5So I came back down the mountain. I put the tablets in the chest that I'd made, and that's where they are now, exactly as the LORD commanded me.
(6Now, the Israelites had set out from Beeroth-bene-jaakanl to Moserah. It was there that Aaron died and was buried. His son Eleazar succeeded him in the priestly role. 7From there the Israelites traveled to Gudgodah, then from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, which is a land with flowing streams. 8At that time, the LORD selected the tribe of Levi to carry the chest containing the LORD's covenant, to minister before the LORD, to serve him, and to offer blessings in his name. That's the way things are right now. 9That's why the Levites don't have a stake or inheritance with the rest of their relatives. The LORD is the Levites' inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised them.)
10Just as the first time, I remained on the mountain forty days and nights. And the LORD listened to me again in this instance. The LORD wasn't willing to destroy you. 11Then the LORD told me: Get going. Lead the people so they can enter and take possession of the land that I promised I'd give to their ancestors.
What the LORD requires
12Now in light of all that, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you? Only this: to revere the LORD your God by walking in all his ways, by loving him, by serving the LORD your God with all your heart and being, 13and by keeping the LORD's commandments and his regulations that I'm commanding you right now. It's for your own good!
14Clearly, the LORD owns the sky, the highest heavens, the earth, and everything in it. 15But the LORD adored your ancestors, loving them and choosing the descendants that followed them--you!--from all other people. That's how things still stand now. 16So circumcise your heartsm and stop being so stubborn, 17because the LORD your God is the God of all gods and Lord of all lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who doesn't play favorites and doesn't take bribes. 18He enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. 19That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt. 20Revere the LORD your God, serve him, cling to him, swear by his name alone! 21He is your praise, and he is your God--the one who performed these great and awesome acts that you witnessed with your very own eyes. 22Your ancestors went down to Egypt with a total of seventy people, but now look! The LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the nighttime sky!
Deuteronomy 11So love the LORD your God and follow his instruction, his regulations, his case laws, and his commandments always. 2And know right now what your children haven't known or yet witnessed:n
The LORD your God's discipline, his power, his mighty hand and outstretched arm;
3the signs and the acts that he performed in the heart of Egyptian territory, against Egypt's King Pharaoh and all his land;
4what God did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots--how he made the water of the Reed Seao flow over their heads when they chased after you, but the LORD destroyed them, and that's how things stand right now;
5what the Lord did for you in the desert, until you arrived at this place;
6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the descendants of Eliab the Reubenite, when the ground opened up its mouth and swallowed them, their families, their tents, and every living thing they possessed in the presence of all Israel.
7Your own eyes witnessed each of these powerful acts the LORD performed. 8So keep every part of the commandment that I am giving you today so that you stay strong to enter and take possession of the land that you are crossing over to possess, 9and so that you might prolong your life on the fertile land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants--a land full of milk and honey.
10The land you are about to enter and possess is definitely not like the land of Egypt, where you came from, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it by handp like a vegetable garden. 11No, the land you are entering to possess is a land of hills and valleys, where your drinking water will be rain from heaven. 12It's a land that the LORD cares for: the LORD's eyes are on it constantly from the first of the year until the very end of the year.
13Now, if you completely obey God'sq commandments that I am giving you right now, by loving the LORD your God and by serving him with all your heart and all your being, 14then her will provide rain for your land at the right time--early rain and late rain--so you can stock up your grain, wine, and oil. 15Hes will also make your fields lush for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16But watch yourselves! Otherwise, your heart might be led astray so you stray away, serving other gods and worshipping them. 17Then the LORD's anger would burn against you. He will close the sky up tight. There won't be any rain, and the ground won't yield any of its crops. You will quickly disappear off the wonderful land the LORD is giving to you.
18Place these words I'm speaking on your heart and in your very being. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol.t 19Teach them to your children, by talking about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. 20Write them on your house's doorframes and on your city's gates. 21Do all that so your days and your children's days on the fertile land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors are many--indeed, as many as the number of days that the sky's been over the earth!
22It's true: if you carefully keep all this commandment that I'm giving you, by doing it, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in all his ways, and by clinging to him, 23then the LORD will clear out all these nations before you. You will inherit what belonged to nations that are larger and stronger than you are. 24Every place you set foot on will be yours: your territory will run from the wilderness all the way to the Lebanon range, and from the Euphrates River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. 25No one will be able to stand up to you. Just as he promised, the LORD your God will make the entire land deathly afraid of you wherever you advance in it.
Ceremony on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal
26Pay attention! I am setting blessing and curse before you right now: 27the blessing if you obey the LORD your God's commandments that I am giving you right now, 28but the curse if you don't obey the LORD your God's commandments and stray from the path that I am giving you today by following other gods that you have not known. 29Now when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of, put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. (30Aren't both of these mountains across the Jordan River, down along the western road in the region of the Canaanites who live in the desert plain, across from Gilgal, next to the Moreh Oak Grove?)
31So then, once you cross the Jordan River to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you take possession of it, settling down in it, 32you must carefully follow the regulations and the case laws that I am laying out before you right now.
Regulations and the case laws:
Worship at the location the LORD selects
Deuteronomy 12These are the regulations and the case laws that you must carefully keep in the fertile land the LORD, your ancestors' God, has given to you to possess for as long as you live on that land:
2You must completely destroy every place where the nations that you are displacing worshipped their gods--whether on high mountains or hills or under leafy green trees. 3Rip down their altars and shatter their sacred stones. Burn their sacred polesu with fire. Hack their gods' idols into pieces.