Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran: The Pillars of Three Faiths. Various Authors

the house of bondage; ¹⁵who led thee through the great and dreadful wilderness, wherein were serpents, fiery serpents, and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; ¹⁶who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might afflict thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; ¹⁷and thou say in thy heart: 'My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.' ¹⁸But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

      ¹⁹And it shall be, if thou shalt forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I forewarn you this day that ye shall surely perish. ²⁰As the nations that the Lord maketh to perish before you, so shall ye perish; because ye would not hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God.

      9Hear, O Israel: thou art to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, ²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say: 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?' ³Know therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is He who goeth over before thee as a devouring fire; He will destroy them, and He will bring them down before thee; so shalt thou drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as the Lord hath spoken unto thee. ⁴Speak not thou in thy heart, after that the Lord thy God hath thrust them out from before thee, saying: 'For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land'; whereas for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. ⁵Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thy heart, dost thou go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may establish the word which the Lord swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ⁶Know therefore that it is not for thy righteousness that the Lord thy God giveth thee this good land to possess it; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

      ⁷Remember, forget thou not, how thou didst make the Lord thy God wroth in the wilderness; from the day that thou didst go forth out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord. ⁸Also in Horeb ye made the Lord wroth, and the Lord was angered with you to have destroyed you. ⁹When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. ¹⁰And the Lord delivered unto me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spoke with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. ¹¹And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant. ¹²And the Lord said unto me: 'Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people that thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have dealt corruptly; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.' ¹³Furthermore the Lord spoke unto me, saying: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people; ¹⁴let Me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.' ¹⁵So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire; and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. ¹⁶And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the Lord your God; ye had made you a molten calf; ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷And I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. ¹⁸And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which ye sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him. ¹⁹For I was in dread of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me that time also. ²⁰Moreover the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him; and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. ²¹And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and beat it in pieces, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.—²²And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye made the Lord wroth. ²³And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying: 'Go up and possess the land which I have given you'; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God, and ye believed Him not, nor hearkened to His voice. ²⁴Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.— ²⁵So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Lord had said He would destroy you. ²⁶And I prayed unto the Lord, and said: 'O Lord God, destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance, that Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness, that Thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²⁷Remember Thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin; ²⁸lest the land whence Thou broughtest us out say: Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which He promised unto them, and because He hated them, He hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. ²⁹Yet they are Thy people and Thine inheritance, that Thou didst bring out by Thy great power and by Thy outstretched arm.'

      10At that time the Lord said unto me: 'Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount; and make thee an ark of wood. ²And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou didst break, and thou shalt put them in the ark.' ³So I made an ark of acacia-wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in my hand. ⁴And He wrote on the tables according to the first writing, the ten words, which the Lord spoke unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. ⁵And I turned and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.—⁶And the children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth-bene-jaakan to Moserah; there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest' s office in his stead. ⁷From thence they journeyed unto Gudgod; and from Gudgod to Jotbah, a land of brooks of water.— ⁸At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, and to bless in His name, unto this day. ⁹Wherefore Levi hath no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God spoke unto him.—¹⁰Now I stayed in the mount, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me that time also; the Lord would not destroy thee. ¹¹And the Lord said unto me: 'Arise, go before the people, causing them to set forward, that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore unto their fathers to give unto them.'

      ¹²And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; ¹³to keep for thy good the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day? ¹⁴Behold, unto the Lord thy God belongeth the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein is. ¹⁵Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you, above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. ¹⁷For the Lord your God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awful, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. ¹⁸He doth execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. ¹⁹Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; Him shalt thou serve; and to Him shalt thou cleave, and by His name shalt thou swear. ²¹He is thy glory, and He is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and tremendous things, which thine eyes have seen. ²²Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and