February 27

Deuteronomy 8:1 — 10:22

8 “Every commandment that I am commanding you today YOU should be careful to keep, in order that YOU may continue living and indeed multiply and go in and take possession of the land about which Jehovah swore to YOUR forefathers. 2 And you must remember all the way that Jehovah your God made you walk these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, to put you to the test so as to know what was in your heart, as to whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 So he humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you with the manna, which neither you had known nor your fathers had known; in order to make you know that not by bread alone does man live but by every expression of Jehovah’s mouth does man live. 4 Your mantle did not wear out upon you, nor did your foot become swollen these forty years. 5 And you well know with your own heart that just as a man corrects his son, Jehovah your God was correcting you.

6 “And you must keep the commandments of Jehovah your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of torrent valleys of water, springs and watery deeps issuing forth in the valley plain and in the mountainous region, 8 a land of wheat and barley and vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil olives and honey, 9 a land in which you will not eat bread with scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land the stones of which are iron and out of the mountains of which you will mine copper.

10 “When you have eaten and satisfied yourself, you must also bless Jehovah your God for the good land that he has given you. 11 Watch out for yourself that you may not forget Jehovah your God so as not to keep his commandments and his judicial decisions and his statutes that I am commanding you today; 12 for fear that you may eat and indeed satisfy yourself, and you may build good houses and indeed dwell in them, 13 and your herd and your flock may increase, and silver and gold may increase for you, and all that is yours may increase; 14 and your heart may indeed be lifted up and you may indeed forget Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves; 15 who caused you to walk through the great and fear-inspiring wilderness, with poisonous serpents and scorpions and with thirsty ground that has no water; who brought forth water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you with manna in the wilderness, which your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test so as to do you good in your afterdays; 17 and you do say in your heart, ‘My own power and the full might of my own hand have made this wealth for me.’ 18 And you must remember Jehovah your God, because he is the giver of power to you to make wealth; in order to carry out his covenant that he swore to your forefathers, as at this day.

19 “And it must occur that if you should at all forget Jehovah your God and you should actually walk after other gods and serve them and bow down to them, I do bear witness against YOU today that YOU people will absolutely perish. 20 Like the nations that Jehovah is destroying from before YOU, that is the way YOU will perish, because YOU will not listen to the voice of Jehovah YOUR God.

9 “Hear, O Israel, you are today crossing the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified to the heavens, 2 a people great and tall, the sons of Anakim, about whom you yourself have known and you yourself have heard it said, ‘Who can make a firm stand before the sons of Anak?’ 3 And you well know today that Jehovah your God is crossing before you. A consuming fire he is. He will annihilate them, and he himself will subdue them before you; and you must dispossess them and destroy them speedily, just as Jehovah has spoken to you.

4 “Do not say in your heart when Jehovah your God pushes them away from before you this, ‘It was for my own righteousness that Jehovah has brought me in to take possession of this land,’ whereas it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah is driving them away from before you. 5 It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; in fact, it is for the wickedness of these nations that Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you, and in order to carry out the word that Jehovah swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 6 And you must know that it is not for your righteousness that Jehovah your God is giving you this good land to take possession of it; for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 “Remember: Do not forget how you have provoked Jehovah your God in the wilderness. From the day that you went out of the land of Egypt until YOUR coming to this place YOU people have proved rebellious in YOUR behavior with Jehovah. 8 Even in Horeb YOU provoked Jehovah to anger so that Jehovah got incensed at YOU to the point of annihilating YOU. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Jehovah had concluded with YOU, and I kept dwelling in the mountain forty days and forty nights, (I neither ate bread nor drank water,) 10 then Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone written upon with God’s finger; and upon them were all the words that Jehovah had spoken with YOU in the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the congregation. 11 And it came about that at the end of the forty days and forty nights Jehovah gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant; 12 and Jehovah proceeded to say to me, ‘Get up, go down quickly from here, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted ruinously. They have turned aside quickly from the way about which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten image.’ 13 And Jehovah went on to say this to me, ‘I have seen this people, and, look! it is a stiff-necked people. 14 Let me alone that I may annihilate them and wipe out their name from under the heavens, and let me make you a nation mightier and more populous than they are.’

