Deuteronomy 9

The Lord Will Be with Israel

1 Listen, Israel. You will soon cross the Jordan River to go in and 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, who are strong and tall. You know about them, and you have heard it said: “No one can stop the Anakites.”

3 But today remember that the Lord your God goes in before you to destroy them like a fire that burns things up. He will defeat them ahead of you, and you will force them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has said.
4 After the Lord your God has forced those nations out ahead of you, don’t say to yourself, “The Lord brought me here to take this land because I am so good.” No! It is because these nations are evil that the Lord will force them out ahead of you.5 You are going in to take the land, not because you are good and honest, but because these nations are evil. That is why the Lord your God will force them out ahead of you, to keep his promise to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6 The Lord your God is giving you this good land to take as your own. But know this: It is not because you are good; you are a stubborn people.

Remember the Lord’s Anger

7 Remember this and 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—angry enough to destroy you.9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water.

10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets, which God had written on with his own finger. On them were all the commands that the Lord gave to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day you were gathered there.
11 When the forty days and forty nights were over, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets with the Agreement on them.

12 Then the Lord told me, “Get up and go down quickly from here, because the people you brought out from Egypt are ruining themselves. They have quickly turned away from what I commanded and have made an idol for themselves.”
13 The Lord said to me, “I have watched these people, and they are very stubborn!

14 Get away so that I may destroy them and make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are.”
15 So I turned and came down the mountain that 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 and 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, breaking them into pieces right in front of you.
18 Then I again bowed facedown on the ground before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread or drink water. You had sinned by doing what the Lord said was evil, and you made him angry.19 I was afraid of the Lord’s anger and rage, because 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 burned it in the fire. I crushed it into a powder like dust and 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 and said, “Go up and take the land I have given you.” But you rejected 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 forty days and forty nights.26 I prayed to the Lord and said, “Lord God, do not destroy your people, your own people, whom you freed and brought 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, and don’t look at their sin and evil.28 Otherwise, Egypt will say, ‘It was because the Lord was not able to take his people into the land he promised them, and it was because he hated them that he took them into the desert to kill them.’29 But they are your people, Lord, your own people, whom you brought out of Egypt with your great power and strength.”

Deuteronomy 10

New Stone Tablets

1 At that time the Lord said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and 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, and you will 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 with the two tablets in my hands.4 The Lord wrote the same things on these tablets he had written before —the Ten Commandments that he had told you on the mountain from the fire, 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, as the Lord had commanded, and they are still there.
6 (The people of Israel went from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried; his son Eleazar became priest in his place.7 From Moserah they went to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a place with streams of water.8 At that time the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Agreement with the Lord. They were to serve the Lord and to bless the people in his name, which they still do today.

9 That is why the Levites did not receive any land of their own; instead, they received the Lord himself as their gift, as the Lord your God told them.)
10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty 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 and lead the people so that 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 your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord your God, and 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 that I am giving 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, over all the other nations, just as it is today.16 Give yourselves completely to serving him, and do not be stubborn any longer.17 The Lord your God is God of all gods and Lord of all lords. He is the great God, who is strong and wonderful. He does not take sides, and he will not be talked into doing evil.18 He helps orphans and widows, and he loves foreigners and 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 and make your promises in his name.21 He is the one you should praise; he is your God, who has done great and wonderful things for you, which you have seen with your own eyes.22 There were only seventy of your ancestors when they went down to Egypt, and now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars in the sky.

Deuteronomy 11

Great Things Israel Saw

1 Love the Lord your God and always obey his orders, rules, laws, and commands.2 Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God. They did not see his majesty, his power, his strength,3 or his signs and the things he did in Egypt to the king and his whole country.4 They did not see what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, when he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you. The Lord ruined them forever.5 They did not see what he did for you in the desert until you arrived here.6 They did not see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and everyone who stood with them in Israel.

7 It was you who saw all these great things the Lord has done.
8 So obey all the commands I am giving you today so that you will be strong and can go in and take the land you are going to take as your own.9 Then you will live a long time in the land that the Lord promised to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a fertile land.10 The land you are going to take is not like Egypt, where you were. There you had to plant your seed and water it, like a vegetable garden, by using your feet.11 But the land that you will soon cross the Jordan River to take is a land of hills and valleys, a land that drinks rain from heaven.

12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for. His eyes are on it continually, and he watches it from the beginning of the year to the end.
13 If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today and love the Lord your God and serve him with your whole being,14 then he will send rain on your land at the right time, in the fall and spring, and you will be able to gather your grain, new wine, and oil.

15 He will put grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will have plenty to eat.
16 Be careful, or you will be fooled and will turn away to serve and worship other gods.17 If you do, the Lord will become angry with you and will shut the heavens so it will not rain. Then the land will not grow crops, and you will soon die in the good land the Lord is giving you.18 Remember my words with your whole being. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign; tie them on your foreheads to remind you.19 Teach them well to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.20 Write them on your doors and gates

21 so that both you and your children will live a long time in the land the Lord promised your ancestors, as long as the skies are above the earth.
22 If you are careful to obey every command I am giving you to follow, and love the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do, and are loyal to him,23 then the Lord will force all those nations out of the land ahead of you, and you will take the land from nations that are bigger and stronger than you.24 Everywhere you step will be yours. Your land will go from the desert to Lebanon and from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.

25 No one will be able to stop you. The Lord your God will do what he promised and will make the people afraid everywhere you go.
26 See, today I am letting you choose a blessing or a curse.27 You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today.28 But you will be cursed if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God. So do not disobey the commands I am giving you today, and do not worship other gods you do not know.29 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you will take as your own, you are to announce the blessings from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal.30 (These mountains are on the other side of the Jordan River, to the west, toward the sunset. They are near the great trees of Moreh in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley opposite Gilgal.)31 You will soon cross the Jordan River to enter and take the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and live there,32 be careful to obey all the commands and laws I am giving you today.