Deuteronomy 10–12

1At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

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

3So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two stone tablets like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand.

4He wrote on the tablets, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly; and Yahweh gave them to me.

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

6(The children of Israel traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his place.

7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

9Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

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

11Yahweh said to me, “Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.”

12Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13to keep Yahweh’s commandments and statutes, which I command you today for your good?

14Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven, the heaven of heavens, and the earth, with all that is therein.

15Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today.

16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

17For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes.

18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing.

19Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20You shall fear Yahweh your God. You shall serve him. You shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name.

21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.

22Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

1Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his instructions, his statutes, his ordinances, and his commandments, always.

2Know this day—for I don’t speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm,

3his signs, and his works, which he did in the middle of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;

4and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;

5and what he did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place;

6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben—how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the middle of all Israel;

7but your eyes have seen all of Yahweh’s great work which he did.

8Therefore you shall keep the entire commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land that you go over to possess;

9and that you may prolong your days in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10For the land, where you go in to possess isn’t like the land of Egypt that you came out of, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;

11but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky,

12a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

15I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.

16Be careful, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn away to serve other gods and worship them;

17and Yahweh’s anger be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky so that there is no rain, and the land doesn’t yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.

18Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

19You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

20You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates;

21that your days and your children’s days may be multiplied in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you—to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him—

23then Yahweh will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border.

25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.

26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today;

28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

29It shall happen, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.

30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it.

32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth.

2You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

3You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place.

4You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.

5But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there.

6You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there.

7There you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.

8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Yahweh your God gives you.

10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety,

11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.

12You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

14but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

15Yet you may kill and eat meat within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to Yahweh your God’s blessing which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and the deer.

16Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

17You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your free will offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;

18but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to.

19Be careful that you don’t forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.

21If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.

22Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

23Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.

24You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

25You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.

26Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose.

27You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat.

28Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.

29When Yahweh your God cuts off the nations from before you where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land,

30be careful that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

31You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.