What is happening in this passage and why are new tablets needed?

This passage looks back to the time after Israel made the golden calf. Moses had broken the first stone tablets when the people sinned. Here he explains that God told him to cut two new tablets and make a wooden ark. God Himself rewrote the same ten commandments on these new tablets and told Moses to place them in the ark. This shows that, even after their sin, God was willing to renew His covenant, keep His promises, and continue to live among them through His law and presence.

Why was the tribe of Levi separated and given no land inheritance?

God set apart the tribe of Levi for special service. They were chosen to carry the ark of the covenant, stand before the Lord, serve Him, and bless the people in His name. Because their work was to be near God and His worship, they did not receive a share of land like the other tribes. Instead, God Himself was said to be their inheritance. This means their portion and support came from serving at the sanctuary and from God’s own care, not from owning fields like their brothers.

What does it mean to circumcise the foreskin of your heart?

The command to circumcise the foreskin of your heart is a picture of inner change. Physical circumcision marked Israel outwardly, but God is asking for something deeper. He calls them to cut away stubbornness, pride, and sinful desires on the inside. To stop being stiff‑necked means to stop resisting God and to become soft and willing toward Him. This heart circumcision is about real repentance, letting God’s words reach you, and loving and obeying Him from the heart, not just going through religious forms.

What does this passage say that God requires from His people?

Moses sums it up very simply. God requires His people to fear Him, walk in all His ways, love Him, and serve Him with all their heart and soul. They are to keep His commandments and statutes, and he adds that these are “for your good.” So God is not asking for empty religion, but for a life shaped by awe of Him, trust in His ways, wholehearted love, and active obedience. This includes both worship toward God and fair, kind treatment of other people.

What does this passage teach about God’s character?

Here God is shown as both very great and very near. He owns heaven, the highest heavens, and the earth with everything in it, yet He chose Israel’s fathers in love and set His heart on their children. He is called God of gods and Lord of lords, a great, mighty, and fearsome God who does not show partiality or take bribes. At the same time, He defends the fatherless and widow, loves the stranger, and gives them food and clothing. His greatness and His mercy go together.

Why are fatherless, widows, and strangers mentioned in this passage?

These groups are mentioned because they are often the weakest and least protected in society. God says He executes judgment for the fatherless and widow and loves the stranger by giving them food and clothing. Then He tells Israel to love the stranger, reminding them that they were strangers in Egypt. The point is that people who have received mercy should show mercy. If God cares for those who are overlooked, His people should reflect that same care in very practical ways.

Why does Moses remind Israel that God chose their fathers and multiplied them?

Moses reminds them that their fathers went down into Egypt as only seventy people, and now God has made them as many as the stars of heaven. This shows that God kept His promise to their ancestors and blessed them greatly, even though they had sinned. By pointing to God’s past kindness and choice of their fathers, Moses is urging them to respond with gratitude, obedience, and trust. They are not to think they earned this place, but to remember it came from God’s love and faithfulness.

How should believers today respond to God based on this passage?

This passage calls for the same kind of response now as then: fear God with deep respect, love Him, and serve Him with your whole heart. It invites people to let God’s word shape their inner life, not just their outward habits. It also pushes us to care about the people God cares about, especially those who are weak or outsiders. Remembering how God has been patient and kind should lead to humble obedience, soft hearts, and practical love for others in His name.

Deut.10.1

Deuteronomy 10:1

KJV GOD

At 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.

Chapter:

New Stone Tablets

1 At 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.

2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.

3 And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand.

4 And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake 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.

5 And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.

6 ¶ And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead.

7 From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters.

8 ¶ At 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.

9 Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy God promised him.

10 And I stayed in the mount, according to the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy thee.

11 And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give unto them.

A Call to Obedience

12 ¶ And 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,

13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.

15 Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

21 He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

22 Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

Context:

New Stone Tablets

Cross References

No cross references available for this verse.