Deuteronomy 9-10

New Life Version

Israel to Remember How They Did Not Obey

9 “Hear, O Israel! You are crossing over the Jordan today to take the land that belongs to nations greater and stronger than you, with big cities with walls as high as heaven. ² The people there are strong and tall, the sons of Anakim. You know of them and have heard it said, ‘Who can stand in front of the sons of Anak?’ ³ But know today that it is the Lord your God Who is crossing over before you as a fire that destroys everything. He will destroy them and bring them down before you. So you may drive them out and be quick to destroy them, just as the Lord has told you. ⁴ But after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, ‘The Lord has brought me in to take this land because I am right and good.’ It is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord is driving them out in front of you. ⁵ It is not because of your being right with God that you are going to take their land. But it is because of the sin of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out in front of you. By this the Lord is proving that He keeps the promise He made to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ⁶ Understand that it is not because you are right with God that the Lord your God is giving you this good land for your own, for you are a strong-willed people.

⁷ “Remember and do not forget how you made the Lord your God angry in the desert. You have gone against the Lord from the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place. ⁸ Even at Mount Sinai you made the Lord angry. The Lord was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you. ⁹ I went up the mountain to receive the pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement which the Lord had made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water. ¹⁰ Then the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone written by the finger of God. On them were all the words the Lord had spoken with you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the meeting. ¹¹ At the end of forty days and nights the Lord gave me the two pieces of stone, the Laws of the agreement. ¹² Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Hurry and go down from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become very sinful. They have been quick to turn away from what I told them. They have made a false god for themselves.’ ¹³ And the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen these people. See, they are strong-willed. ¹⁴ Let Me alone, so I may destroy them and destroy their name from under heaven. I will make you into a nation that will be greater and stronger than they.’ ¹⁵ So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire. The two pieces of stone of the agreement were in my two hands. ¹⁶ And I saw that it was true that you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a calf out of gold. You had been quick to turn away from what the Lord had told you. ¹⁷ So I took the two pieces of stone and threw them from my hands, and broke them in front of your eyes. ¹⁸ Then again I fell down before the Lord for forty days and nights. I did not eat bread or drink water, because of all the sin you had done. You did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord and made Him angry. ¹⁹ I was afraid of the anger of the Lord which was burning against you to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me again. ²⁰ The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. So I prayed for Aaron at the same time also. ²¹ Then I took your sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it into pieces until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the river that flowed down from the mountain.

²² “You made the Lord angry again at Taberah, Massah and Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ The Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go and take for your own the land I have given you.’ But you went against what the Lord your God told you to do. You did not believe Him or listen to His voice. ²⁴ You have gone against the Lord from the day I first knew you.

²⁵ “So I fell down before the Lord and lay forty days and nights, because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶ I prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have set free by Your power and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. ²⁷ Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not look at the strong will or sin or wrong-doing of these people. ²⁸ Or the land You brought us from may say, “The Lord was not able to bring them into the land He promised them. Because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the desert.” ²⁹ Yet they are Your people, Your chosen nation, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your long arm.’

The Second Pieces of Stone

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two pieces of stone like the other ones. Then come up to Me on the mountain, and make a box of wood. ² I will write on the pieces of stone the words that were on the other pieces of stone which you broke. And you will put them in the box.’ ³ So I made a box of acacia wood and cut out two pieces of stone like the other ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two stone pieces in my hand. ⁴ The Lord wrote the Ten Laws the same as before on the pieces of stone which He had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire on the day of the meeting. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the stone pieces in the box I had made. There they are, as the Lord told me.”

⁶ (The people of Israel traveled from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried and his son Eleazar took his place as religious leader. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah. And from Gudgodah they went to Jotbathah, a land of rivers of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the family of Levi to carry the special box of the Law of the Lord, and to stand before the Lord to work for Him and honor His name to this day. ⁹ So Levi does not have a share of what is given to his brothers. The Lord is his share, just as the Lord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ “Once more I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time. And the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord did not destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Get up. Travel in front of the people, so they may go in and take the land which I promised to give their fathers.’

What God Wants

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you? He wants you to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him. He wants you to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. ¹³ He wants you to keep all the Laws of the Lord which I am telling you today for your good. ¹⁴ See, heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it belong to the Lord your God. ¹⁵ The Lord had joy in loving your fathers more than other nations, and you are still His chosen people to this day. ¹⁶ So then, from now on, obey the Lord. Do not be strong-willed any more. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great and powerful God and is to be honored with fear. He does not show favor, and cannot be bought with money. ¹⁸ He does what is right and fair for the child without parents and the woman whose husband has died. He shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ So show your love for the stranger. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the Lord your God. Work for Him, hold on to Him, and swear by His name. ²¹ He is your praise and He is your God. You have seen the great and powerful things He has done for you. ²² Your fathers went to Egypt, seventy people in all. And now the Lord your God has made you as many as the stars of heaven.