<t /><p class="bodytext">This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer<n id="1" /> by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites.<n id="2" />

Let me please cross over to see the good land on the other side of the Jordan River &#8211; this good hill country and the Lebanon!&#8221;<n id="1" />

Then, when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was ablaze, all your tribal leaders and elders approached me.

For the <sc>Lordsc> your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks,<n id="1" /> springs, and fountains flowing forth in valleys and hills,

<t /><p class="bodytext">At that same time the <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark.<n id="1" />

So I made an ark of acacia<n id="1" /> wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands.

Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made &#8211; they are still there, just as the <sc>Lordsc> commanded me.p>

Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy<n id="1" /> is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains,<n id="2" />

So when you cross the Jordan you must erect on Mount Ebal<n id="1" /> these stones about which I am commanding you today, and you must cover them with plaster.

&#8220;The following tribes<n id="1" /> must stand to bless the people on Mount Gerizim when you cross the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

<p class="poetry">For a fire has been kindled by my anger,p> <p class="poetry">and it burns to lowest Sheol;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">it consumes the earth and its produce,p> <p class="poetry">and ignites the foundations of the mountains.p>

He said:p><t /><p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> came from Sinaip> <p class="poetry">and revealed himself<n id="1" /> to Israel<n id="2" /> from Seir.p> <p class="poetry">He appeared in splendor<n id="3" /> from Mount Paran,p> <p class="poetry">and came forth with ten thousand holy ones.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">With his right hand he gave a fiery law<n id="5" /> to them.p>

<p class="poetry">They will summon peoples to the mountain,p> <p class="poetry">there they will sacrifice proper<n id="1" /> sacrifices;p> <p class="poetry">for they will enjoy<n id="2" /> the abundance of the seas,p> <p class="poetry">and the hidden treasures of the shores.<n id="3" />p>

Then we left Horeb and passed through all that immense, forbidding wilderness that you saw on the way to the Amorite hill country as the <sc>Lordsc> our God had commanded us to do, finally arriving at Kadesh Barnea.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then you responded to me and admitted, &#8220;We have sinned against the <sc>Lordsc>. We will now go up and fight as the <sc>Lordsc> our God has told us to do.&#8221; So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

Do not be hostile toward them, because I am not giving you any of their land, not even a footprint, for I have given Mount Seir<n id="1" /> as an inheritance for Esau.

(I was standing between the <sc>Lordsc> and you at that time to reveal to you the message<n id="1" /> of the <sc>Lordsc>, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said:p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said.<n id="1" /> Then he inscribed the words<n id="2" /> on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

The <sc>Lordsc> gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger<n id="1" /> of God, and on them was everything<n id="2" /> he<n id="3" /> said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly.

As for your sinful thing<n id="1" /> that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,<n id="2" /> ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.