A Chosen People
1 “When the eLord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, fthe Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations gmore numerous and mightier than you, 2 hand when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must idevote them to complete destruction.1 jYou shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 kYou shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. lThen the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you mquickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: nyou shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their npillars and chop down their nAsherim and oburn their carved images with fire.
6 “For pyou are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be pa people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but qit is because the Lord loves you and is keeping rthe oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, sthe faithful God twho keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and urepays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. vHe will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 wYou shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
12 x“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you ythe covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will zlove you, bless you, and multiply you. aHe will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you. 14 You shall be blessed above all peoples. bThere shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock. 15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil cdiseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. 16 And dyou shall consume all the peoples that the Lord your God will give over to you. eYour eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be fa snare to you.
17 “If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ 18 gyou shall not be afraid of them but you shall hremember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, 19 the great trials that your eyes saw, ithe signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20 Moreover, jthe Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed. 21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is kin your midst, la great and awesome God. 22 mThe Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once,2 lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. 23 nBut the Lord your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 24 And ohe will give their kings into your hand, and you shall pmake their name perish from under heaven. qNo one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. 25 The carved images of their gods ryou shall burn with fire. You sshall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be tensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction3 like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, ufor it is devoted to destruction.
New Tablets of Stone
1 “At that time the Lord said to me, l‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and mmake an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and nyou shall put them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark oof acacia wood, and pcut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And qhe wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments1 rthat the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire son the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. 5 Then I turned and tcame down from the mountain and uput the tablets in the ark that I had made. vAnd there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”
6 (The people of Israel wjourneyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan2 to Moserah. xThere Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. 7 yFrom there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. 8 At that time zthe Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ato carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord bto stand before the Lord to minister to him and cto bless in his name, to this day. 9 dTherefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
10 e“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, fand the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 11 gAnd the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
Circumcise Your Heart
12 “And now, Israel, hwhat does the Lord your God require of you, but ito fear the Lord your God, jto walk in all his ways, kto love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and lto keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today mfor your good? 14 Behold, nto the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, othe earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet pthe Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore qthe foreskin of your heart, and be no longer rstubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is sGod of gods and tLord of lords, uthe great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is vnot partial and takes no bribe. 18 wHe executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 xLove the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 iYou shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and yhold fast to him, and zby his name you shall swear. 21 aHe is your praise. He is your God, bwho has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt cseventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you das numerous as the stars of heaven.
