Deuteronomy 9:13-10:22

English Standard Version

The Golden Calf

¹³^(A)“Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is ^(B)a stubborn people. ¹⁴^(C)Let me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(D)blot out their name from under heaven. And ^(E)I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ ¹⁵^(F)So I turned and came down from the mountain, and ^(G)the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And ^(H)I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden^[a] calf. ^(I)You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸Then I ^(J)lay prostrate before the Lord ^(K)as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, ^(L)in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. ¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. ^(M)But the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. ²¹Then ^(N)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 ^(O)Taberah also, and at ^(P)Massah and at ^(Q)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³And ^(R)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 ^(S)did not believe him or obey his voice. ²⁴^(T)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

²⁵^(U)“So I lay prostrate before the Lord for these forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said he would destroy you. ²⁶^(V)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. ²⁷Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸lest the land from which you brought us say, ^(W)“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^(X)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, ^(Y)‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and ^(Z)make an ark of wood. ²And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and ^(AA)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³So I made an ark ^(AB)of acacia wood, and ^(AC)cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴And ^(AD)he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments^[b] ^(AE)that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire ^(AF)on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵Then I turned and ^(AG)came down from the mountain and ^(AH)put the tablets in the ark that I had made. ^(AI)And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”

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

¹⁰^(AR)“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, ^(AS)and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. ¹¹^(AT)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, ^(AU)what does the Lord your God require of you, but ^(AV)to fear the Lord your God, ^(AW)to walk in all his ways, ^(AX)to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and ^(AY)to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today ^(AZ)for your good? ¹⁴Behold, ^(BA)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, ^(BB)the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet ^(BC)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. ¹⁶Circumcise therefore ^(BD)the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer ^(BE)stubborn. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is ^(BF)God of gods and ^(BG)Lord of lords, ^(BH)the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is ^(BI)not partial and takes no bribe. ¹⁸^(BJ)He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹^(BK)Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰^(BL)You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and ^(BM)hold fast to him, and ^(BN)by his name you shall swear. ²¹^(BO)He is your praise. He is your God, ^(BP)who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. ²²Your fathers went down to Egypt ^(BQ)seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you ^(BR)as numerous as the stars of heaven.