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The Second Pair of Tablets

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.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

He confirms the foregoing decree by a reference to the nature of God Himself; for the vile and abject condition of those with whom we have to do, causes us to injure them the more wantonly, because they seem to be altogether deserted. But God declares that their unhappy lot is no ¹⁰²¹⁰² The Fr. gives a different turn to this: “Or Dieu declare que leur pourete et misere n’empechera point de les secourir: d’autant qu’ils ne amusent point a la personne;” Now, God declares, that their poverty and misery shall not prevent their being succored; so that they should not be interested by their person. obstacle to His administering succor to them; inasmuch as He has no regard to persons. By the word person is meant either splendor, or obscurity, and outward appearance, as it is commonly called, as we gather from many passages. In short, God distinguishes Himself from men, who are carried away by outward appearance, to hold the rich in honor, and the poor in contempt; to favor the beautiful or the eloquent, and to despise the unseemly. Προσωποληψία is, therefore, an unjust judgment, which diverts us from the cause itself, when our minds are prejudiced by what ought not to be taken into account. Therefore Christ teaches us that a judgement is righteous, which is not founded upon the appearance, (John 7:23;) since truth and justice never prevail, except when we attend to the case itself. It follows that the contemptible are not afflicted with impunity, for although they may be destitute of human aid, God, who sitteth on high, “hath respect unto the lowly.” (Psalm 138:6.) As regards strangers, God proves that he cares for them, because He is gracious in preserving them and clothing them; and then a special reason is again adduced, that the Israelites, when they were formerly sojourners in Egypt, had need of the compassion of others.

¹⁰² The Fr. gives a different turn to this: “Or Dieu declare que leur pourete et misere n’empechera point de les secourir: d’autant qu’ils ne amusent point a la personne;” Now, God declares, that their poverty and misery shall not prevent their being succored; so that they should not be interested by their person.