“At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets
of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make
an ark of wood. And I will write on the tablets the words that were
on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the
ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone
like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my
hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before,
the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the
mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
And the LORD gave them to me. Then 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 LORD commanded me.”
(The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to
Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son
Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. From there they
journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with
brooks of water. At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi
to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD to stand before the
LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.
Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The
LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God said to him.)
“I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty
days and forty nights, and the LORD listened to me that time also.
The LORD was unwilling to destroy you. And 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.’
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but
to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to
serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am
commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God
belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is
in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose
their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this
day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no
longer stubborn. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of
lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not
partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless
and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and
clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in
the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall
serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He
is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great
and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went
down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made
you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
