and ^(CN)keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. ² And consider today (since I am not speaking to ^(CO)your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline^[d] of the Lord your God, ^(CP)his greatness, ^(CQ)his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, ^3 (CR)his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, ⁴ and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, ^(CS)how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, ⁵ and ^(CT)what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, ⁶ and ^(CU)what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. ⁷ For your eyes have seen ^(CV)all the great work of the Lord that he did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may ^(CW)be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, ⁹ and ^(CX)that you may live long in the land ^(CY)that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ^(CZ)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,^[e] like a garden of vegetables. ^11 (DA)But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, ¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. ^(DB)The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, ^(DC)to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, ^14 (DD)he^[f] will give the rain for your land in its season, ^(DE)the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. ^15 (DF)And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and ^(DG)you shall eat and be full. ¹⁶ Take care ^(DH)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(DI)serve other gods and worship them; ¹⁷ then ^(DJ)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he ^(DK)will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and ^(DL)you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

^18 (DM)“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and ^(DN)you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ^20 (DO)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ^21 (DP)that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ^(DQ)as long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² For if ^(DR)you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and ^(DS)holding fast to him, ²³ then the Lord ^(DT)will drive out all these nations before you, and you will ^(DU)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (DV)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ^(DW)from the wilderness to^[g] the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. ^25 (DX)No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay ^(DY)the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ^(DZ)as he promised you.

^26 (EA)“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ^27 (EB)the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, ²⁸ and ^(EC)the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, ^(ED)to go after other gods that you have not known. ²⁹ And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^(EE)the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^(EF)Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^(EG)the oak^[h] of Moreh? ³¹ For you are ^(EH)to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, ³² you shall be careful ^(EI)to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.