Do Not Forget the Lord

8 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may livet and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.u 2 Remember how the Lord your God ledv you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and testw you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbledx you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,y which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teachz you that man does not live on breada alone but on every word that comes from the mouthb of the Lord.c 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.d 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.e

6 Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to himf and revering him.g 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good landh—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills;i 8 a land with wheat and barley,j vinesk and fig trees,l pomegranates, olive oil and honey;m 9 a land where breadn will not be scarce and you will lack nothing;o a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.p

10 When you have eaten and are satisfied,q praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forgetr the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down,s 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forgett the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness,u that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakesv and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.w 16 He gave you mannax to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known,y to humble and testz you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17 You may say to yourself,a “My power and the strength of my handsb have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,c and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other godsd and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.e 20 Like the nationsf the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.g

Not Because of Israel’s Righteousness

9 Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordanh to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you,i with large citiesj that have walls up to the sky.k 2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?”l 3 But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of youm like a devouring fire.n He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly,o as the Lord has promised you.

4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself,p “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickednessq of these nationsr that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integritys that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickednesst of these nations,u the Lord your God will drive them outv before you, to accomplish what he sworew to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.x 6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.y

The Golden Calf

7 Remember this and never forget how you aroused the angerz of the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebelliousa against the Lord.b 8 At Horeb you aroused the Lord’s wrathc so that he was angry enough to destroy you.d 9 When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenante that the Lord had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty daysf and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water.g 10 The Lord gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.h On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.i

11 At the end of the forty days and forty nights,j the Lord gave me the two stone tablets,k the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the Lord told me, “Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt.l They have turned away quicklym from what I commanded them and have made an idol for themselves.”

13 And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this peoplen, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! 14 Let me alone,o so that I may destroy them and blot outp their name from under heaven.q And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”

15 So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.r 16 When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.s You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes.

18 Then once again I fellt prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water,u because of all the sin you had committed,v doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and so arousing his anger. 19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.w But again the Lord listened to me.x 20 And the Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. 21 Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dusty and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.z

22 You also made the Lord angrya at Taberah,b at Massahc and at Kibroth Hattaavah.d

23 And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh Barnea,e he said, “Go up and take possessionf of the land I have given you.” But you rebelledg against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trusth him or obey him. 24 You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.i

25 I lay prostrate before the Lord those forty days and forty nightsj because the Lord had said he would destroy you.k 26 I prayed to the Lord and said, “Sovereign Lord, do not destroy your people,l your own inheritancem that you redeemedn by your great power and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.o 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornnessp of this people, their wickedness and their sin. 28 Otherwise, the countryq from which you brought us will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them,r he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.’s 29 But they are your people,t your inheritanceu that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm.v”

Tablets Like the First Ones

10 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tabletsw like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.a 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the ark.”x

3 So I made the ark out of acacia woody and chiseledz out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandmentsa he had proclaimedb to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.c And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I came back down the mountaind and put the tablets in the arke I had made,f as the Lord commanded me, and they are there now.g

6 (The Israelites traveled from the wells of Bene Jaakan to Moserah.h There Aaron diedi and was buried, and Eleazarj his son succeeded him as priest.k 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah and on to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.l 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levim to carry the ark of the covenantn of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to ministero and to pronounce blessingsp in his name, as they still do today.q 9 That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,r as the Lord your God told them.)

10 Now I had stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I did the first time, and the Lord listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you.s 11 “Go,” the Lord said to me, “and lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

Fear the Lord

12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of yout but to fearu the Lord your God, to walkv in obedience to him, to love him,w to serve the Lordx your God with all your hearty and with all your soul,z 13 and to observe the Lord’s commandsa and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?b

14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens,c even the highest heavens,d the earth and everything in it.e 15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and lovedf them, and he chose you,g their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.h 16 Circumcisei your hearts,j therefore, and do not be stiff-neckedk any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is God of godsl and Lord of lords,m the great God, mighty and awesome,n who shows no partialityo and accepts no bribes.p 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow,q and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.r 19 And you are to loves those who are foreigners,t for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.u 20 Fear the Lord your God and serve him.v Hold fastw to him and take your oaths in his name.x 21 He is the one you praise;y he is your God, who performed for you those greatz and awesome wondersa you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all,b and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.c

Love and Obey the Lord

11 Loved the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.e 2 Remember today that your childrenf were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God:g his majesty,h his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;i 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;j 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots,k how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Seaa l as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he didm to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth openedn its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.o

8 Observe therefore all the commandsp I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,q 9 and so that you may live longr in the land the Lord swores to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.t 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt,u from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleysv that drinks rain from heaven.w 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyesx of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

13 So if you faithfully obeyy the commands I am giving you today—to lovez the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soula—14 then I will send rainb on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains,c so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grassd in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.e

16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them.f 17 Then the Lord’s angerg will burn against you, and he will shut uph the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce,i and you will soon perishj from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.k 19 Teach them to your children,l talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.m 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates,n 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be manyo in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.p

22 If you carefully observeq all these commands I am giving you to follow—to lover the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fasts to him—23 then the Lord will drive outt all these nationsu before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.v 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours:w Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates Riverx to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terrory and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.z

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessinga and a curseb—27 the blessingc if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobeyd the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods,e which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizimf the blessings, and on Mount Ebalg the curses.h 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh,i in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.j 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possessionk of the land the Lord your God is givingl you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

The One Place of Worship

12 These are the decreesm and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land.n 2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains,o on the hills and under every spreading tree,p where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smashq their sacred stones and burnr their Asherahs poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their namest from those places.

4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.u 5 But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Namev there for his dwelling.w To that place you must go; 6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithesx and special gifts, what you have vowedy to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.z 7 There, in the presencea of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoiceb in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit,c 9 since you have not yet reached the resting placed and the inheritancee the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is givingf you as an inheritance, and he will give you restg from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. 11 Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Nameh—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord.i 12 And there rejoicej before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levitesk from your towns who have no allotment or inheritancel of their own. 13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please.m 14 Offer them only at the place the Lord will choosen in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

15 Nevertheless, you may slaughter your animals in any of your towns and eat as much of the meat as you want, as if it were gazelle or deer,o according to the blessing the Lord your God gives you. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. 16 But you must not eat the blood;p pourq it out on the ground like water.r 17 You must not eat in your own towns the tithes of your grain and new wine and olive oil,t or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give,u or your freewill offerings or special gifts.v 18 Instead, you are to eatw them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God will choosex—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns—and you are to rejoicey before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. 19 Be careful not to neglect the Levitesz as long as you live in your land.a

20 When the Lord your God has enlarged your territoryb as he promisedc you, and you crave meatd and say, “I would like some meat,” then you may eat as much of it as you want. 21 If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his Namee is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want.f 22 Eat them as you would gazelle or deer.g Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat. 23 But be sure you do not eat the blood,h because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.i 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.j 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go wellk with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is rightl in the eyes of the Lord.

26 But take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give,m and go to the place the Lord will choose. 27 Present your burnt offeringsn on the altar of the Lord your God, both the meat and the blood. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eato the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go wellp with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

29 The Lord your God will cut offq before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land,r 30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnareds by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.”t 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates.u They even burn their sonsv and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.w

32 See that you do all I command you; do not addx to it or take away from it.a