Historical

Do Not Forget Yahweh Your God

8 “The entire commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you ^(A)may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to give to your fathers. ^2 (B)And you shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has ^(C)led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, ^(D)testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. ³ And He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that ^(E)man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. ^4 (F)Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. ^5 (G)Thus you shall know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. ⁶ So you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in His ways and to ^[a]fear Him. ⁷ For ^(H)Yahweh 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, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. ¹⁰ And so ^(I)you will eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹ “^[b]Beware lest you ^(J)forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² lest ^(K)you eat and are satisfied and build good houses and live in them, ¹³ and your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, ¹⁴ and your heart becomes ^[c]lifted up and you ^(L)forget Yahweh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of ^[d]slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through ^(M)the great and fearsome wilderness, with its ^(N)fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water; He ^(O)brought water for you out of the rock of flint. ¹⁶ In the wilderness He fed you manna ^(P)which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might ^(Q)test you, to do good for you ^[e]in the end, ¹⁷ lest ^(R)you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for ^(S)it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Now it will be, if you ever forget Yahweh your God and walk after other gods and serve them and worship them, ^(T)I testify against you today that you will surely perish. ²⁰ Like the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so ^(U)you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

Israel Provoked Yahweh

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess ^(V)nations greater and mightier than you, great cities ^[f](W)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, ‘^(X)Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ ³ So you shall know today that ^(Y)it is Yahweh your God who is crossing over before you as ^(Z)a consuming fire. He will destroy them, and He will subdue them before you, so that ^(AA)you may dispossess them and make them perish quickly, just as Yahweh has spoken to you.

⁴ “^(AB)Do not say in your heart when Yahweh your God has driven them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is ^(AC)because of the wickedness of these nations that Yahweh is dispossessing them before you. ⁵ It is ^(AD)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 Yahweh your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to confirm ^(AE)the ^[g]oath which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶ “So you shall know it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are ^(AF)a ^[h]stiff-necked people. ⁷ Remember, do not forget how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness; ^(AG)from the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. ⁸ Even ^(AH)at Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh 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 Yahweh had cut with you, then I remained on the mountain forty days and nights; ^(AI)I neither ate bread nor drank water. ¹⁰ And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone ^(AJ)written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which Yahweh had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ¹¹ Now it happened ^(AK)at the end of forty days and nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant. ^12 (AL)Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have ^(AM)quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them; they have made a molten image for themselves.’ ^13 (AN)Yahweh spoke further to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, ^[i]they are a ^[j](AO)stiff-necked people. ^14 (AP)Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and ^(AQ)blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they.’

¹⁵ “^(AR)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 Yahweh your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf; you had turned aside quickly from the way which Yahweh had commanded you. ¹⁷ And I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and shattered them before your eyes. ^18 (AS)And I fell down before Yahweh, ^(AT)as at the first, forty days and nights; ^(AU)I neither ate bread nor drank water ^(AV)because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Yahweh to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁹ For ^(AW)I was afraid of the anger and the wrath with which Yahweh was provoked against you in order to destroy you, ^(AX)but Yahweh listened to me that time also. ²⁰ And Yahweh was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. ^21 (AY)Now I took your ^[k]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 ^(AZ)Taberah and at ^(BA)Massah and at ^(BB)Kibroth-hattaavah you provoked Yahweh to wrath. ²³ When Yahweh sent you from ^(BC)Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘^(BD)Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the ^[l]command of Yahweh your God; ^(BE)you did not believe Him, and you did not listen to His voice. ^24 (BF)You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day I knew you.

²⁵ “^(BG)So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and the forty nights, which I ^[m]did because Yahweh had said He would destroy you. ^26 (BH)And I prayed to Yahweh and said, ‘O Lord Yahweh, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not look at the stiff-neck of this people or at their wickedness or their sin, ²⁸ lest the land from which You brought us say, “^(BI)Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which He had ^[n]promised them and because He hated them He has brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, even ^(BJ)Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your ^(BK)great power and Your outstretched arm.’

The Tablets Rewritten

10 “At that time Yahweh said to me, ‘^(BL)Carve out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and ^(BM)make an ark of wood for yourself. ^2 (BN)And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and ^(BO)you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So ^(BP)I made an ark of acacia wood and ^(BQ)carved out two tablets of stone like the former ones and went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And He wrote on the tablets, like the former writing, ^(BR)the Ten ^[o]Commandments ^(BS)which Yahweh had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire ^(BT)on the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and ^(BU)came down from the mountain and ^(BV)put the tablets in the ark which I had made; ^(BW)and there they are, as Yahweh commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the sons of Israel set out from ^[p]Beeroth ^(BX)Bene-jaakan to Moserah. ^(BY)There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. ^7 (BZ)From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ^8 (CA)At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh ^(CB)to minister for Him and to bless in His name to this day. ^9 (CC)Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, just as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰ “^(CD)I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Then Yahweh said to me, ‘Arise, go 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.’

Circumcise Your Heart

¹² “^(CE)So now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you, but to ^[q]fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and ^(CF)love Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with ^(CG)all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, ^(CH)to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the ^[r]highest heavens, ^(CI)the earth and all that is in it. ^15 (CJ)Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. ^16 (CK)So circumcise ^[s]your heart, and ^(CL)stiffen your neck no longer. ^17 (CM)For Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the ^(CN)Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God ^(CO)who does not show partiality nor ^(CP)take a bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for ^(CQ)the orphan and the widow, and shows love for the sojourner by giving him food and clothing. ^19 (CR)So show love for the sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ Yahweh your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall ^(CS)cling, and by His name ^(CT)you shall swear. ²¹ He is ^(CU)your praise, and He is your God, who has done these great and fearsome things for you which your eyes have seen. ^22 (CV)Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, ^(CW)and now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.