10 At that time the Lord said to me, Hew two tables of stone like the first and come up to Me on the mountain and make an ark of wood.
2 And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.
3 So I [Moses] made an ark of acacia wood and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up the mountain [a]with the two tables of stone in my [one] hand.
4 And the Lord wrote on the tables as at the first writing, the Ten Commandments which 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.
5 And I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.
6 (The Israelites journeyed from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead.
7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and then to Jotbathah, a land of brooks [dividing the valley].
8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name unto this day.
9 Therefore Levi has no part or inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.)
10 And I [Moses] stayed on the mountain, as the first time, forty days and nights, and the Lord listened to me at that time also; the Lord would not destroy you.
11 And the Lord said to me, Arise, journey on before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but [reverently] to fear the Lord your God, [that is] to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being,
13 To keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?
14 Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth also, with all that is in it and on it.
15 Yet the Lord had a delight in loving your fathers, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.
16 So circumcise the foreskin of your [minds and] hearts; be no longer stubborn and hardened.
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the terrible God, Who is not partial and takes no bribe.
18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing.
19 Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners in the land of Egypt.
20 You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and by His name and presence you shall swear.
21 He is your praise; He is your God, Who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen.
22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of the heavens for multitude.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 10:3 One of the many misconceptions of articles and events mentioned in the Bible, innocently perpetuated by artists without adequate knowledge, is that of the size of the two tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written. They were not great tombstone-sized slabs, but probably small rectangular plates, two of which could easily be carried in one hand. Dr. George L. Robinson brought from the Sinai area a pair of “tables of stone” believed comparable to those mentioned here, which he put in his coat pocket. Moses says here, “I... went up the mountain with the two tables of stone in my [one] hand,” and he confirms it in Exod. 34:4.