1 Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens. 2The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?” 3But understand that today the Lord your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the Lord has promised you.

4 When the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the Lord is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

5 It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

7 Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the Lord.

8 At Horeb you provoked the Lord, and He was angry enough to destroy you. 9When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

10 Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the Lord spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. 11And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12And the Lord said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

13 The Lord also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 14Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

15 So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands. 16And I saw how you had sinned against the Lord your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

18 Then I fell down before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord and provoking Him to anger. 19For I was afraid of the anger and wrath that the Lord had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me this time as well.

20 The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron. 21And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

22 You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah. 23And when the Lord sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.”

But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him. 24You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I came to know you. 25So I fell down before the Lord for forty days and forty nights, because the Lord had said He would destroy you.

26 And I prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 27Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin. 28Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’ 29But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

1 At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.”

3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4And the Lord wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The Lord gave them to me, 5and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the Lord had commanded me; and there they have remained.

6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 7From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water.

8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. 9That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God promised him.

10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the Lord again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.

11 Then the Lord said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”

12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord that I am giving you this day for your own good?

14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it. 15Yet the Lord has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.

16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more. 17For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. 18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 19So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

20 You are to fear the Lord your God and 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 wonders that your eyes have seen. 22Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told them this parable: 5“A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.

6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.

7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the seedlings.

8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprang up and produced a crop — a hundredfold.”

As Jesus said this, He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

9 Then His disciples asked Him what this parable meant.

10 He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

11 Now this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12The seeds along the path are those who hear, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

13 The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away.

14 The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.

15 But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

16 No one lights a lamp and covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light. 17For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be made known and brought to light.

18 Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”

19 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see Him, but they were unable to reach Him because of the crowd. 20He was told, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see You.”

21 But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”