New tablets, and Levi’s calling
1At that time Yahweh said to me, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make yourself an ark of wood. 2I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you will place them in the ark.” 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4He wrote on the tablets what had been written before — the Ten Words Yahweh had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly — and Yahweh gave them to me. 5I turned and came down from the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, and there they have remained, as Yahweh commanded me. 6(The Israelites set out from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried there, and his son Eleazar became priest in his place. 7From there they set out to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water. 8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to serve him, and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. 9That is why Levi has no share or inheritance among his brothers; Yahweh himself is his inheritance, just as Yahweh your God told him.) 10As for me, I stayed on the mountain as before, forty days and forty nights, and Yahweh listened to me that time as well — Yahweh was not willing to destroy you. 11Yahweh said to me, “Get up, go on your way ahead of the people, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to their fathers to give them.”
What Yahweh asks of you
12And now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul, 13and to keep the commandments and statutes of Yahweh that I am giving you today, for your own good? 14See, the heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to Yahweh your God, and the earth with everything in it. 15Yet Yahweh set his heart in love on your fathers alone, and he chose their descendants after them — you — above all peoples, as it is today. 16Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and stop being stubborn. 17For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribe. 18He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 19So you too must love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20Fear Yahweh your God, serve him, hold fast to him, and take your oaths in his name. 21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things your own eyes have seen. 22Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy in number, and now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.
