Deuteronomy 10:12-22

An Exhortation to Love Both God and People

10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, ¹  to obey all his commandments, ²  to love him, to serve him ³  with all your mind and being, ⁴  10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ⁵  you today for your own good? 10:14 The heavens – indeed the highest heavens – belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 10:15 However, only to your ancestors did he ⁶  show his loving favor, ⁷  and he chose you, their descendants, ⁸  from all peoples – as is apparent today. 10:16 Therefore, cleanse ⁹  your heart and stop being so stubborn! ¹⁰  10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe, 10:18 who justly treats ¹¹  the orphan and widow, and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing. 10:19 So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 10:20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name. 10:21 He is the one you should praise; ¹²  he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen. 10:22 When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky. ¹³ 

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ² tn Heb “to walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “follow his ways exactly”; NLT “to live according to his will.”

[10:12]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being”; NCV “with your whole being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[10:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “take delight to love.” Here again the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”), juxtaposed with בָחַר (bakhar, “choose”), is a term in covenant contexts that describes the Lord’s initiative in calling the patriarchal ancestors to be the founders of a people special to him (cf. the note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37).

[10:15]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “after them,” but it is redundant in English style and has not been included in the translation.

[10:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “circumcise the foreskin of” (cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV). Reference to the Abrahamic covenant prompts Moses to recall the sign of that covenant, namely, physical circumcision (Gen 17:9-14). Just as that act signified total covenant obedience, so spiritual circumcision (cleansing of the heart) signifies more internally a commitment to be pliable and obedient to the will of God (cf. Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; 9:26).

[10:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your neck do not harden again.” See note on the word “stubborn” in Deut 9:6.

[10:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “who executes justice for” (so NAB, NRSV); NLT “gives justice to.”

[10:21]  ¹² tn Heb “your praise.” The pronoun is subjective and the noun “praise” is used here metonymically for the object of their praise (the Lord).

[10:22]  ¹³ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.