Knox Bible

1

Then it was the Lord said to me, Carve two tablets of stone, like those others, and come to meet me at the top of Horeb.✻ Make an ark of wood,

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and put these tablets in it, when I have inscribed them with all the contents of those other tablets thou didst break.✻

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So I made an ark of acacia wood, and carved two fresh tablets like the old;

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these I bore in my hands as I went up the mountain, and on these the Lord wrote down, as he had written down before, the ten commandments he gave you out of the heart of the flames, when the people were assembled there.

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These, when I had come back from the mountain top, I laid up in the ark which I had made, as the Lord had bidden me, and there they remain.

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(It was when the Israelites had moved their camp from Beeroth in the Jacan country to Mosera that Aaron died, and his son Eleazar became high priest instead;

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then they went on to Gadgad and to the well-watered valley of Jetebaatha.)✻

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And now the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi, to carry the ark that bears record of his covenant, and to minister in his presence, and to impart blessing in his name, as they still do;

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that is why the Levites have no lands assigned to them like their brethren, the Lord thy God has promised them that he himself will be their portion.

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Forty days and nights, then, as before, I remained there on the mountain top, and once more the Lord listened to me, and spared you from destruction.

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March on, he said, put thyself at the head of my people; they shall enter and take possession of the land which was my promised gift to their fathers.

12

What return, then, Israel, does the Lord thy God ask of thee? This, that thou shouldst fear the Lord thy God, and follow the path he chooses for thee, and love him, and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul,

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and keep those divine commandments and observances I enjoin on thee this day, as the conditions of thy happiness.

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This Lord God, that is master of the heavens, and the heaven above the heavens, of earth, too, and of all that they contain,

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would yet knit thy fathers closely to him in his great love, and make choice of you, their sons, above all other nations in the world; the proof of it is before you.

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It is for you, then, to rid your hearts of defilement,✻ a stiff-necked people no longer;

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the Lord your God is God of all gods, Lord of all lords, how great a God, how strong, how terrible! He will not flatter the great, or take bribes from the rich;

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he gives redress to the orphan and the widow; he is a friend of the wanderer, and gives him food and clothing.

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You too must befriend the wanderer; were not you strangers yourselves in the land of Egypt?

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Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve none but him, hold close to him, and make thy vows in his name;

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he is all thy renown, this God of thine whose marvels and whose judgements thy own eyes have witnessed.

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When thy fathers made their way into Egypt, they were but seventy souls, and now see what increase the Lord has given thee, so that thou canst vie with the stars in heaven for number.