Beginning

Remember the Lord

8 Carefully obey every command I give you today. Then you will live and grow in number. And you will enter and own the land the Lord promised your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God has led you in the desert for these 40 years. He took away your pride. He tested you. He wanted to know what was in your heart. He wanted to know if you would obey his commands. ³ He took away your pride. He let you get hungry. Then he fed you with manna. Manna was something neither you nor your ancestors had ever seen. This was to teach you that a person does not live only by eating bread. But a person lives by everything the Lord says. ⁴ During these 40 years, your clothes did not wear out. And your feet did not swell. ⁵ Know in your heart that the Lord your God corrects you. He corrects you as a father does his son.

⁶ Obey the commands of the Lord your God. Live as he has commanded you and respect him. ⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. The land has rivers and pools of water. Springs flow in the valleys and hills. ⁸ The land has wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey. ⁹ It is a land where you will have plenty of food. You will have everything you need there. The rocks are iron. You can dig copper out of the hills.

¹⁰ You will have all you want to eat. Then praise the Lord your God. He has given you a good land. ¹¹ Be careful not to forget the Lord your God. Do not fail to obey his commands, laws and rules. I am giving them to you today. ¹² You will eat all you want. You will build nice houses and live in them. ¹³ Your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep will grow large. Your silver and gold will grow. You will have more of everything. ¹⁴ Then your heart will become proud. You will forget the Lord your God. He brought you out of the land of Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹⁵ He led you through the large and terrible desert. It was dry and had no water. It had poisonous snakes and stinging insects. He gave you water from a solid rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the desert. Manna was something your ancestors had never seen. He did this to take away your pride and to test you. He did it so things would go well for you in the end. ¹⁷ You might say to yourself, “I am rich because of my own strength and power.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God! It is he who gives you the power to become rich. He keeps the agreement he promised to your ancestors. So it is today.

¹⁹ Never forget the Lord your God. Do not follow other gods. Do not worship them. Do not bow down to them. If you do, I warn you today that you will be destroyed. ²⁰ The Lord destroyed the other nations for you. And you can be destroyed the same way if you do not obey the Lord your God.

The Lord Will Be with Israel

9 Listen, Israel. You will soon cross the Jordan River. You will go in to force out nations that are bigger and stronger than you. They have large cities with walls up to the sky. ² The people there are Anakites. They are strong and tall. You know about them. You have heard it said: “No one can stop the Anakites.” ³ But today remember that the Lord your God goes in before you. He will destroy them like a fire that burns things up. He will defeat them ahead of you. And you will force them out. You will destroy them quickly. It will happen just as the Lord has said.

⁴ The Lord your God will force those nations out ahead of you. After that, don’t say to yourself, “The Lord brought me here. I own this land because I am so good.” No! It is because these nations are evil. That is why the Lord will force them out ahead of you. ⁵ You are going in to own the land. But it is not because you are good and honest. It is because these nations are evil. That is why the Lord your God will force them out ahead of you. The Lord will keep his promise to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ The Lord your God is giving you this good land to own. But know this: It is not because you are good. You are a stubborn people.

Remember the Lord’s Anger

⁷ Remember this. Do not forget it. You made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You would not obey the Lord from the day you left Egypt until you arrived here. ⁸ At Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry. He was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets. The tablets were the agreement the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ The Lord gave me two stone tablets. God had written on them with his own finger. On them were all the commands of the Lord. He gave them to you on the mountain out of the fire. This was on the day you were gathered there.

¹¹ Then the 40 days and 40 nights were over. And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets. Those tablets had the agreement on them. ¹² Then the Lord told me, “Get up. Go down quickly from here. The people you brought out from Egypt are ruining themselves. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded. They have made an idol for themselves.”

¹³ The Lord said to me, “I have watched these people. They are very stubborn! ¹⁴ Get away. I will destroy them. I will make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you. It will be bigger and stronger than they are.”

¹⁵ So I turned and came down the mountain. The mountain was burning with fire. And the two stone tablets with the agreement were in my hands. ¹⁶ When I looked, I saw you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made an idol in the shape of a calf. You had quickly turned away from what the Lord had told you to do. ¹⁷ So I took the two stone tablets and threw them down. I broke them into pieces right in front of you.

¹⁸ Then I again bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord. I did this for 40 days and 40 nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil. You made him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the Lord’s anger and rage. He was angry enough with you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰ And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But then I prayed for Aaron, too. ²¹ I took that sinful calf idol you had made. And I burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust. And I threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

²² You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah.

²³ Then the Lord sent you away from Kadesh Barnea. He said, “Go up and take the land I have given you.” But you would not obey the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust him or obey him. ²⁴ You have refused to obey the Lord as long as I have known you.

²⁵ The Lord had said he would destroy you. So I threw myself down in front of him for those 40 days and 40 nights. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord. I said, “Lord God, do not destroy your people. They are your own people. You freed them and brought them out of Egypt by your great power and strength. ²⁷ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don’t look at how stubborn these people are. Don’t look at their sin and evil. ²⁸ Otherwise, Egypt will say, ‘The Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them. He hated them. So he took them into the desert to kill them.’ ²⁹ But they are your people, Lord. They are your own people. You brought them out of Egypt with your great power and strength.”

New Stone Tablets

10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. Then come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark. ² I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Put the new tablets in the ark.”

³ So I made the ark out of acacia wood. And I cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. Then I went up on the mountain. I had the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ The Lord wrote the same things on these tablets he had written before. He wrote the Ten Commandments. He had told them to you on the mountain from the fire. This was on the day you were gathered there. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down the mountain. I put the tablets in the ark I had made. That is what the Lord had commanded. The tablets are still there in the ark.

⁶ (The people of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried. Aaron’s son Eleazar became priest in Aaron’s place. ⁷ From Moserah they went to Gudgodah. From Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a place with streams of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord chose the tribe of Levi. They were to carry the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord. They were to serve the Lord. They were to bless the people in the Lord’s name. They still do this today. ⁹ That is why the Levites did not receive any land to own. Instead, they received the Lord himself as their gift. This is what the Lord your God told them.)

¹⁰ I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights just like the first time. And the Lord listened to me this time also. He did not want to destroy you. ¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Go. Lead the people. They will go in and take the land I promised their ancestors.”

What the Lord Wants You to Do

¹² Now, Israel, this is what the Lord wants you to do. Respect the Lord your God. Do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being. ¹³ And obey the Lord’s commands and laws. I am giving them to you today for your own good.

¹⁴ The Lord owns the world and everything in it. The heavens, even the highest heavens, are his. ¹⁵ But the Lord cared for and loved your ancestors. And he chose you, their descendants. He chose you over all the other nations. And it is this way today. ¹⁶ Give yourselves to serving the Lord. Do not be stubborn any longer. ¹⁷ The Lord your God is God of all gods. He is the Lord of all lords. He is the great God. He is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides. And he will not be talked into doing evil. ¹⁸ He helps orphans and widows. He loves foreigners. He gives them food and clothes. ¹⁹ You also must love foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. ²⁰ Respect the Lord your God and serve him. Be loyal to him. Make your promises in his name. ²¹ You should praise him. He is your God. He has done great and wonderful things for you. You have seen them with your own eyes. ²² There were only 70 of your ancestors when they went down to Egypt. Now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.