Day 52 of 365

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

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

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

⁴He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them to me.

⁵I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord 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 the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

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

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

¹¹The Lord 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 the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹³to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?

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

¹⁵Only the Lord had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.

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

¹⁷For the Lord your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn't respect persons, nor takes reward.

¹⁸He does execute 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 the Lord your God; you shall serve him; and 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 the Lord your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

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

²Know this day: for I do not speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,

³and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst 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 after you, and how the Lord 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, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel:

⁷but your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which he did.

⁸Therefore you shall keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;

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

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

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

¹²a land which the Lord your God cares for: the eyes of the Lord your God 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 this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

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

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

¹⁶Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

¹⁷and the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord gives you.

¹⁸Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.

¹⁹You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and 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 may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

²²For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him;

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

²⁴Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.

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

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

²⁷the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day;

²⁸and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.

²⁹It shall happen, when the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, 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, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

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

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

¹These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, 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:

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

⁴You shall not do so to the Lord your God.

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

⁶and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock:

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

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

⁹for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God gives you.

¹⁰But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord 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 the Lord your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the Lord.

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

¹³Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

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

¹⁵Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as 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 freewill offerings, nor the wave offering of your hand;

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

¹⁹Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When the Lord your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall 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 the Lord your God shall choose, to put his name there, is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the Lord 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 hart is eaten, so you shall eat of it: the unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

²⁵You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.

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

²⁷and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God; and you shall eat the flesh.

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 the eyes of the Lord your God.

²⁹When the Lord your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;

³⁰take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that 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 the Lord your God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.

³²Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

¹If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder come to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, "Let us go after other gods" (which you have not known) "and let us serve them";

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proves you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cling to him.

⁵That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which the Lord your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁶If your brother, the son of your father or the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;

⁸you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him:

⁹but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

¹⁰You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹¹All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you.

¹²If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you to dwell there, saying,

¹³Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which you have not known;

¹⁴then you shall inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in the midst of you,

¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and its livestock, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶You shall gather all its plunder into the midst of its street, and shall burn with fire the city, and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God: and it shall be a ruin forever; it shall not be built again.

¹⁷Nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand; that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;

¹⁸when you shall listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.