Deuteronomy 10-12

Deuteronomy 10

¹At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

²And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark.

³So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands.

⁴And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me.

⁵And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders.

⁶(And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest.

⁷From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water.

⁸At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day.

⁹For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.)

¹⁰And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you.

¹¹Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.

¹²And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul,

¹³Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good?

¹⁴The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it.

¹⁵But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day.

¹⁶Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride.

¹⁷For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards:

¹⁸Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.

¹⁹So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt.

²⁰Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name.

²¹He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen.

²²Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number.

Deuteronomy 11

¹So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times.

²And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm,

³Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land;

⁴And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day;

⁵And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place;

⁶And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel:

⁷But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done.

⁸So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage;

⁹And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden:

¹¹But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven:

¹²A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other.

¹³And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil.

¹⁵And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure.

¹⁶But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods;

¹⁷For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow;

¹⁹Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up:

²⁰Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns:

²¹So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens.

²²For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him:

²³Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves.

²⁴Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land.

²⁵All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.

²⁶Today I put before you a blessing and a curse:

²⁷The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day:

²⁸And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours.

²⁹And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh?

³¹For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place.

³²And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today.

Deuteronomy 12

¹These are the laws and the decisions which you are to keep with care in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to be your heritage all the days of your life on earth.

²You are to give up to the curse all those places where the nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree:

³Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place.

⁴Do not so to the Lord your God.

⁵But let your hearts be turned to the place which will be marked out by the Lord your God, among your tribes, to put his name there;

⁶And there you are to take your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up to the Lord, and the offerings of your oaths, and those which you give freely from the impulse of your hearts, and the first births among your herds and your flocks;

⁷There you and all your families are to make a feast before the Lord your God, with joy in everything to which you put your hand, because the Lord has given you his blessing.

⁸You are not to do things then in the way in which we now do them here, every man as it seems right to him:

⁹For you have not come to the rest and the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁰But when you have gone over Jordan and are living in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as your heritage, and when he has given you rest from all those on every side who are fighting against you, and you are living there safely;

¹¹Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of your oaths which you make to the Lord;

¹²And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you.

¹³Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in any place you see:

¹⁴But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do.

¹⁵Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it.

¹⁶But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water.

¹⁷In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted offering;

¹⁸But they will be your food before the Lord your God in the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them, with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you: and you will have joy before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand.

¹⁹See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long as you are living in your land.

²⁰When the Lord your God makes wide the limit of your land, as he has said, and you say, I will take flesh for my food, because you have a desire for it; then you may take whatever flesh you have a desire for.

²¹If the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name is far away from you, then take from your herds and from your flocks which the Lord has given you, as I have said, and have a meal of it in the towns where you may be living.

²²It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the unclean and the clean may take of it.

²³But see that you do not take the blood for food; for the blood is the life; and you may not make use of the life as food with the flesh.

²⁴Do not take it for food but let it be drained out on the earth like water.

²⁵Do not take it for food; so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, while you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁶But the holy things which you have, and the offerings of your oaths, you are to take to the place which will be marked out by the Lord:

²⁷Offering the flesh and the blood of your burned offerings on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your offerings is to be drained out on the altar of the Lord your God, and the flesh will be your food.

²⁸Take note of all these orders I am giving you and give attention to them, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you for ever, while you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

²⁹When the people of the land where you are going have been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have taken their land and are living in it;

³⁰After their destruction take care that you do not go in their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did.

³¹Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²You are to keep with care all the words I give you, making no addition to them and taking nothing from them.