Laws Written on Hearts, Not Just Stone

1. Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you. 2. You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you. 3. Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for all the men who followed Baal Peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from among you. 4. But you who were faithful to Yahweh your God are all alive today. 5. Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it. 6. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7. For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him? 8. What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today? 9. Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children; 10. the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, “Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” 11. You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. 12. Yahweh spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice. 13. He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets. 14. Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it. 15. Be very careful, for you saw no kind of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire, 16. lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself a carved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17. the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, 18. the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; 19. and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky. 20. But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as it is today. 21. Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance; 22. but I must die in this land. I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land. 23. Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you. 24. For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. 25. When you shall father children, and children’s children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a carved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in Yahweh your God’s sight, to provoke him to anger; 26. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from off the land which you go over the Jordan to possess it. You will not prolong your days on it, but will utterly be destroyed. 27. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh will lead you away. 28. There you shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29. But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30. When you are in oppression, and all these things have come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice. 31. For Yahweh your God is a merciful God. He will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them. 32. For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been anything as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? 33. Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? 34. Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35. It was shown to you so that you might know that Yahweh is God. There is no one else besides him. 36. Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire. 37. Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their offspring after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt; 38. to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39. Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else. 40. You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever. 41. Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 42. that the man slayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live: 43. Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites. 44. This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel. 45. These are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, 46. beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth Peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came out of Egypt. 47. They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise; 48. from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (also called Hermon), 49. and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah. 1. Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears today, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.” 2. Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3. Yahweh didn’t make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive today. 4. Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, 5. (I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you Yahweh’s word: for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn’t go up onto the mountain;) saying, 6. “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 7. “You shall have no other gods before me. 8. “You shall not make a carved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me; 10. and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 11. “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 12. “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 13. You shall labor six days, and do all your work; 14. but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16. “Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 17. “You shall not murder. 18. “You shall not commit adultery. 19. “You shall not steal. 20. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 21. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” 22. Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. 23. When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; 24. and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives. 25. Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. 26. For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? 27. Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.” 28. Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have well said all that they have spoken. 29. Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever! 30. “Go tell them, ‘Return to your tents.’ 31. But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.” 32. You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you. You shall not turn away to the right hand or to the left. 33. You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. 1. Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it; 2. that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you; you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3. Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4. Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. 5. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 7. and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 9. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates. 10. It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn’t build, 11. and houses full of all good things, which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; 12. then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13. You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 14. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; 15. for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16. You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17. You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18. You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19. to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken. 20. When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?” 21. then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22. and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23. and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 24. Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. 25. It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”

1. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2. to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: 3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4. I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; 5. that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge; 6. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7. so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; 8. who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 10. Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12. Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.” 13. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14. I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, 15. so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name. 16. (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.) 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void. 18. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21. For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe. 22. For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom, 23. but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26. For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; 27. but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28. and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are: 29. that no flesh should boast before God. 30. Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: 31. that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” 1. When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5. that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6. We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. 7. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8. which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9. But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” 10. But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. 12. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14. Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15. But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. 16. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind. 1. Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. 2. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready, 3. for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? 4. For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you fleshly? 5. Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him? 6. I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. 7. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8. Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building. 10. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. 11. For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12. But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble; 13. each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is. 14. If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward. 15. If any man’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but as through fire. 16. Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17. If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are. 18. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” 20. And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.” 21. Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22. whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours, 23. and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

1. Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. 2. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. 3. God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge. 4. For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. 5. They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away. 6. Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail. 7. With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish. 8. As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of Yahweh of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah. 9. We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the middle of your temple. 10. As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. 11. Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice, Because of your judgments. 12. Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. 13. Mark well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation. 14. For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.