15 “After that I turned and went down from the mountain, while the mountain was burning with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in both my hands. 16 Then I looked, and there YOU had sinned against Jehovah YOUR God! YOU had made yourselves a molten calf. YOU had turned aside quickly from the way about which Jehovah had commanded YOU. 17 At that I took hold of the two tablets and flung them down from both my hands and shattered them before YOUR eyes. 18 And I proceeded to prostrate myself before Jehovah, as at first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all YOUR sin that YOU had committed in doing evil in the eyes of Jehovah so as to offend him. 19 For I was scared because of the hot anger with which Jehovah had got indignant at YOU to the point of annihilating YOU. However, Jehovah listened to me also that time.

20 “At Aaron, too, Jehovah got very incensed to the point of annihilating him; but I made supplication also in behalf of Aaron at that particular time. 21 And YOUR sin that YOU had made, the calf, I took, and I proceeded to burn it in the fire and to crush it, grinding it thoroughly until it had become fine like dust; after which I threw its dust into the torrent that was descending from the mountain.

22 “Further, at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah YOU proved yourselves provokers of Jehovah to anger. 23 And when Jehovah sent YOU out of Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land that I shall certainly give YOU!’ then YOU behaved rebelliously against the order of Jehovah YOUR God, and YOU did not exercise faith toward him and did not listen to his voice. 24 YOU have proved yourselves rebellious in behavior with Jehovah from the day of my knowing YOU.

25 “So I kept prostrating myself before Jehovah forty days and forty nights, for I prostrated myself thus because Jehovah talked of annihilating YOU. 26 And I began to make supplication to Jehovah and to say, ‘O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, do not bring to ruin your people, even your private property, whom you redeemed with your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand. 27 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not turn your face to the hardness of this people and their wickedness and their sin, 28 for fear the land out of which you brought us may say: “Because Jehovah was unable to bring them into the land that he had promised them, and because he hated them he brought them out to put them to death in the wilderness.” 29 They are, too, your people and your private property whom you brought out with your great power and your outstretched arm.’

10 “At that particular time Jehovah said to me, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and come up to me into the mountain, and you must make an ark of wood for yourself. 2 And I shall write upon the tablets the words that appeared on the first tablets, which you shattered, and you must place them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and carved two tablets of stone like the first ones and went up into the mountain, and the two tablets were in my hand. 4 Then he wrote upon the tablets the same writing as the first, the Ten Words, which Jehovah had spoken to YOU in the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the congregation; after which Jehovah gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and went down from the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark that I had made, that they might continue there, just as Jehovah had commanded me.

6 “And the sons of Israel pulled away from Beeroth Bene-jaakan for Moserah. There Aaron died, and he got to be buried there; and Eleazar his son began to act as priest instead of him. 7 From there they pulled away for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, a land of torrent valleys running with water.

8 “At that particular time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Jehovah’s covenant, to stand before Jehovah for ministering to him and to bless in his name until this day. 9 That is why Levi has come to have no share and inheritance with his brothers. Jehovah is his inheritance, just as Jehovah your God had said to him. 10 And I—I stayed in the mountain the same as the first days, forty days and forty nights, and Jehovah proceeded to listen to me also on that occasion. Jehovah did not want to bring you to ruin. 11 Then Jehovah said to me, ‘Get up, go before the people for a pulling away, that they may go in and take possession of the land that I have sworn to their forefathers to give to them.’

12 “And now, O Israel, what is Jehovah your God asking of you but to fear Jehovah your God, so as to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve Jehovah your God with all your heart and all your soul; 13 to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his statutes that I am commanding you today, for your good? 14 Behold, to Jehovah your God belong the heavens, even the heavens of the heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 15 Only to your forefathers did Jehovah get attached so as to love them, so that he chose their offspring after them, even YOU, out of all the peoples, as at this day. 16 And YOU must circumcise the foreskin of YOUR hearts and not harden YOUR necks any longer. 17 For Jehovah YOUR God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the God great, mighty and fear-inspiring, who treats none with partiality nor accepts a bribe, 18 executing judgment for the fatherless boy and the widow and loving the alien resident so as to give him bread and a mantle. 19 YOU too must love the alien resident, for YOU became alien residents in the land of Egypt.

20 “Jehovah your God you should fear. Him you should serve, and to him you should cling, and by his name you should make sworn statements. 21 He is the One for you to praise, and he is your God, who has done with you these great and fear-inspiring things that your eyes have seen. 22 With seventy souls your forefathers went down into Egypt, and now Jehovah your God has constituted you like the stars of the heavens for multitude.