⁵⁷ Now the time that Elizabeth should be delivered came, and she gave birth to a son.

⁵⁸ And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy on her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹ And it occurred that on the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were intending to call him Zachariah after his father,^(A)

⁶⁰ But his mother answered, Not so! But he shall be called John.

⁶¹ And they said to her, None of your relatives is called by that name.

⁶² And they inquired with signs to his father [as to] what he wanted to have him called.

⁶³ Then Zachariah asked for a writing tablet and wrote, His name is John. And they were all astonished.

⁶⁴ And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak, blessing and praising and thanking God.

⁶⁵ And awe and reverential fear came on all their neighbors; and all these things were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶ And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, Whatever will this little boy be then? For the hand of the Lord was [^[a]so evidently] with him [protecting and aiding him].

⁶⁷ Now Zachariah his father was filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

⁶⁸ Blessed (praised and extolled and thanked) be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and brought deliverance and redemption to His people!

⁶⁹ And He has raised up a Horn of salvation [a mighty and valiant Helper, the Author of salvation] for us in the house of David His servant—

⁷⁰ This is as He promised by the mouth of His holy prophets from the most ancient times [in the memory of man]—

⁷¹ That we should have deliverance and be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who detest and pursue us with hatred;

⁷² To make true and show the mercy and compassion and kindness [promised] to our forefathers and to remember and carry out His holy covenant [to bless, which is ^[b]all the more sacred because it is made by God Himself],

⁷³ That covenant He sealed by oath to our forefather Abraham:

⁷⁴ To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our foes, might serve Him fearlessly

⁷⁵ In holiness (divine consecration) and righteousness [in accordance with the everlasting principles of right] within His presence all the days of our lives.

⁷⁶ And you, little one, shall be called a prophet of the Most High; for you shall go on before the face of the Lord to make ready His ways,^(B)

⁷⁷ To bring and give the knowledge of salvation to His people in the forgiveness and remission of their sins.

⁷⁸ Because of and through the heart of tender mercy and loving-kindness of our God, a Light from on high will dawn upon us and visit [us]^(C)

⁷⁹ To shine upon and give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct and guide our feet in a straight line into the way of peace.^(D)

⁸⁰ And the little boy grew and became strong in spirit; and he was in the deserts (wilderness) until the day of his appearing to Israel [the commencement of his public ministry].

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8 All the commandments which I command you this day you shall be watchful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

² And you shall [earnestly] remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to prove you, to know what was in your [mind and] heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

³ And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

⁴ Your clothing did not become old upon you nor did your feet swell these forty years.

⁵ Know also in your [minds and] hearts that, as a man disciplines and instructs his son, so the Lord your God disciplines and instructs you.

⁶ So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and [reverently] fear Him.^(A)

⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

⁸ A land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey;

⁹ A land in which you shall eat food without shortage and lack nothing in it; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

¹⁰ When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for all the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His precepts, and His statutes which I command you today,

¹² Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them,

¹³ And when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all you have is multiplied,

¹⁴ Then your [minds and] hearts be lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,

¹⁵ Who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, but Who brought you forth water out of the flinty rock,

¹⁶ Who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

¹⁷ And beware lest you say in your [mind and] heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.

¹⁸ But you shall [earnestly] remember the Lord your God, for it is He Who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

¹⁹ And if you forget the Lord your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

²⁰ Like the nations which the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

9 Hear, O Israel. You are to cross the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you are, cities great and fortified up to the heavens,

² A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?

³ Know therefore this day that the Lord your God is He Who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall dispossess them and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

⁴ Do not say in your [mind and] heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out from before you, It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land—whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.

⁵ Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your [minds and] hearts do you go to possess their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out before you, and that He may fulfill the promise which the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶ Know therefore that the Lord your God does not give you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a hard and stubborn people.

⁷ [Earnestly] remember and forget not how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness; from the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

⁸ Even in 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 the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate food nor drank water.

¹⁰ And the Lord delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹ And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant.

¹² And the Lord said to me, Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten image.

¹³ Furthermore the Lord said to me, I have seen this people, and behold, they are stubborn and hard.

¹⁴ Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.

¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶ And I looked, and behold, you had 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 the two tables, cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

¹⁸ Then I fell down before the Lord as before, for forty days and forty nights; I neither ate food nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

¹⁹ For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure which the Lord held against you, enough to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.

²⁰ And the Lord was very angry with Aaron, angry enough to have destroyed him, and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

²¹ And I took your sin, 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 cast the dust of it into the brook that came down out of the mountain.

²² At Taberah also and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked the Lord to wrath.

²³ Likewise when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you, then you rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and you did not believe Him or trust and rely on Him or obey His voice.

²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.

²⁵ So I fell down and lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights because the Lord had said He would destroy you.

²⁶ 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 [earnestly] Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not at the stubbornness of this people or at their wickedness or at their sin,

²⁸ Lest the land from which You brought us out say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.

²⁹ Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.

10 At that time the Lord said to me, Hew two tables of stone like the first and come up to Me on the mountain and make an ark of wood.

² And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.

³ So I [Moses] made an ark of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up the mountain ^[a]with the two tables of stone in my [one] hand.

⁴ And the Lord wrote on the tables as at the first writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.

⁵ And I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.

⁶ (The Israelites journeyed from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead.

⁷ From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbathah, a land of brooks [dividing the valley].

⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name unto this day.

⁹ Therefore Levi has no part or inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ And I [Moses] stayed on the mountain, as the first time, forty days and nights, and the Lord listened to me at that time also; the Lord would not destroy you.

¹¹ And the Lord said to me, Arise, journey on before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.

¹² And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but [reverently] to fear the Lord your God, [that is] to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being,

¹³ To keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

¹⁴ Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth also, with all that is in it and on it.

¹⁵ Yet the Lord had a delight in loving your fathers, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

¹⁶ So circumcise the foreskin of your [minds and] hearts; be no longer stubborn and hardened.

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the terrible God, Who is not partial and takes no bribe.

¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing.

¹⁹ Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰ You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and by His name and presence you shall swear.

²¹ He is your praise; He is your God, Who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen.

²² Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of the heavens for multitude.