Deuteronomy 9-11

New American Standard Bible 1995

Israel Provoked God

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^(A)nations greater and mightier than you, great cities ^[a](B)fortified to heaven, ² a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘^(C)Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ Know therefore today that ^(D)it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as ^(E)a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(F)you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(G)Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before ^[b]you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^(H)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(I)not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm ^(J)the ^[c]oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

⁶ “Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(K)a ^[d]stubborn people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^(L)from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸ Even ^(M)at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, and the Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord had made with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^(N)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone ^(O)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. ¹¹ It came about ^(P)at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (Q)Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(R)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ¹³ The ^(S)Lord spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a ^[e](T)stubborn people. ^14 (U)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(V)blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵ “^(W)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. ¹⁶ And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷ I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. ^18 (X)I fell down before the Lord, ^(Y)as at the first, forty days and nights; ^(Z)I neither ate bread nor drank water, ^(AA)because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(AB)I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the Lord was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, ^(AC)but the Lord listened to me that time also. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (AD)I took your ^[f]sinful thing, the calf which 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 its dust into the brook that came down from the mountain.

²² “Again at ^(AE)Taberah and at ^(AF)Massah and at ^(AG)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath. ²³ When the Lord sent you from ^(AH)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(AI)Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ^[g]command of the Lord your God; ^(AJ)you neither believed Him nor listened to His voice. ^24 (AK)You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(AL)So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and nights, which I ^[h]did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ^26 (AM)I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, 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 look at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or their sin. ²⁸ Otherwise the land from which You brought us may say, “^(AN)Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[i]promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, even ^(AO)Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^(AP)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

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

⁶ (Now the sons of Israel set out from ^[k]Beeroth ^(BC)Bene-jaakan to Moserah. ^(BD)There Aaron died and there he was buried and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. ^7 (BE)From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ^8 (BF)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 ^(BG)to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day. ^9 (BH)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 “^(BI)I, moreover, stayed on the mountain 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. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’

¹² “^(BJ)Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to ^[l]fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(BK)love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with ^(BL)all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(BM)to the Lord your God belong heaven and the ^[m]highest heavens, ^(BN)the earth and all that is in it. ^15 (BO)Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their ^[n]descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. ^16 (BP)So circumcise ^[o]your heart, and ^(BQ)stiffen your neck no longer. ^17 (BR)For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the ^(BS)Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God ^(BT)who does not show partiality nor ^(BU)take a bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for ^(BV)the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. ^19 (BW)So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and ^(BX)cling to Him, and ^(BY)you shall swear by His name. ²¹ He is ^(BZ)your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. ^22 (CA)Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^(CB)and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “You shall therefore ^(CC)love the Lord your God, and always ^(CD)keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. ² Know this day ^(CE)that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the ^[p]discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, ³ and ^(CF)His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, ^(CG)when He made the water of the ^[q]Red Sea to ^[r]engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord ^[s]completely destroyed them; ⁵ and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and ^(CH)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 ^(CI)every living thing that ^[t]followed them, among all Israel— ⁷ but 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, ^(CJ)so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ^9 (CK)so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their ^[u]descendants, ^(CL)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For 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 with your ^[v]foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But ^(CM)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, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(CN)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the ^[w]beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³ “It shall come about, ^(CO)if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, ^(CP)to love the Lord your God and to serve Him ^(CQ)with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴ that ^[x](CR)He will give the rain for your land in its season, the ^[y](CS)early and ^[z]late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. ^15 [aa](CT)He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and ^(CU)you will eat and be satisfied. ^16 [ab](CV)Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Or ^(CW)the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will ^(CX)shut up the heavens ^(CY)so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and ^(CZ)you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “^(DA)You shall therefore ^[ac]impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ^[ad]frontals ^[ae]on your forehead. ^19 (DB)You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ^20 (DC)You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that ^(DD)your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[af](DE)long as the heavens remain above the earth. ²² For if you are ^(DF)careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, ^(DG)to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(DH)hold fast to Him, ²³ then the Lord will ^(DI)drive out all these nations from before you, and you will ^(DJ)dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ^24 (DK)Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; ^(DL)your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as ^[ag]the western sea. ^25 (DM)No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.

²⁶ “^(DN)See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the ^(DO)blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the ^(DP)curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, ^[ah]by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹ “It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, ^(DQ)that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite ^(DR)Gilgal, beside ^(DS)the ^[ai]oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and ^(DT)you shall possess it and live in it, ³² and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.