New Tablets of Stone

10 “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 Commandments^{1 r}that 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.

Love and Serve the Lord

11 ^e“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and ^fkeep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to ^gyour children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline¹ of the Lord your God, ^hhis greatness, ⁱhis mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 ^jhis signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, ^khow he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, 5 and ^lwhat he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6 and ^mwhat he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7 For your eyes have seen ⁿall the great work of the Lord that he did.

8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may ^obe strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and ^pthat you may live long in the land ^qthat the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, ^ra land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,² like a garden of vegetables. 11 ^sBut the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. ^tThe eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, ^uto love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 ^vhe³ will give the rain for your land in its season, ^wthe early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 ^xAnd he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and ^yyou shall eat and be full. 16 Take care ^zlest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^aserve other gods and worship them; 17 then ^bthe anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he ^cwill shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and ^dyou will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.

18 ^e“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and ^fyou shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 ^gYou shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 ^hthat your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, ⁱas long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if ^jyou will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and ^kholding fast to him, 23 then the Lord ^lwill drive out all these nations before you, and you will ^mdispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 ⁿEvery place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be ^ofrom the wilderness to⁴ the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 ^pNo one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay ^qthe fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, ^ras he promised you.

26 ^s“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 ^tthe blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and ^uthe curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, ^vto go after other gods that you have not known. 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set ^wthe blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the ^xArabah, opposite Gilgal, beside ^ythe oak⁵ of Moreh? 31 For you are ^zto cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful ^ato do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.

The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship

12 ^b“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, ^call the days that you live on the earth. 2 ^dYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, ^eon the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ^ftheir pillars and burn their ^gAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and ^hdestroy their name out of that place. 4 ⁱYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek ^jthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation¹ there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the ^lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And ^mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ⁿyou shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, ^oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to ^pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when ^qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, ^rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to ^jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, ^kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And ⁿyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since ^she has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 ^tTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at ^jthe place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, ^uaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. ^vThe unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 ^wOnly you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns ^kthe tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but ^myou shall eat them before the Lord your God in ^jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And ⁿyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 ^xTake care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 “When the Lord your God ^yenlarges your territory, ^zas he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If ^athe place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, ^bthen you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just ^cas the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. ^cThe unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 ^dOnly be sure that you do not eat the blood, ^efor the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, ^fthat all may go well with you and with your children after you, ^gwhen you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the ^hholy things that are due from you, and ⁱyour vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to ^athe place that the Lord will choose, 27 and ^joffer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, ^fthat it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Warning Against Idolatry

29 “When ^kthe Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care ^lthat you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 ^mYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every ⁿabominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for ^othey even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. ^pYou shall not add to it or take from it.

13 “If a prophet or ^qa dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and ^rthe sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God ^sis testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall ^twalk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and ^uhold fast to him. 5 But ^vthat prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. ^wSo you shall purge the evil¹ from your midst.

6 ^x“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or ^ythe wife you embrace² or your friend ^zwho is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ ^awhich neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some ^bof the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall ^cnot yield to him or listen to him, nor ^dshall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. 9 But you shall kill him. ^eYour hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. 10 ^fYou shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 And ^gall Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, 13 that certain ^hworthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, 14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask ⁱdiligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction,³ all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. 16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and ^jburn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a ^kheap forever. It shall not be built again. 17 ^lNone of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, ^mthat the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, ⁿas he swore to your fathers, 18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, ^okeeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Clean and Unclean Food

14 “You are ^pthe sons of the Lord your God. ^qYou shall not cut yourselves or make any ^rbaldness on your foreheads for the dead. 2 For ^syou are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

3 ^t“You shall not eat any abomination. 4 ^uThese are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex,¹ the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the ^vrock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. 8 And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and ^wtheir carcasses you shall not touch.

9 “Of all that are in the waters you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat. 10 And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.