Deuteronomy 10
Deuteronomy 10:1 “Yahveh said to me at that time, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to me on the mountain and make a wooden ark.
Deuteronomy 10:2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you are to place them in the ark.’
Deuteronomy 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
Deuteronomy 10:4 Then on the day of the collected assembly, Yahveh wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Words that he had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. Yahveh gave them to me,
Deuteronomy 10:5 and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. And they have remained there, as Yahveh commanded me.”
Deuteronomy 10:6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar, his son, became a priest in his place.
Deuteronomy 10:7 They traveled from there to Gudgodah and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.
Deuteronomy 10:8 “At that time Yahveh separated the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yahveh’s covenant, to stand before Yahveh to minister to[1] him, and to pronounce empowerments in his name, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 10:9 For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; Yahveh is his inheritance, as Yahveh your God told him.
Deuteronomy 10:10 “I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time. Yahveh also listened to me on this occasion; he agreed not to annihilate you.
Deuteronomy 10:11 Then Yahveh said to me, ‘Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, so that they may enter and take possession of the land I swore to give their fathers.’
Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does Yahveh your God ask of you except to fear Yahveh your God by walking in all his ways, to care about him, and to worship Yahveh your God with all your heart and all your throat?
Deuteronomy 10:13 Watch Yahveh’s commands and prescriptions I am giving you today, for your own good.
Deuteronomy 10:14 Notice the skies, indeed the highest sky, belong to Yahveh your God, as does the land and everything in it.
Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet Yahveh had his heart set on your fathers and cared about them. He chose their descendants after them– he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 10:16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.
Deuteronomy 10:17 You see, Yahveh your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no “gift”.[2]
Deuteronomy 10:18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and cares abouts the guest, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 10:19 You are also to care about the guest, since you were guests in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:20 You are to fear Yahveh your God and worship him. Remain faithful to him and take oaths in his name.
Deuteronomy 10:21 He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.
Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy throats in all, and now Yahveh your God has placed you here – numerous, like the stars of the sky.
[1] שָׁרָת = minister. Deuteronomy 10:8; 17:12; 18:5, 7; 21:5.
[2] שֹׁחַד = gift (bribe). Deuteronomy 10:17; 16:19; 27:25.
Deuteronomy 10 quotes:
Moses ascended the mountain with the prepared tablets and God wrote upon them the same substance as the original writing,5 namely, the ten words (v. 4). The “ten words” are the Ten Commandments: see 4:13 and commentary. Then the Lord gave them to me (v. 4b)—more is involved than simply that another copy of the law was provided because the first two tablets unfortunately got broken. The shattering of the first tablets symbolized the breaking of the covenant relationship because of Israel’s sin in making the calf. The second writing of the law and the gift of the tablets is indicative of the graciousness of God and the response of God to the intercession of Moses. Moses then returned down the mountain and placed the two newly inscribed tablets in the ark, as he had been commanded (v.5). This recollection of the renewal of the relationship in Horeb emphasized to the Israelites, who were engaged in a further renewing of the covenant in Moab, that the graciousness of God was to be seen in their very survival to that present moment as the covenant family of God.
Craigie Peter C. The Book of Deuteronomy. Eerdmans 1976. pp. 199-200.
“Will any one presume to say that we have here a mere barien repetition of the facts recorded in Exodus? Certainly no one who reverently believes in the divine inspiration of the Pentateuch.
No, reader, the tenth of Deuteronom}’ fills a niche and does a work entirely its own. In it the lawgiver holds lip to the hearts of the people past scenes and circumstances in such a way as to rivet them upon the very tablets of the soul. He allows them to hear the conversation between Jehovah and himself; he tells them what took place during those mysterious forty days u[)on that cloud-capped mountain ; lie lets them hear Jehovah’s reference to the broken tables — the apt and forcible expression of the utter worthlessness of man’s covenant. For why were those tables broken ? Because they had shamefully failed. Those shattered fragments told the humiliating tale of their hoi)eless ruin on the ground of the law. All was gone. Sucli was the obvious meaning of the fact. It was striking, impressive, unmistakable. Like a broken pillar over a grave, which tells at a glance that the i)rop and stay of the family lies mouldering beneath. There is no need of any inscription, for no human language could speak with such eloquence to the heait as that most expressive emblem. So the broken tables were calculated to convey to the heart of Israel the tremendous fact that, so far as their covenant was concerned, they were utterly ruined — hopelessly undone ; they were complete bankrupts on the score of righteousness.
But then that second set of tables ! What of them? Thank God, they tell a different tale altogether. Thev vvere not broken, God took care of them.”
Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. pp. 80-81.
Deuteronomy 10 links:
continue your journey
in retrospect- hinges of mercy
in retrospect- relationship
reverence for his revelation
The sky above – shamayim, the land beneath – erets
the Yahveh difference
throats like the stars
to preserve and protect
unmatched hearts
jeffersonvann 