Study

The Second Pair of Tablets

10

At that time the L ord said to me, “Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. ²I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.” ³So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the L ord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the L ord gave them to me. ⁵So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the L ord commanded me.

⁶ (The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. ⁷From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. ⁸At that time the L ord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the L ord, to stand before the L ord to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. ⁹Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the L ord is his inheritance, as the L ord your God promised him.)

¹⁰ I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again the L ord listened to me. The L ord was unwilling to destroy you. ¹¹The L ord said to me, “Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.”

The Essence of the Law

¹² So now, O Israel, what does the L ord your God require of you? Only to fear the L ord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the L ord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments of the L ord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the L ord your God, the earth with all that is in it, ¹⁵yet the L ord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. ¹⁶Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. ¹⁷For the L ord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. ¹⁹You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the L ord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. ²²Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the L ord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.