The Law · Chapter 10 of 34
Deuteronomy 10
Moses recounts God renewing the covenant, writing the commandments again on new tables placed in the ark. He recalls the Levites set apart and Aaron's death. Then he distills what God requires: to fear Him, walk in His ways, love and serve Him with all the heart. God, mighty yet impartial, loves the stranger; therefore Israel must circumcise their hearts and love the stranger too.
What happens in Deuteronomy 10
After the broken tables, God tells Moses to cut two new stones and make an ark of wood. Moses ascends, God rewrites the ten commandments, and Moses places them in the ark, where they remain. He notes the journey stages, Aaron's death and burial, and Eleazar succeeding him. God set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark, minister, and bless in His name, giving them no land inheritance because the LORD Himself is their portion. Moses stayed on the mount forty days again, and God relented from destroying the people.
Then Moses presses the heart of it all: what does God require but to fear Him, walk in His ways, love and serve Him wholly, and keep His commandments for their good. Heaven and earth belong to God, yet He chose their fathers in love. So they must circumcise their hearts, no longer stiffnecked, and love the stranger, remembering they were strangers in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10 in context
Continuing the historical review on the plains of Moab, Moses moves from Israel's failure at the calf to God's astonishing renewal of the covenant. The rewritten tables show grace restoring what sin shattered. From this mercy Moses draws the great summary of covenant life, echoed later by Jesus.
The command to love the stranger flows from Israel's own memory of slavery and from the character of a God who executes justice for the powerless.
Main themes of Deuteronomy 10
Deuteronomy 10 (KJV)
1At 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 in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3And 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. 4And 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. 5And 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. 6And 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. 7From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. 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 part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him. 10And 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. 11And 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. 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 the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? 14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’s thy God, the earth also, 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 people, as it is this day. 16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 17For 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: 18He doth execute the judgment of 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 swear by his name. 21He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. 22Thy 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.
Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 10
“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,”Deuteronomy 10:12
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.”Deuteronomy 10:16
“Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”Deuteronomy 10:19
Christian typology
How Deuteronomy 10 points to Jesus
Moses asks what the LORD requires and answers with wholehearted love for God. Jesus takes up this very language, naming love of God with all the heart, soul, and mind the great commandment, and joining it to love of neighbor. The chapter's call to circumcise the heart is fulfilled in Christ, in whom, Paul says, believers receive a circumcision made without hands, the cutting away of the flesh by the Spirit.
God's own heart, defending the orphan, widow, and stranger, is revealed fully in Jesus, who welcomed outsiders and made the excluded His own. The impartial God who takes no bribe meets us in the Son who receives all who come, and writes His law not on stone but on hearts.
Questions about Deuteronomy 10
What does it mean to circumcise the heart?
Physical circumcision marked Israel as God's people outwardly, but Moses calls for the inner reality: cutting away stubbornness, pride, and the stiffnecked resistance that outward signs cannot touch. It means a heart made tender and responsive to God rather than hardened. The prophets and Paul develop this, pointing to a work of the Spirit that renews the inner person. God has always wanted not mere ritual conformity but hearts genuinely turned toward Him in love.
Why does God tie loving the stranger to Israel's history?
Because memory shapes compassion. Israel had been strangers and slaves in Egypt, powerless and dependent on God's mercy. Having been loved and delivered when they were outsiders, they are to extend that same love outward. God Himself loves the stranger, giving food and raiment, so His people reflect His character. Their own rescued past becomes the ground of their kindness, keeping gratitude from curdling into indifference toward the vulnerable.
Reflection
Read again the simple summary: fear God, walk in His ways, love and serve Him with your whole heart. Notice how it cuts through the clutter of religious performance. Then ask where your heart needs softening, and whom God is calling you to welcome as He once welcomed you when you were an outsider to His grace.
A prayer from Deuteronomy 10
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