2. I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed. Then you will put them in the ark.”
3. I made an ark out of acacia wood. I cut two ⌊more⌋ stone tablets like the first ones. I carried the two tablets up the mountain.
4. The Lord wrote on these tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments. He had spoken these words to you from the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. Then the Lord gave them to me.
5. I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made. They are still there, where the Lord commanded me to put them.
6. The Israelites moved from the wells of the Jaakanites to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried, and his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest.
7. They moved from there to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with rivers that don’t dry up.
8. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s promise, to stand in the Lord’s presence when they serve him as priests, and to praise his name, as they still do today.
9. This is why the tribe of Levi has no land of their own as the other tribes have. The Lord your God is their only possession, as he promised them.
10. I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights as I did the first time. Once again the Lord listened to me and agreed not to destroy you.
11. The Lord said to me, “Lead the people on their journey. They will enter and take possession of the land I will give them, as I swore to their ancestors.”
12. Israel, what does the Lord your God want you to do? He wants you to fear him, follow all his directions, love him, and worship him with all your heart and with all your soul.